Prey Drive by Jen Stevens
Chapter 22
the lamb
that night, long after I've fallen asleep. When I got home from the cafe, I went straight to bed and passed out before the sun set. There's something about being around Gabe that does that to me—completely depletes me of all my energy.
I woke up a few hours later to the room blanketed in darkness and a shadow standing over me, peering down at my wrist lying beside me on the bed.
“What's this?” He gently pulls my arm up and turns it so the moonlight shines directly onto me, frowning at the bruises peppering the delicate skin of my inner wrist.
I sit up and try to yank away from his grasp, but he holds me in my spot. Not hard enough to leave a mark or scare me like Gabe, but stern enough to demand an answer.
“It's nothing.”
“It's not nothing,” he spits out the word like it's spoiled food against his tongue. “These look like fingerprints. Who did this to you?”
“You're about to add more if you don't let go,” I whine, tugging my arm even harder.
Without warning, he releases his grip, and I go backward, nearly falling onto my pillow. I scowl back at his smug smirk, rubbing the spot dramatically.
But Bash doesn't falter. Once his amusement at my near fall subsides, his brows come together, casting a menacing shadow over his eyes that makes him look murderous.
“Who. Touched. You?” he demands in an angry, gravelly tone.
He looks like he's about to go on a rampage in search of the person responsible for a few bruises on my skin, and I have no idea why it bothers him so much. Just like at the coffee shop with Rosie, I get the urge to protect Gabe from any fallout that might come from his actions. Something tells me that won't work with Bash, though, and lying might end up getting me punished. I have to remember how mentally unstable he is.
With a casual shrug to let him know it's really not a big deal, I simply say, “My asshole ex came to visit me at work.”
Apparently, that was the wrong answer.
A low growl reverberates in Bash's chest as he leans toward me again, closing the safe distance my blunder put between us before. All amusement is gone from his expression, and in its place is pure rage.
“And he hurt you like this? Why didn't you tell anyone?”
Another shrug. What's the point of telling anyone when they never believed me before?
Rosie may have stepped in, but then what? I've seen how much collateral damage can happen from one of Gabe’s fits. It's best for everyone if I keep them contained to just me. Besides, this was hardly one of his signature tantrums. He was trying to prove a point that I don't really give a fuck about.
“Has he laid his hands on you before?” Bash asks, breaking my train of thought.
I don't have to answer when my eyes fall to the floor.
“I need your words, Stardust. Tell me that this fucker has hurt you worse than this, and I'll have all the permission I need to handle him.”
My eyes snap back up to his face, shocked. “Handle him?”
Bash takes one last step toward me, effectively erasing any personal space I had so he can place his masked lips right against my ear as he speaks in a low, gruff voice.
“I told you, you're mine now, and I don't like when people touch my things. Anyone with the balls to do so is going to deal with the consequences. Do you understand?”
I can hear the weight of his fury in the wavering in his words. The struggle for him to keep this dangerous side of him contained. And somehow, I know that he's doing it for my sake. So he doesn't scare me. So I don't run. But I'm too distracted by the fact that, for the first time ever, someone finally believes me about Gabe. I'm not the unreliable, irrational, unmanageable girlfriend that Gabe's painted me to be.
I'm tempted to tell him everything. To feed his fire and then direct him to the exact spot where he can find the sniveling asswipe. It would feel so good to know he's finally receiving a taste of his own medicine. I'd love to hear him beg for mercy the same way I've always had to do.
But the part of me that wants to protect the narcissist—the one convinced that everything is my fault, and every mark was earned—stops me.
Shaking my head against Bash's concealed lips, I drop my chin to my chest and sigh in defeat.
“It was just an accident,” I lie in a small voice. “I'm fine.”
Bash backs away from me, eyes widened. He knows the truth, I'm sure of it. But I have no idea what this man is capable of. What if he hurts Gabe over this? Even if I weren’t the one to deliver the blows, I'm just as responsible for knowingly unleashing a rabid dog onto him. I can't have that on my conscience, no matter how badly I've been hurt.
Hurt people hurt people. I'm trying my best to be healed.
“Please drop it,” I beg when it's obvious he wants to say more.
After a long, pregnant pause, Bash finally offers one stiff nod of agreement, and I know that's all he'll give.
He blows out a breath and pushes the covers back over me, then climbs into the bed on top of them.
“What are you doing?” I stupidly ask, because this seems like a new step in our odd little relationship he's taking without my knowledge or consent.
“I'm laying down,” he states simply, like it's not the weirdest fucking thing that this stranger has once again walked right into my house while I was sleeping and shown himself into my room.
“In my bed…”
“Am I only allowed in your bed when I'm eating you out?”
Scoffing at his boorish remark, I shake my head and send a prayer up above that someone fucking save me from this man who has seemingly been dropped into my life out of nowhere and taken over every aspect of it.
“No, asshole. That's not what I meant.”
“Would you like to spread your legs for me now and give me a taste? I thought it might be uncouth of me to lick your pussy so soon after your ex scared you, but I'd be more than happy to chase him out of your thoughts with my tongue. All you have to do is ask, baby.”
Turning my back to him, I rest my head on my hands and tell him, “I'm going back to sleep. Maybe when I wake up, you'll be gone, and I can have peace for once.”
His low chuckle vibrates the bed, but he doesn't leave. Instead, he lies there, still as a statue, while I struggle to fall asleep. And when I do, he's there, in my dreams.