Chapter 7

7

Easton

Scout is still asleep when the sun disappears from the sky. Boneless in the sheets looking like an innocent angel who has been assaulted by the devil.

There is some truth to that, isn’t there?

Although I don’t want to leave her soft warmth, I told her I would arrange a meeting with her sister, Whitney. So that’s what I’m going to do. I want to wake her up with good news and see her smile. This girl’s happiness feeds my soul. This girl who loves me.

Who I love in return. Desperately. Obsessively.

Who I have no idea how I’m going to let go.

Maybe I won’t be able to. Maybe I was an idiot to think it was possible in the first place.

I pace my kitchen in my robe, phone pressed to my ear. Through my head of security, the time and location are decided on. A safe place, away from the city. No weapons. Drivers only, no one else. Still, I’m unsettled by the idea of taking my Scout outside of these walls, even to meet her sister. Too many accidents can happen. To say nothing of non-accidents.

Determined to calm my nerves, I nurse a glass of whiskey and tell myself to be calm, collected for her sake. And with resolve squaring my shoulders, I’m getting ready to go wake up Scout when my phone rings again.

Once again, it’s my head of security calling.

“Yes?”

“Mr. Brawn.”

Already, I don’t like this.

He says my name like he’s nervous to say what comes next.

I pinch the bridge of my nose tightly, until I feel pain. “What is it?”

A short pause. “There has been some…rumblings. Underground. About a contract being taken out on…”

My pulse starts to thud up against my ear drums. “On who?”

Why am I asking? I already fucking know.

Jesus. Jesus. Already?

“Her, sir.”

The confirmation turns my spine to ice.

Scout. There’s a contract out on Scout. To kill her.

“Who ordered the hit?” I choke out.

“Conrad.” My foremost rival in the gambling trade. He, too, wanted a piece of the fighting federation, but I outbid him. I should have seen this coming. But how? How? When I didn’t see her coming. Goddammit. Scout. “He was at the fight the other night. Saw you bring her to the box. He might just be guessing how…important she is to you. But a stab in the dark is worth hurting you, I’m guessing.”

Hurting me?

If something happened to her, it would end me.

My world would wink out like a light switch being flipped off.

Not going to happen. Nothing is going to touch her. I won’t allow it. “Find out where Conrad is this evening. I want an address. I’ll handle it myself.”

“Sir…”

“That’s an order,” I bark, hanging up the phone and slamming it down on the counter.

An intake of breath whirls me around—and there’s Scout in the doorway, fresh from a shower. She’s made use of the clothes I had transferred from her apartment, leaving her dressed in a loose yellow summer dress. She looks so much younger than she did in the sexy black dress at the fight, I almost do a double-take. God. What have I done bringing this guileless college student into my hideous world? Endangering her life?

“Is everything okay?” she whispers.

My jaw is so tight it’s going to snap. “Yes. Just business.”

She nods, taking me at my word. “Okay.”

With the hit out on Scout, how can I bring her to meet Whitney? I was paranoid and fearful for her safety before, but now? I’ll be a fucking madman.

I’m not going to break my word to her, though.

I told her I would do this for her. I will see it through.

But after…after that, I have to let her go.

I can’t drag her into this hell I call a life and expect her to be happy. This life of constantly looking over one’s shoulder. I’m confident in my ability to eliminate this threat, but what about the next one? And the one after that?

“Easton?”

I clear my throat hard. “I’ve set up the meeting with Whitney.”

Her face lights up. “You did?”

“Yes.” I resist the urge to reach for her. If I’m going to survive without her touch for even a second, I have to start hardening myself now. But she makes it impossible by throwing herself into my arms. And I gather her up and bear hug her like a dying man, inhaling her like a drug, crushing her to my body and memorizing every curve and valley.

Eventually, somehow I manage to set her back down on the ground. Then I take her hand and walk her out of the house, where my SUV is waiting at the curb. They already spoke to my head of security and know where we’re going, so I don’t have to give any instructions.

I only make it about ten second before I put up the privacy screen and pull Scout onto my lap so she’s straddling me. Her face is flushed in an instant, her pussy already writhing on my dick. And fuck, I want to see it. Want to watch that perfect friction happen, so I lift the hem of her dress and make her clamp the thin, yellow material between her teeth. And there’s her tight cunt, rubbing on my cock and rapidly dampening the material of her panties. She’s whining for it, trying to fuck me through my pants, and Jesus, yes, I could come just like this. But I want more. Want closer. So I push my middle finger into my mouth to get it wet, then shove it down the front of her underwear to stroke her clit. Tease it until she’s dancing around and whimpering on my lap.

“Unzip me and put that cock where it belongs then.”

Maybe I am the devil, because it turns me the hell on. Watching this almost-virgin fumble in her haste and inexperience, trying to get my zipper down. But she finally does and she bites her lip, eyes glassy, her small hand jerking me off.

Scout eases down onto me, inch by inch, her tight pussy constricting around me already, her hips jerking up and back, almost involuntarily. Like she’s programmed to fuck me. Only me. Like her body moves on instinct when it’s her and I, racing toward pleasure. Giving me no choice but to experience mine. She’s a miracle. A gift. I can only mold my hands to her ass and help her gallop, her little milking channel riding up and down my cock, trying to pump the seed straight out.

And because this might be the last time I’m inside her, I’m desperate. My fingers bruise her pumping cheeks and I suck red marks onto her neck, throat, tits and I say the dirtiest shit that lurks in my head.

I own your horny little cunt.

You’re damn right it fucks on command.

In other words, I make sure she’ll remember me.

But while I might be taking her like a rough bastard, I’m also the man who buries his face in her hair, clings to her beloved body and calls her name hoarsely, begging for touch. She gives it to me and we sail over the edge together, Scout left trembling and gasping for air in my lap. We stay like that right up until we reach the meeting point.

We’re the first ones to arrive, but the other SUV pulls up shortly.

Of course, Scout dives excitedly for the door and throws it open.

I drag her back in and slam it.

“Wait.”

She flinches.

God, I’m so on edge, so messed up knowing I have to let her go, that I’m behaving like an asshole. It’s not fair to her, but my insides are being pulverized in a blender. “I’m sorry. I just need you to be safe.” Slowly, she nods, though she seems to sense there is something I’m not saying. Something important I’m leaving out. “Just wait for me to come around, okay?”

Her swallow is audible. “Okay, Easton.”

I pull her face close and kiss her hard, before tearing myself away and exiting the vehicle. “Send out the girl,” I shout, buttoning my overcoat. “Only the girl. They meet halfway. If I see a fucking weapon, it’s over. We’re gone.”

“Same goes for us,” the Russian calls back. “And I’ll wait for Whitney at the same distance you wait for her sister. Or we’re gone.”

A detached part of me sees the humor in this. Two men snarling like territorial beasts over their women. These sisters who have arrived to steal our rationality and calm. But I’m too shaken up knowing there’s a contract on Scout, so my appreciation of the humorous moment is only fleeting. Muscles tense, I open the door and help Scout out…

And then I watch her run toward Whitney in the open field with my heart in my throat.

They embrace, tears flowing down their cheeks. Talking a mile a minute.

I harden my jaw and stem the flow of emotion that threatens to upend me.

Scout will be okay. With a bond like she has with her sister, she will heal. She will be strong.

One day, she will thank me for what I have to do.