“Zane, I – I’ve never done this before. Never felt like this,” she sobs. “Never wanted to. And now I don’t want to lose you.”
I suck in a breath. The back of my eyes burns and my chest squeezes. Breathing is a chore. Laborious and hard as I try to hear what she’s saying.
And I do hear. I hear her fear and worry. I hear the confusion and the doubt. The what ifs still running through her head.
But there have been a lot of what ifs running through my head lately. What if I let her go and never feel like this again? What if I’m giving up too easily? What if I need to take my own goddamned advice and pull my head out of my ass? What if I let her leave and never see her again? What if the gaping hole that will leave in my heart never heals?
Without so much as a whisper, I step into the elevator and begin my descent down. I swear to everything this fucking elevator has never been so slow. Thunder rumbles loudly and lights flicker. I swear and curse everything like my threats will stop the power from failing.
I fly out of the elevator before the doors have fully opened into the lobby of the building. I run toward the exit faster than I think I’ve ever moved before, bumping into several people as I try to hurry. My feet land outside to where the intercoms are. I look around, my heart pounding in my chest every second that I don’t see her. I stare through pouring rain looking for her.
“Tori,” I call out loudly as possible catching the glares of people passing by.
But I see her when she stops. In the middle of the street, she stops dead. Slowly she turns while I move on a mission to reach her. Car horns blare and brakes squeal as they fight to go around her.
Everything feels like it is in slow motion and fast forward all at once. And when I reach her? Well, I do the only thing I want to do in that moment. I grip her face between my hands and kiss her. I kiss her with everything in me. Letting her know that I’m here. That I’m not going anywhere. I let her know with that kiss that I can be her rock or the shoulder to cry on. That I will burn down the world for her or with her. I don’t give a fuck if she tells me what going on or not. The only thing that matters is her.
I grip her tightly, lifting her until her legs wrap around me. In the pouring rain, we continue to stand in the middle of the street mouth on mouth arms around each other pouring our souls into one another.
“Fuck, I love you,” I say against her mouth.
“I love you too, Zee,” she says.
And my heart stops and starts again. “Say it again,” I demand.
“I love you, Zane” she says with a laugh.
“Goddamn that sounds too fucking good coming from your mouth.”
“Zane, put me down,” she giggles and tries to remove herself from my body.
“People are staring.”
“Let them fucking stare.”
I don’t set her down until we are inside the penthouse. I make my way to my room to grab her some dry clothes. When I get back into the living room, my eyes zero in for the first time on something that I didn’t see outside under the dim streetlights. That I didn’t see in the elevator because I couldn’t take my mouth off of hers. Something I know wasn’t there earlier today or tonight.
I walk to her with purpose, gently grabbing her face to tilt it to the side. Bruises line her jaw. Her lower lip is split. Purple fingerprints line her throat.
My blood boils. Anger like I’ve never felt bubbles inside of me. “Who the fuck did this Tori?” I demand.
Tears well in her eyes. Something akin to fear flashes in her chocolate eyes. “I fucked up Zane,” she tells me.
I bristle at her words. I’m not sure what she means by that but the thought that she is taking the blame for someone putting their hands on her pisses me off. My mind flashes back to the pictures of Zoey after her assault. To the black and blue and purple marks all over her body.
“Tori, tell me who did this?”
She crumbles to the floor looking totally helpless. I am burning with rage that she’s like this. Tori is strong and fierce. A ballbuster to say the least. But right now, she looks terrified, vulnerable, and helpless.
I move to her, picking her up off the floor and moving to the sofa. “Please for the love of God, Tori. Fucking talk to me.”
She shakes her head, making me think she’s not going to tell me. Until she opens her mouth. “When I went to visit Cara in Chicago to check out her boyfriend for Dane, something happened. The boyfriend instantly gave me the creeps. Then they introduced me to his brother and a friend. The three of them make my skin crawl Zane, but I went out to the club with them that first night after Cara begged me. I needed to keep an eye on her.”
I press my lips to the top of her head to keep my mouth from running. To keep my anger from pouring from my lips that she didn’t tell me before. I need to let her finish even though I can already tell I’m going to be so much angrier when she’s finished.
“While Cara and Stephano were dancing the other two approached me about my fighting career. I thought it was just small talk at first until they propositioned me to fight for them. Except it wasn’t a proposition it was a demand. I told them to go fuck themselves then they made a point to let me know that if I didn’t go along with what they said, they’d hurt Cara.”
My grip on her tightens. I’m probably leaving more bruises than the fucker who touched her tonight. I still keep quiet, needing her to tell me the rest.
