Ride With Me

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

BENJI

Warren was more dangerous than I thought, and in all the ways I’d never considered. I’d assumed when I climbed into his truck that I’d catch a ride for as many miles as I could manage and then strike out on my own.

Even when I’d teased him into fucking me, I’d figured it was just going to be an itch to scratch so I could walk away from him without any regrets.

I never thought he’d look me in the eyes and I’d feel like he was actually seeing me, like he might actually be able to listen to what I had to say and really hear me.

I’d never thought he would make me feel comfortable in my own skin, when I’d never been around another person in my life who made me feel that way.

I’d been riding with him for a little over a week, long enough that he’d dropped off the load he’d been hauling, and we’d had a repeat of that first night in some form or another every night since. I was getting used to the feeling of waking up lying against the warmth of his chest, getting dangerously addicted to the feel of his big body pressing me against cool sheets and making me forget everything but how good it felt to let go.

Yeah, Warren was dangerous. It was honestly just a lucky thing that I loved the feeling of danger, loved the taste of it on my tongue and the little zings of pleasure it sent across my skin.

I wanted more—I wanted all of him—and maybe that was the most dangerous part of all of this. I’d never been with anyone with the intention of having any kind of permanence. I’d always known that love, that someone caring, someone wanting to stay and keep me? That wasn’t something for me, it wasn’t something I deserved. I was flirting with the idea of forever now, and it had the power to kill me in a thousand little ways that no person ever could.

No one until Warren.

Fuck me, it had only been a week. Thinking like that sounded completely crazy, even if I was keeping it all to myself.

As long as I did that, at least he’d never have to know.

“I left my jacket in the room,” I called over my shoulder as I turned from the truck. “Let me go grab it and I’ll meet you at the diner.”

The motel he’d chosen this time was nicer, and it was right across the street from a cozy looking diner that stayed open late.

“Do you want me to come with you?” He’d already started to turn, but I waved him off.

“Don’t worry about it. Grab us a booth so we don’t have to wait. I’m starving.”

His eyes lingered on me for a second, but he nodded.

I watched his figure retreat around the corner before I felt my shoulders slump as my breath came out in a near sigh. This was the first time we’d been apart since I woke up with him straddling me. It wasn’t that it felt bad, or that I wanted to be away from him. I actually liked keeping him close enough that I could see him.

But that was the exact problem. We were practically living on top of each other, and I’d never put myself in a situation where I’d been so close to a person. It almost felt like I couldn’t breathe, like I couldn’t think…

And I hadn’t had a chance to check my phone without worrying that he’d see whatever message Mitchy might have left me on there. We hadn’t been apart more than the time it took me to take a shower, and that really wasn’t enough time to do everything I needed to do.

But I couldn’t just let the shit from my past hang in the air between us… not when I was starting to realize this was something I wanted.

I wanted Warren to be mine—I wanted to keep him.

So, I had to handle the situation threatening to drag me down.

Something still felt a little off kilter as I stepped back into the motel room and dug my phone out of my jacket, powering it on to the sound of at least a dozen messages coming through.

I waited until Warren was asleep to get up. It was the middle of the day, but the hotel we were staying at was in the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t going to get a better opportunity than this… and the texts I’d read earlier told me that now was my best chance.

It still felt oddly wrong leaving Warren there on the bed, the covers slung low over his waist. I took a second to admire the soft dusting of hair along his chest, then silently backed out of the room.

I’d probably come back—I’d probably be able to come back.

I ducked behind the motel and headed toward the abandoned building I’d seen earlier when we’d pulled into the parking lot. It faced a span of nothing in the distance, and the broken-out windows seemed like they’d make getting inside easy.

The door was already open, and it made me pause.

Danger.

It was dangerous, but if I turned around now, there was every chance that Mitchy would follow me back to my hotel room if he was in there waiting for me.

I didn’t want to lead him right back to Warren.

Fuck, this was why I didn’t let myself get attached to people, wasn’t it? The thought of my past catching up and making him pay was…

I didn’t like it.

“Mitchy?” There was no point in trying to get the upper hand, not with the door open and footprints in the dust telling me someone was here. I’d be better off coming in head on and hoping that I could handle the situation from there.

It helped that I knew the kind of hot-headed asshole Mitchy was. It also helped that the building was completely empty, so there weren’t really many places he could hide. His dusty footprints led to the left, and as I stepped through the door, I lifted my phone and flicked on the light.

The flash of metal caught my attention, and I had a second where I was worried that I was going to have to run after all… but it wasn’t a gun.

It was a knife.

A ridiculously big knife, and Mitchy looked so cocky holding it.

“Did you think I wasn’t going to catch up with you, Liam.”

Liam. It sounded weird, hearing the name. I’d given Warren my real name, which honestly should have told me from the get-go that something about him was different.

Mitchy knew me as Liam. And before him, Eric had known me as Alec. I’d had a dozen names, and none of them ever stuck.

“I told you where to meet me, Mitchy. Do you have my car?” It wasn’t like I actually wanted it back, but it seemed as good a reason as any to tell him where to meet me.

We were in the middle of nowhere.

No one was going to know what happened.

Killing one man in the middle of a small town and making it look like he’d been mugged was one thing.

Killing his brother in the same town? That would have brought the police down on my head. It was better for Mitchy to just disappear… and Warren had done an amazing job carting me halfway across the country so he’d do it in a place where no one would ever find him.

Sometimes it was exhausting , wanting to kill people. Especially since I had to make sure I was at least twelve steps ahead of the law, of angry family members, of anyone who might get suspicious.

Anyone who might get too close.

“Do you seriously think I’m going to give you that car back? Do you think I came here for anything other than to make you pay for what you did to Aaron?”

I bit my lower lip and shrugged. “It was a thought. Judging by that knife, though, I have a feeling you have different ideas.”

He lifted the blade between us in a jerking motion. Apparently, just bringing it up was enough to make him react. “This? I thought it was fair—I want you to feel everything Aaron did.”

My eyes narrowed at that, and the laugh that spilled from my throat was enough to make the smug expression on his face drop.

“Is that what you think I used? Some big knife? God, Mitchy. Your brother was a fucking idiot, but you might be worse. You’ll never know what he felt when I was killing him, but you know what?” I grinned and crossed my arms over my chest, sliding my fingers into my jacket as I did so. “I can tell you something.”

“Shut the fuck up, Liam. I’m going to?—”

“He was calling for you before I slit him open.”

“I’m going to fucking kill you.”

He charged forward and I felt warmth blossom in my chest—pleasure and satisfaction, and the knowledge that the dark urge inside of me would get to feel full sooner than I’d thought.

“Benji?” The voice from the doorway caught me off guard, and Mitchy’s knife clipped me on the shoulder, tearing my jacket as I tried to dodge out of the way. Warren standing in the doorway and staring at me with concern on his face was a distraction I didn’t want.

It was a distraction I’d been trying to avoid.

“Why are you here?” I bit the question out as I turned, pulling my hand from my jacket to reveal my own blade. My knife was slender, something easily concealed, easily sharpened. I’d intended for Mitchy to see it up close and personal a few seconds before I drove it into his eye, but now…

Well, everything was suddenly going sideways, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I could play innocent. I could keep up with the story that I’d fed Warren about Mitchy coming after me because I’d hurt his brother…

It wasn’t like it was a lie, technically.

Or…

My eyes flashed back to the man standing in the doorway, and I could see it on his face.

He was going to try to help me.

He could very easily end up getting hurt.

It took me less than a second to make up my mind. I felt the innocent expression melt from my features to leave behind something cold, something calculating. I didn’t have time to play with Mitchy now, and that darkness inside of me was going to have to live with it.

I just hoped Warren would be able to do the same once this was all over.

“Hey, Mitchy?” I called in a sing-song voice to draw his attention back to me, because the thought of him looking at the man in the doorway made my blood boil. “Your brother cried like a little bitch when I killed him. Are you going to cry, too?”

That was all it took. All of his rage redirected to me, and he charged again. This time, I wasn’t distracted. This time, I moved with the liquid grace that usually served to keep me untouched.

When Mitchy ran at me with his blade held high, I ducked under his arm and drove my knife upward at the same time. His momentum carried him forward, drove the blade in deep, and my arm jerking upward left the warm rush of his entrails spattering over my hands.

Messy.

Fuck, this was messier than I’d intended.

“Benji, are you—” Warm arms grabbed me, and I jerked. Warren was turning me to look at him… and his hands were getting covered in blood. “You’re bleeding… it’s…”

“Not my blood.” I murmured, and I hated the way my fingers clenched tight on the knife in my hand.

“Did you…” His eyes trailed to the man on the ground—to the body on the ground that was slowly seeping blood across the dusty floor. This was going to be a pain in the ass to clean up.

“I killed him.” I couldn’t turn my expressions back on—couldn’t erase the cold look I knew was on my face. I tried to force warmth back into my eyes, and I thought a spark of it lit across my features with my next words. “I didn’t want him to hurt you.”

“You killed him,” he repeated slowly. “You… meant to kill him.”

It was there—another moment where I could lie. A moment where I could tell him Mitchy had lured me out here and I’d just been defending myself.

But…

Something about Warren made me want to tell the truth.

“Yeah, I did.”

He let me go abruptly and looked down at his hands.

Red.

His hands were stained with the blood I’d spilled, and some small part of me felt a surge of desire pulse along my skin as he turned without a word and started walking away.

“Warren?” I called after him, and he paused in the doorway.

“I’m… going back to the room. I need a shower.” He sounded dazed, confused. I wasn’t sure if he was in shock, or just trying to process what he’d seen.

And I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to figure out how to deal with two bodies instead of just one. I wanted to trust him.

I wanted to keep him.

I’d also wanted to corner Mitchy and take my time with him, then hide the body before Warren ever knew what I’d done… so I wasn’t sure how much wanting mattered.