Deviants (Badlands 2)

I rubbed at my wrists where the shackles had been to get feeling back in my skin. Romero offered me his familiar inked hand, keeping his eyes on my face. It would have been stupid and petty to prolong the inevitable, I knew just as well as he did I was leaving with him, if I wanted to or not.

I placed my palm in his, and it was like linking two puzzle pieces back together.

“Can you walk?”

“Well, you sure as hell aren’t carrying me,” I snapped.

He smirked and pulled me up with a firm yet gentle tug, making sure I was steady on my feet before tucking me into his side. I didn’t bother trying to be discreet as I breathed him in.

“Come on.” His mouth tilted slightly up and he turned me in the direction of the house.

We walked in silence. Luther was on one side of me and Romero was on another.

I solely focused on placing one foot in front of the other. He was so clean and put together, while I was filthy. This seemed to be a common theme.

As we walked up a pathway passing the house, I looked to the driveway where four vehicles were parked. Three were large SUV’s with a texture that reminded me of a chalkboard.

His followers stood outside them. I couldn’t see their facial expressions due to the masks but I knew they were all looking at him.

Leaning against the rear passenger side door of Romero’s heavy duty jeep was a dark haired girl. I was positive she was the one who’d given me water.

When she saw us, she pushed off the jeep and lifted a hand to tuck a strand of her silky, coal black hair behind her ear. The bangle on her wrist shifted and revealed an inverted cross tattoo I was very familiar with. My mind buzzed with implications.

As we got closer, I saw one of her eyes was toffee brown and the other was pine green. Her hips had a bit of a curve to them and her tits were large and perky. She was pretty—more than pretty. I wouldn’t touch her, but by the way she smiled at the man beside me, I knew he had.

“You sure about this, Dhal?” he asked when we reached her.

“What’s she supposed to be sure about?” I dove right in the conversation, knowingly going into territorial bitch mode.

“She’s coming with us,” Romero answered.

“Why?”

She blinked at me, looking a little taken aback by my forwardness. From that alone and her shifty disposition, I knew she was the type who thought bad things about you but wouldn’t dare say them aloud. What a perfectly clichéd match they would have been: the good girl and the bad boy.

“Change of scenery,” she offered up with a small shrug, looking between me and Romero, who had yet to say anything.

“Right,” I quipped. “Can we go?” I asked Romero, already heading for the passenger side of his vehicle. I wasn’t up for being hospitable.

Pulling the door open, I glanced over my shoulder and saw Luther smiling so hard I was surprised his face didn’t break.

Romero was watching me with an inexpressive look on his face. He said something I couldn’t hear and then made his way to the driver side.

I climbed in and shut the door. It felt so good to have something soft against my back after spending all night outside on the ground.

Dhal waved to Luther and then got in behind me as Romero took over the driver’s seat.

“Tito was there somewhere,” I said a few minutes after we’d been on the road.

“I got him out.”

“K,” I hummed, not really caring either way. After thinking it over, it didn’t matter to me what happened to him. Sure, he’d saved my life once, but it wasn’t because he was a stand-up guy; he’d had an agenda of his own.

I was over worrying about him. He was a grown ass man who could fend for himself.

.

I kept my mouth shut the rest of the ride, even though I had a million questions and certain things needed to be said. I wasn’t going to open another can of worms when my mind was already crawling with parasites.