Run From Me (Barbed Wire Hearts #2)

31. Xander

THIRTY-ONE

xander

“Xander, you can’t keep me locked up forever,” Cali protested again.

I glared at her as I set the eggs and bacon on a plate in front of her.

“I can and I will. You still have a concussion. The doctor will be by later today to see how you're doing. Other than that, you are on house arrest, and this time everyone has permission to lock doors. You no longer get fresh air. You don’t get to breathe air that I am not currently standing in.”

She growled at me like that was going to change a damn thing.

“You should be happy Zeid said it was immoral to implant a damn tracker under your skin.” I played with the box in my pocket. Well, one box in my pocket and the other behind my back. “Do you have any idea what it was like thinking I could have been too late? You still haven’t given me one good fucking reason for leaving me like that. Those Vipers, the shit they could have done to you.”

I looked at her delicate features and the bruise along her temple and cheek that was slowly fading to yellow from an ugly purple. What would have happened? I had long since buried my past. I’d stopped having nightmares around the time Cas and Zeid helped me bury my father’s body. He wasn’t around to terrorize me anymore. And my mom? I did what I could to avenge her. She’d fueled my reason to take over the Spectors. No one should be owned like that. No one should be owned like Cali. Except Cali not only owned me, the idea that I'd almost lost her? That would haunt me forever.

“Sparky, if the doctor clears you for more than just sleeping, we can get you that tattoo and cover up that scar. I will have the best in the business meet you here. Spend your time Googling what you want.”

She sighed and took a bite.

“I don’t need to Google. I want you to mark me. I want you to design a Spectors tattoo just for me.” She chewed another bite. “I’m sorry about everything. I thought, well, I didn’t think, I guess. I just wanted to be useful. There was a guy and a mask, and I knew I’d seen it somewhere.”

I traced her knuckles with my thumb as I took her hand. “You don’t have to wear our mark. You don’t belong to the Spectors, you are mine. But even that, if you don’t want to be here, I will never force you, regardless how much I’d rather tie you down and never let you out of my sight.”

Tie her down. That turn of phrase was going to mean a whole lot more if she didn’t bolt. Because right now I worried she was some kind of flight risk. Cali still hadn’t really told me or anyone why she’d left like she had. A mask though?

“Are you going to tell me why you thought it was a good idea to not only lie to our guys but to dive into some rideshare? You do realize we have bikes and even someone on standby with a fucking armored SUV, right? All you had to do was ask. You aren’t a prisoner. But you sure as shit have a fucking target on your back.” I didn’t want to look away from her. What if this all just disappeared? I sighed. “At least it’s less of one for the moment, since the Vipers will need to regroup.”

She just shoved more food in her mouth.

“So all I had to do was scold you to get you to eat?”

She stopped mid bite.

“No. You just had to cook bacon you idiot,” she said and chomped down on the greasy strip.

I liked her sass more than she’d ever know. I couldn’t look away from her. Couldn’t stop the smile even if I wanted to wring her damn neck right now.

“Noted. So, you leaving me, Sparky, or are you staying?” I asked, because for once in my life, the choice I was about to make wasn’t one I could control.

She wasn’t talking, and I regretted the bacon right now, as it held more of her attention than I did.

I pulled out the boxes. One more square while the other a little more rectangular.

“What are those? And why do you ask dumb questions? ‘Are you leaving me, Sparky?’ Like no, Crash. I am not leaving you. I just asked for a tattoo that would tie me to your family. Tie me to you.” The tilt of her head told me just how stupid she thought I was right now, and the mocking tone? All I wanted to do was reach over the table and kiss her.

She’d never know what she’d done to my heart or my soul. She didn’t understand that I’d stopped feeling until her.

“Calliope? I’m stupid. I think that was well-established the day I turned up at the morgue. For being someone who deals with the dead, you are full of life. I’ll forever be a monster, and I can’t undo my past. I don’t know that I even remember what it’s like to be normal. But for you? Around you? I remember how to be human. A new version of someone I might have been in another life.”

I picked up the first box, and she glared at me. That dark hair made her more of a vixen than my rainbow-haired Sparky, and I loved all the shades of her.

“Since I can’t lock you away in my bedroom forever, I have a compromise. This necklace has a tracking device in it. No matter where you go, no matter if you lose your phone, I will find you.”

It was a small, simple pendant of a melting heart, but inside it was the tracker. It had taken all my damn patience to figure out how to make something like this, even with the help of a jeweler.

“A tracker?” she said as she traced the heart with her finger.

I couldn’t tell if I was walking on thin ice or not right now. She was unreadable. No snarky comment. No glare. No throwing herself across the table to murder or kiss me.

“Yeah. For safety. Rylee’s got something similar. This world isn’t one I'd have chosen for you, but since you seem set on staying with me, we need to do things differently.”

She pulled it out and held it up to me.

“Are you going to put it on me then?” she asked.

I was doing a slow nod, because step one went well and that worried me. Where was the fight I expected?

“Uh, yeah. Hold on. This box…”

I let the words die on my tongue.

She reached for it when I froze. Fuck. I didn’t freeze. I didn’t have the sense to feel nervous. Except, well, shit.

“And this one? Another tracker?” she said, opening the lid.

“It’s, uh, not really. More like a very real, very obvious mark that you are taken.”

This time, as she opened it and looked down on a ring, her eyes flicked between me and the ring over and over.

“Okay, and?” she said, sounding impatient, and that might have been exactly the attitude I needed to snap out of whatever the hell this was.

“Well, and, woman, for fuck’s sake. Will you marry me? Be part of this fucked up family not just by some stupid tattoo? Be part of my family? Stay with me until death, and even then you own my soul for eternity.”

The silence that followed made a damn boulder drop in my stomach.

“Why do you look like I’d actually say no? Like I'd let you tattoo my ass and then say ‘nope, sorry, I’m not legally marrying you’? You are seriously dumber than you look.”

She got up and practically crawled into my lap.

“Put the ring on my finger, Xander. I was yours the second I saw you. Not because you scared Ripple. Not because you killed a few bad men. Not because you can make me come by just looking at me. But because, for some fucked up little reason, you gave me a reason to live again. So yes, my dark demon. I will marry you, on one condition,” she said and put her finger over my mouth before I could speak. “Take me to bed and give me a damn orgasm. It’s been days, and you haven’t touched me, and seeing you show up like that? All scary like? A girl has needs, Crash.”

I forgot about that damn ring for the moment with the way she looked at me.

“I’m sure the doctor will clear you,” I said and claimed her mouth like I'd been dreaming about doing for days. “Fuck, Sparky. I thought you’d never ask.