A Lighter Shade of Blue (Kings of Chaos 2)

She maneuvers over the terrain, pausing to twirl. “H-he’s in there.” She points to the red shed with white trim in a singsong tone at odds with her disheveled appearance and fright filled eyes.

“He’s not important right now, you are. Let’s get you home.”

“Home?” She laughs. “I can never go home. I don’t know who I am.”

She’s like a newborn colt as she shyly wobbles to me.

I open the gate and pull her to me, cupping the back of her head.

Blue wraps her arms around my neck and squeezes hard. She rests her hands on my chest. “Do you know who I am, Shadow?”

“You’re, Bluebell Strong, my woman. Bolton’s surrogate mother and one bad ass mother fucker. You’ve got the blood of Kings running through your veins, baby. It takes more than this to break you. The drugs are fucking with you, girl. Let’s get you coming down.”

She rocks her hips against me and leans back.

I grunt. Conflicting emotions run through me. As the adrenaline fades, I want to take her to remind myself we’re both alive and safe. But I’d never take advantage of her when she’s so vulnerable. “I got you, girl. Ain’t no one else is going to touch you. Ever.” I kiss her forehead.

“I stuck him. Just like Daddy taught me. But I’m still scared he’s going to come back like some monster in a horror movie.”

It’s creepy as hell listening to her gleeful tone as she spills her heart. I can fix this for her. “Well, let’s go make sure he won’t be coming back.”

I set her down and hold out my hand. I can’t coddle her when she just did a warrior’s job. She deserves to be treated as an equal. She twines our fingers and leans against me, like we’re out for a couples stroll. Her skin is too hot. I rake my eyes over her and pause at her jeans—they’re popped open and the zipper is busted. My gut aches. We enter the shed and I take in the rope, duct tape, and pills scattered on the workspace. I walk over and find the little E imprinted on them. Ecstasy. No fucking wonder she’s acting like this.

“See what I did, Holt? Look.” She’s like a child pointing to Jamie’s prone body.

His eyes are cloudy and the blood that stains his shirt and runs onto the floor tells me he’s not alive.

I walk over and toe him. “He ain’t coming back, Blue,” I tell her gently.

“He hurt me. I didn’t want him to touch me, but he did. He tied my hands behind my back and rubbed my pussy until I came over and over. I hated it, but I kind of loved it, too. M-my body liked what h-he did. But I didn’t, Shadow. Don’t be mad at me. I love you more than anything. You know that, don’t you?”

I nod dumbly. What else can I do or say to that?

“He wanted to rape me, too, Shadow.”

My ears buzz. My face is on fire. I pull a gun from my holster, screw on the silencer I k

eep inside the pocket of my cut and empty all twelve rounds into his body. The blood splattering up onto my face feels like a baptism. This fucker hurt my woman, I couldn’t rest until I have his blood on my hands. I glance over at her.

Her face is speckled with his blood. Her lips tremble.

I tense. Fuck, she’s going to lose it.

The laughter that comes from her is chilling.

I replace my gun, step forward, cup her face, then I silence her with my mouth to stop the hell born sound.

She eagerly responds. Her fingers lace around my neck and her body molds to mine.

I kiss her with everything I got, grateful to find her alive.

We pull apart and she grips my cut. “You came for me.”

“I’ll always come for you, girl, don’t you know that?”

“I knew you would. But I–I had to stop him. He kept talking about his sister, Katie, and how he was going to make everyone know what it felt like to lose me. He was going to rape me and worse. He said every time you looked at me—you’d r-remember him.”

“Fuck him,” I spit. “You’re mine, girl. Ain’t nothing or no one going to change that. You feel me?” I wipe away the tears running down her face.