Kingpin (Court University 2)

“Yeah.” Niko dropped an arm around my shoulders. “I don’t know what would have happened if she didn’t.”

I did, in the middle of that goddamn shoot out.

She called him…

I stared at the beauty queen once again, and this time, she stared at me, her head up. Lifting her coffee, she waved her cup a little at me, and I raised a hand back. This girl saved my goddamn life tonight.

And she spoke to the father she hated to do it.

Chapter Twenty-Four

LJ

Niko drove Billie and I back since the police wouldn’t let me get my car until morning. As a result of working with the police, Niko and I were both told we were able to go, but I had a feeling that may have had less to do with our cooperation and more to do with Billie and her dad. Of course, we weren’t told this. We were just told we could go, and neither one of us argued. We were just happy to be out of that place and that Alexi was in custody. I was told I personally would be hearing from the police soon regarding him and his arrest. I was told not to worry. As long I was available, I wouldn’t have any issues regarding the police, and I was just happy to be done with all this shit. I just wanted to finish school and forget about that part of my life.

Of course, I wouldn’t have had the option at all if it hadn’t been for Billie. She hadn’t had to help me, but she did.

I just didn’t know why.

I’d fucked up royally when it came to her, but still, she’d helped me. I wanted to talk to her, but with Niko around, I hadn’t felt it appropriate. He was going to drop her off at her house, but since I had wanted to talk to her, I’d been able to convince her to come back to our place for dinner. It was the least I could do, but I also had an evening’s worth of metaphorical crap on me I wanted to scrub off as soon as possible.

I left Billie downstairs with Niko to chew the fat and shit while I showered. He was supposed to call in takeout.

My hand on the shower wall, I let all the stress and shit fall, my hand somehow finding my cock when I thought about the redhead downstairs. I couldn’t help but think about her and what she’d done for me. It’d been a brave thing she’d done tonight. From what I understood, she and her father had a history she wanted nothing to do with. This history sent her running, but she came right back to him. She did it for me.

Grunting, I almost got myself to that peak, but ended up stopping. Fuck, it’d be too easy but I didn’t think I had the right. I didn’t have the right, not with all the drama I’d made sure she’d gone through in the past. I’d hurt her, something I needed to own up to.

My own history plaguing me now, I let go of my dick, then turned the shower cold. This tamed the madness within, calming me down enough to ultimately finish my shower, then towel off. I had clothes waiting, sweats and a white tee. I shrugged the sweats on with no boxers, but held the t-shirt in my hands as I came downstairs. Billie was still where I’d left her at the kitchen island. But surprisingly, there was no Niko in sight.

“Where’s Nik?” I asked, and her sight lifted from her device. She’d been playing with it when I came downstairs, but she wasn’t now.

A heat touched her gaze that simmered all those rogue thoughts again, a flush crushing her cheeks. Her attention drifted down my damp chest and lower, stopping at the midpoint of my abs before finding my eyes. Red lashes blinked. “He went out to get the food.”

All too quickly, she fluttered those lashes back in the direction of her phone. Honest to God, I hadn’t left my shirt off to tease her. Though, that’d been my nature in the past so she probably assumed.

Being real, I’d still been amped up from thoughts upstairs, hot, and the way she eye-fucked my chest just now didn’t help.

I eliminated space between us, freckled thighs crossed atop my barstool. So supple-looking, I wanted to thrust myself between them, and her wearing her night shirt the way she currently was didn’t help. She had it bunched at her midriff, her hair tie doing the holding. Set free, her red hair fell in thick waves across her shoulders, and I wanted to wrap them around my fist and crush my mouth against hers. I had all these words in my head, all these goddamn words I’d mulled over in the shower, and not one of them made it out of my mouth now. She made it hard, never easy with her.

Her eyes glanced up to me, literally not an ounce of space between us. Her chest heaving, she stared up to my eyes. “What are you doing, LJ?”

What was I doing? I had no fucking idea, sliding my shirt to the counter and looking at her. My mouth parted. “I just want to know why.”

“Why?”

I nodded. “Why did you do what you did? Why did you call your dad?”

I just… needed to hear it, couldn’t believe it.

Why are you doing this to yourself?

I didn’t deserve this girl, not in a million galaxies with all the shit I’d done to her. Even still, I was torturing myself. Still, I allowed myself for hope I most definitely didn’t deserve.

But if she gave me an in…

The ball was completely in her court now, and I think she knew that, turning away from me.

I bought her back by the chin, my thumb sliding across her lip. “Why, beauty queen?”