10. Daire

TEN

daire

WHATEVER CHAINS RESTRAINED the savage inside me from finishing off the Destroyer, bloodied and groaning beneath me, snapped when I saw a flash of platinum hair out of the corner of my eye.

I saw fucking red.

Between one heartbeat and the next, I was on my feet, fists swinging and bodies falling as I carved a brutal path between me and the last person who should be anywhere near this place. I ignored the shouts that begged me to stop, because all I could see was a look of pure terror in Gavin’s eyes as the trash beside him touched him.

They fucking dared to touch him.

The noise that escaped me didn’t sound human as I watched the prick lift Gavin’s arm. I didn’t think. I just reacted.

My hand shot forward, wrapping around the asshole’s throat before he even knew I was there. He dropped his hold on Gavin, his first smart move of the night, but unfortunately for him, it would also be his last.

I squeezed his soft flesh, and his face went red and then tinged purple.

“Who the fuck do you think you are touching what’s not yours?” I growled, lifting him up on his toes as he struggled to push my hands away.

“Daire,” Gavin said. “Daire, stop.”

But I was too far gone now, all the adrenaline from the fight combining with the rage I’d felt at seeing him surrounded.

“Please, let’s just go.” This time he tentatively put his hand on my arm and moved into my sightline. The pleading look in his eyes somehow penetrated the red haze, and I hesitated before looking back at the shithead turning purple.

I jerked him away, sending him slamming to the ground. The group of men that had been surrounding Gavin stepped back, holding their hands up in submission. And even though every fiber of my being wanted to hurt them, to let them see how it felt to be the weak one, I needed Gavin to get the fuck away from here.

“Move,” I said to those still blocking our path, and then I grabbed Gavin’s jacket and hauled him through the crowd.

“Next time don’t bring your boyfriend so you can actually finish the fight,” someone said as we passed.

He didn’t see my quick jab to his throat coming, cutting off his air supply and leaving him wheezing and falling to his knees, but everyone else sure as fuck did—including Gavin, whose eyes were gonna pop out if they got any wider.

I pushed him forward toward the exit, and he stumbled over the rocks before catching himself and scurrying out of the fight space and into the tunnel.

Shit, how had he even found me here? He had to have followed me, but Jesus, what a stupid, dangerous thing to do.

Moving fast, I reached for my phone tucked into my back pocket and turned on the light, leaving Gavin to trail after. Now that he was out of immediate danger, I wanted to kick his ass, and I definitely didn’t want to talk. So when he called out my name, I gritted my teeth and said, “Keep moving.”

“But we’re going the wrong way.”

He thought I was taking him back through the tunnels? Where anyone could jump him at any time? Fuck that.

I lifted the light, shining it across a different exit that went up to the street, and then climbed the stairs. The door led to another small stairwell, and as I raced up the steps two at a time, Gavin stayed close behind.

He was breathing hard as he said, “Where are we going? Daire, wait.”

I punched through the door that led to the alley and stepped out into the rain.

The fat droplets of water felt cool against my overheated skin as I marched across the narrow street, but it did jack shit to wash away my anger. So when the door snapped shut behind me, I whirled around and let loose.

“What the fuck do you think you were doing down there tonight?”

Gavin reared back, the rain soaking that shock of white hair to his forehead.

“Me? What were you⁠—”

“Don’t fucking test me right now, Gavin. I asked you a question.”

“And I’d think it was pretty obvious.” The fear from back at the fight left Gavin’s eyes as he took a step toward me, and in its place was the irritation I was so good at pulling out of him. “I was following you.”

“Then you’re a fucking idiot,” I spat, even though I knew he was anything but. Gavin was smart, kind, and too goddamn pure for a place like that, and the idea that he’d followed me down there—that he could’ve gotten hurt—made me want to drill some common sense into his head.

Even if I had to be mean about it.

“Excuse me?” Gavin’s fists tightened at his sides as he glared up at me, and if any of the dickheads underground had seen this side of him, they might have thought twice about laying their hands on him. Seemed I brought out the worst in him—like that was news. “You did not just call me stupid.”

“Except I did. Following me down there was stupid.”

“Yeah? Well, going there in the first place isn’t all that smart. Do you have a death wish or something?”

“What I have is none of your fucking business, and it’d do you good to get that through your thick skull.” I tapped his temple, and he reached up to grip my wrist, shoving my hand away.

“You have a foul mouth,” he said, his eyes shooting daggers at me as water ran down his neck and into the collar of his soaked shirt.

“And yours spouts sunshine and rainbows. This isn’t news.”

“Your sneaking off to beat the shit out of people every night is, though. Why?” He blinked, and I was momentarily distracted by his thick lashes that kissed his wet cheeks. They were so dark against his light skin, such a contrast to everything else that it made his eyes even more intense as they scanned my face.

He would never understand. None of the guys we hung around would. So I’d kept it a secret. I’d used it as a tool to get out all of my frustrations. A tool to keep me from going too far off the rails. Because when no one cared about you, it was hard to give a shit about yourself.

“None of your fucking business.” I turned my back on him, grabbing my cigarettes from my pocket and quickly lighting one up, keeping it under the cover of the awning overhead. The high from earlier slowly dissipated as I stood there shirtless in the middle of the pouring rain, with my face aimed up toward the night sky. “Go home, Gavin.”

There was a slight pause, and then, “What?”

I glanced over at him, noting the way his impeccable suit was now plastered to his slim legs and lean torso. “I said, go home.”

“No.”

“Jesus, what is your deal? First you follow me here, then you almost get jumped, and now you won’t leave me alone?” I took a drag of my cigarette then blew it out. “You wanna fuck me? Is that it?”

Gavin’s jaw hit the pavement at that. His eyes roved over my naked torso and down to where my jeans barely clung to my hips. I knew he wasn’t interested in me that way, but since ordering him home wasn’t working, I had to find a new tactic—and this was it.

“Do I want to⁠—”

“Fuck me? You seem to be following me around a lot lately. Pushing into my room when I’m naked⁠—”

“Uh, you’re insane.” Gavin shook his head. “I think you’ve gotten one too many punches to the head during those fights of yours.”

“Or maybe I’m right. We live together, you’re single, maybe you’re a little hard up.”

Gavin scoffed. “Yeah, that’s why I followed you down into an abandoned railway tunnel, because I wanted you to fuck me in it. Did it ever occur to you that I might be worried about you? That I might care?”

No it hadn’t. “Who asked you to?”

Gavin’s jaw twitched as he glared across the alley at me, and I had a feeling that if I were closer, he might’ve landed a blow to my jaw.

“You’re such an asshole.”

“Again, this isn’t news.”

“Is it so horrifying to you that someone would worry about you?”

“Yes. So do me a fucking favor and stop.”

Gavin’s shoulders went rigid as he angled his chin up, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed back whatever retort was on his tongue.

“Fine,” he finally said.

“Fine.”

“If you want to hurt or punish yourself for whatever reason, who am I to stop you? Go and get the shit kicked out of you, see if I care.”

Gavin’s harsh words contradicted the worry etched into his features, as I flicked my cigarette butt to the ground and stomped on it like it was his feelings.

I didn’t do this. I didn’t do feelings, have friends, or people who cared about me. I hung with the rest of the group because that was where I’d been put. But this softness in Gavin’s eyes, this caring and worry I could see under the annoyance—I didn’t do that. I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to. Because when someone cared, you had a responsibility not to fuck it up, and I knew myself better than that.

Someway, somehow, I would always fuck it up.

I crossed the alley, and was about to step around him and head back down into the tunnels when Gavin reached out and put a hand on my arm.

“Try not to get yourself killed.”

For a second there my heart jolted at the soft request. But I masked my reaction with a derisive smirk. “’Cause you wanna fuck me?”

Gavin’s eyes narrowed and he shoved my arm away. “On second thought, do whatever the hell you like.”

“Always do.” I reached for the handle of the door and yanked it open. “The Towers are a few blocks to the right. Think you can find your way?”

“What do you care?”

“I don’t want your death on my conscience.”

“No fear of that,” Gavin said as he began to walk backward, then he turned away from me and continued up the alley. “I’m pretty sure you don’t have one.”

As I stood there watching him go, I cursed myself—and him—for the fact that I let go of the door and followed after him. It wasn’t until I saw him weaving his way through the handful of people out this late that I stopped, satisfied he’d made it out of the alley and onto the well-lit city street. Then I turned and headed back to the entrance underground.

I might not have much of a conscience, but what little I had seemed to be laser focused on Gavin Truitt.