Cruel Infatuation (Underground Kings 3)

“I care about an innocent girl getting hurt when she shouldn’t have been. God, fuck! If the cops found this out, Jaxon, I’d be fucked. They would take Dillion away. You—” I point to her and make my tone sound as mean and hateful as I can. “You stay the fuck away from me. I can’t believe this. You said you were twenty-six. I should have known.”

“Grayson…” She reaches out for me, but I pull out of her grasp.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t come near me.” I run my hands over my face, lost, completely stunned, and wishing this was all a dream. When I will wake up, this nightmare will be over.

“We didn’t say anything that friends wouldn’t talk about, Grayson.”

“Friends? Jesus, you are young. It doesn’t fucking matter if we talked about rainbows and kittens. I’m thirty-two. You are seventeen—”

“I’m eighteen.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and try to not pick up the gun and put a bullet between her eyes. I hate people who lie to me. I hate people who lead me on. “I don’t give a fuck.” I must have been louder than I thought because Heaven comes hopping along from the hallway with Owen. The only person here not to witness my humiliation is Sebastian.

“What the hell is the ruckus about?” Heaven trips while dragging his leg, and Owen catches him before his face hits the edge of the counter.

“You need to come with hazard pay with how many times I’ve saved your ass,” Owen stretches, and his shoulder pops into place. His eyes roll back in pleasure. “Oh, fuck yes.”

“I’m the one who needs hazard pay. I’m the one who keeps falling.”

“You’re the one with a Cheeto in your cast?” Finley asks Heaven, grinning wide as if there isn’t a problem in the world.

I step in front of her so she can’t see Heaven and point toward the door. Her face is a black and bruised mess. Her bottom lip is busted, and there’s a handprint around her neck. Her arms have finger bruises all over them along with a few scratch marks. It looks like she fought for her life.

I can’t care about that. I can’t care about the reasons why she lied to me. It was wrong. I’m lucky I used my fucking head and only kept it casual when we were talking because I’d be screwed. “You need to leave now.” I twist the knob and open the door for her. “Go back to wherever the fuck you came from, even if it is Virginia, and never speak to me again; do you understand?”

“Woah, Grayson. Why are being like this?” Heaven asks. “Who is she?”

“I’m Finley!” she says all peppy like she had a boat load of sugar.

“Fin…” Heaven’s eyes round. “Oh, shit. Finley, Finley? That Finley, Grayson?”

Her eyes cut to me, and she has a satisfied expression on her face. “Were you talking about me?”

“Only because I got caught talking to you, and these assholes don’t know how to keep their noses out of other people’s business,” I sneer at them. “And I didn’t talk about you. I said we were just friends.”

“How old are you?” Heaven starts to catch on. “I thought you said she was twenty-six.”

“Yeah, she lied.”

Jaxon tosses the paper towels in the trash that he used to clean up the coffee he spewed all over the table. “They didn’t meet at the Lighthouse Grill. They met on a dating site. She lied about her age. She’s eighteen,” Jaxon tries to hide his amusement, but I’m not finding anything in his interaction funny.

“Okay?” Heaven drawls out the word as a question. “So what’s the problem? She’s legal. Should she have lied? No.”

“She’s eighteen today,” I say as slow and angrily as I can, so he knows just how fucking mad I am about it.

“Oh, shit,” Heaven says when the lightbulb finally goes off.

Yeah, everyone here knows how big of a deal that is for me. “Listen,” I keep the door open and place my hands on my hips. She looks hopeful. Her big green eyes are staring at me like I’ve hung the moon. There’s no doubt she’s gorgeous, and thinking that makes me feel dirty. She’s too young for me. “I don’t know how you found out where I live, and I’m sorry you stopped here to see me on your travels, but if I would have known all this before, I would have told you not to come. I’m sure you’re a sweet girl, but you don’t have a place here. Okay? I don’t like liars. I don’t like people who pretend to be something they aren’t. I don’t like being led on. Being deceived is something I can never forgive for. Please, Finley. Go.” I point to the door again, but she just stands there.

“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she whispers, and she sounds like she’s on the verge of tears. “I lied because I needed an escape, and I know that doesn’t make it right. I know that, but you don’t know what I’ve been through to get here. You don’t know the life I’ve left behind to feel safe. I’m sorry I lied to you. Can you forgive me, and we can start over? Please.”

A tear drips down her cheek, and I look to the guys, wondering what they’re thinking, but they all seem resigned. I pull out my wallet and gather a few hundred dollars and hold out for her. “Here, take this. Get a hotel and rest up. And then, I don’t know what to tell you. You aren’t my responsibility. You’re just a damn kid. I have one of those already. If I want to date, I want to date a woman. I’m sorry, but this cannot continue. I cannot be your friend. What you did is unforgivable in my book.”

“Grayson—” Heaven speaks up, but the look I give him stuns him silent.

“I don’t want your money.” She slaps my hand away, and the cash drifts to the floor. “I have money. I have enough cash to get me by for a few months. I came here because I thought you’d be a safe place for me to go in the middle of a storm.”

“You thought wrong,” I say. “This is what I mean. We barely know each other, and you latch on to this fantastical idea that I’m your savior. It’s naïve. It’s young. It isn’t reality. I can’t save you from your demons. Only you can.”