Firefly

  Their unease was making me edgy, but I wondered if the girls had come to the same conclusion I had this morning. Maybe they already knew Johnny needed to remain calm.

  Einstein didn’t know him as well as I did, but she knew him well enough . . . and she’d been there last night for the destruction.

  Trying to ignore the way their worry magnified my own, I clapped my hands and kept my voice light. “All right. Time to pack.”

  Libby finally looked at me, but her eyes darted twice to Einstein before holding mine. “For what?”

  “Well, if you heard about the bust, then you heard that this dumbass destroyed the house.” I sent Johnny a grin when he looked over his shoulder to glare at me. “Don’t act like you didn’t. Anyway, we have to take precautions now. Need everyone in one place in case they want to know why we were on their property destroying their shit.”

  “I told you they would know,” Einstein said softly. Too soft. Too anxious.

  I couldn’t remember a time in all the years I’d known her that she’d shown nerves.

  Johnny tensed and took a shuddering breath.

  Shit.

  “If they know, then they know. If they decide to do something, that’s on them. That’s why we take precautions.” I shrugged then drummed my hands on the counter. “So pack and do it fast. Twins are already headed that way, and I’m starving.”

  Johnny had his head dropped low so he could whisper to Einstein, and then he was leading her out of the kitchen toward her room. My sister started following after them, but I gripped her arm and held her there until they’d gone down the hall.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” I demanded in a low tone as I turned her to face me. Her blank stare shifted to something in the kitchen to avoid looking at me.

  She huffed, but there was a slight hitch in it. “Well, I would’ve thought that was obvious. You’re making us pack so we can all have a stupid camp out at the house, clearly I’m annoyed.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Libby. I could see it when we walked in . . . I could feel it.” I paused when Johnny started walking back down the hall, and lowered my voice when he ducked into the bathroom. “Neither of you would look at me once I came into the kitchen, and you’re still refusing to look at me. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Nothing. I’m just going to pack and meet you at the house.”

  “No. You’re driving with me. Johnny’s driving with Einstein.”

  She sighed and finally met my stare. “Dare—”

  “Don’t,” I warned, cutting her off. I opened my mouth to continue just as a loud thump came from the bathroom. I started to look in that direction, but stopped when I noticed Libby.

  Mouth set in a tight line, an anxious look in her now wide eyes.

  Exactly how she’d been when we’d walked in.

  “Libby . . . what’s wrong?”

  She was already shaking her head before I’d finished asking, and when she responded, the snarky tone she usually dealt held a hint of panic. “This is bullshit. Not only do you not give us the option of staying in our place, you and Johnny came in here, forcing us to pack while you breathe down our necks. Some space would be appreciated.”

  I lifted my shoulders in an apologetic shrug. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “All of this is pointless, and you’re overreacting because you made a bad call last night.”

  “You and I both know what Johnny did puts everyone in danger,” I said in a grave tone. “Einstein knew that last night, and he still did it. And I’m not letting you, or any member of the family, wait around for a Holloway to decide to return the favor. If they do, they’ll find us all together and waiting for them.”

  “Where’s Johnny?”

  I glanced up to where Einstein was standing halfway down the hall, and jerked my head in the direction of the door just feet from where she was standing. “Bathroom.”

  A look of dread covered her face. “Shit . . . shit.” Her voice started as a whisper and ended with a yell as she ran for the bathroom door, pounding her fists against it when it didn’t open. “Johnny!”

  Libby’s hand shot out to grip at my arm. “Johnny’s in there?” she asked, her voice rising with panic.

  “Yeah, what’s—”

  “Oh God . . . Elle.” Libby whirled around, her expression morphing into horror as she rushed toward the bathroom with me behind her.

  “Who the fuck is Elle?”

  “Open the door,” Einstein pled as Libby yelled, “Johnny, he’ll kill you.”

  “I told you,” Einstein cried out between pleas and banging on the door. “I told you, Libby. She shouldn’t be here.”

  I was already trying to push the girls away from the door when Einstein’s voice—her tears—cut through all the chaos, stunning me.

  Einstein never cried.

  I knew in that second I’d had it all wrong. The girls hadn’t been worried about keeping Johnny calm after last night. They’d been worried about him finding whoever they were hiding in this bathroom.

  And now two of the strongest girls I knew were crying because he had.

  There was a deep yell from inside the bathroom, quickly followed by Johnny cursing.

  “Dare, stop him,” Libby screamed as she grabbed for my arm again. “It’s the—”

  But I was already pushing her from me and yelling, “Fucking move, Einstein.”

  As soon as she was away from the door I charged into it with my shoulder, slamming all my weight into it and stumbling into the bathroom when the door gave.

  I looked up as I fought to gain my footing and found Johnny pressing someone up against the wall, his large frame engulfing the other person and blocking my view. Their arms were outstretched, a knife between their clenched hands where Johnny had them pinned to the wall . . . blood dripping down their arms.

  I glanced in the mirror, and my world stopped turning.

  Ice surged through my veins when I saw my firefly struggling with a man who was so close to losing control.

  Johnny’s mouth twisted in a sneer as he took another step into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. I slowly stood from my crouch, setting my bag on the counter so I could easily search for what I’d tossed in there just before he’d opened the door.

  His gaze darted from my bag to my face to the window behind me—the window I’d opened after the shower to let the steam out—then back to my face. And I knew . . . I knew as his eyes filled with rage he was assuming the worst.

  “Wanna tell me what the hell you’re doing in here?” he asked as he twisted the lock and slowly started toward me.

  My body begged to respond, to match his steps with ones of my own, but I stood at the counter and held his stare, searching for the knife Kieran had given me and trained me to use so many years ago.

  “I asked you a question, bitch,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “It’s not—” I’d just grasped the knife when he grabbed my throat and barreled me back into the wall, my shoulder smashing into the edge of the towel rack and forcing a cry from me.

  His other hand slammed down onto my mouth to mute the cry, and for a few moments he didn’t move or speak. He finally released my throat to press his forearm against my chest and his hip to my stomach, pinning me to the wall and preventing any obvious attempt to fight back . . .

  All the while I was struggling to reposition the knife I’d almost dropped so I could flip out the blade as pain pulsed from my shoulder to fingertips.

  “I’ll ask you again, but this time you’re gonna answer. Got it?” His voice was hushed but no less menacing. “What are you doing in here?”

  I clenched my jaw against the pain when he removed the hand from my mouth, forcing out, “It’s not what you think.”

  “Isn’t it?” His eyebrows pulled low over his eyes, and like last night, it looked like he was taking his hatred and forcing it on me. “Knew there was something from the first second I saw you. Knew you were trouble. Knew Dare was a fucking idiot
for not listening to me. And now here you are . . . in a place you shouldn’t be, near my girl.” His free hand slowly moved down, his lip curling as he tightened his fingers around my wrist until I no longer had control of my hand. “I’ll snap your fucking neck for even thinking about hurting her. Drop the knife.”

  Someone yelled just before there was a loud smack against the bathroom door. “Johnny!”

  Johnny tensed against me and looked over his shoulder. The hand clutching my wrist loosened and his chest heaved as he blew out a ragged breath.

  One of the girls yelled as she banged against the door, and soon the other’s voice joined in.

  I watched Johnny carefully as they yelled for him to open the door, and saw the war that raged within him. The way he responded to Einstein’s distress, as if hearing her caused him pain . . . the way his hatred and suspicions overcame that pain and concern every few seconds.

  I waited for his hesitation and finally flicked the blade out.

  Johnny growled as he swung his frustrated glare back on me, his forearm shoving harder against my chest. “Who the hell—?” His pained roar filled the bathroom when I jammed the knife into the wrist where his hand now barely circled mine.

  He tore his arm away, but before I could swipe at him again, he rammed his shoulder into my chest. “You fucking bitch!”

  The air flew from my lungs as the towel rack dug into my back, but I somehow managed to tighten my grip on the knife when Johnny grabbed my hand and bashed it against the wall over and over again.

  Everything ached as I struggled to suck in air to cry out for help.

  Blood was steadily dripping down his arm and transferring onto my own as he attempted to pry my fingers loose one at a time, his movements sloppy as his hand trembled against mine.

  “Knew not to trust you,” he rasped out again as he stepped back.

  My legs threatened to give out without him keeping me against the wall. But just as soon as my knees weakened, Johnny’s shoulder collided with my chest once . . . twice.

  A hint of a breath wheezed from my lungs.

  My vision darkened.

  I no longer heard the voices outside . . . I no longer heard anything.

  But Johnny was there—unfurling to his full height as his hand moved to my throat, the other gripping mine to once again drive it against the wall.

  My mouth opened on a soundless cry.

  There was so much pain. I wanted to close my eyes, but knew I needed to stay awake. Knew I needed to hold on to the knife.

  I needed to breathe . . . and I couldn’t.

  All I remembered was the feel of his fingers tightening around my throat and the crazed look in his eyes before he was suddenly gone, and I was collapsing to the floor.

  An eternity made up of seconds passed as I struggled to make my lungs work.

  Someone reached for me. I swung. My hand moving across the floor sluggishly.

  And then eyes . . . those eyes.

  Dark, knowing eyes.

  Truth or dare.

  “Firefly.”

  The pulse-pounding fear I’d experienced when I’d woken that morning was absent when my heavy eyelids slid open to an unfamiliar room. But I knew I wasn’t alone. If a man silent as the night could no longer hide from me, the one watching me in that moment didn’t have a prayer of catching me unaware.

  Besides, I’d been prepared for this.

  Dark eyes were the last things I saw before everything went black and somehow, I’d known they would be waiting for me when I woke. Only now that I was awake, I didn’t know what to expect.

  I’d been determined to have our lives go back to how they’d been—a silent, longing dance along an invisible wall. The memory of his mouth, the ache for another taste, it was all so dangerous in ways he couldn’t begin to imagine. For my sanity, for my frail resolve, for Dare’s life if Kieran ever found out . . .

  But now it was all so much more complicated than seeing the man who had freed me with a kiss and pretending I wasn’t trying to resist a pull unlike anything I’d ever experienced—a pull I wasn’t sure I wanted to resist.

  Because I’d been hiding from him at his sister’s apartment. I’d stabbed his friend. And now he was waiting for me.

  I’d been raised in a world of rival mobs. In that life, shed blood came with retaliation. I hadn’t been so sheltered to think the rest of the world lived the same way, but even during the short time around Dare last night, I’d known—I’d sensed it. There was a lethal darkness about him that buzzed just beneath the surface. Behind that easy smirk, he was dangerous. It wasn’t hard to imagine his life might mirror my own in some ways. Ways that currently caused me worry because it was Johnny’s word against mine.

  Taking a deep breath, I steeled my nerves and pushed up on my elbows.

  My body ached everywhere. From Johnny’s hands, from the wall and towel rack, from the adrenaline crash . . . but every ache was abruptly forgotten, and I paused in my attempt to sit up when I found one of the twins and Einstein sitting on a couch to the left of the unfamiliar bed instead of Dare, talking in hushed tones.

  The twin was watching Einstein intently, but she was eyeing me expectantly; her stare solemn.

  “Maverick,” she murmured without looking at the twin.

  After a few seconds, he let loose a sigh and reluctantly left the room.

  “Hi,” I said once he was gone. The word was a rasp; the short syllable painful as it slid up my throat.

  The corner of her lips tilted up. “Your mouth . . .”

  “So you’ve said.”

  What felt like minutes passed without either of us saying another word. I wanted to ask where I was. I wanted to ask where Libby and Dare were and why Einstein was the one in the room with me—why she wasn’t with Johnny.

  But when I finally spoke, it wasn’t to ask any of the questions filling my mind. “I’m sorry.” When one of her eyebrows ticked up, I said, “I know Johnny is your boyfriend, or something like that, and—”

  “And he should’ve never been in that bathroom with you,” she finished for me. “He told me he was going to get a drink. I didn’t know . . .” She took a shuddering breath. “I didn’t know he would see you. I was hoping he wouldn’t see you. He has problems with his anger, and when he doesn’t trust someone, he sees them as a threat to his friends.”

  I started to nod but stopped when the movement hurt. “I had the window open. He saw it and . . .” I wavered, remembering the rage that had burned in his eyes. “I’m pretty sure he thought I snuck in here.”

  “There,” she corrected.

  “Excuse me?”

  “We’re at a different house. Dare and Libby brought you here.”

  I stilled, then slowly let my eyes touch on everything in the room as I pushed myself the rest of the way up. It was large and had masculine tones, but otherwise held nothing to hint at where I might be.

  “Where is here?”

  “Libby and Dare’s family home,” she responded coolly. “We all stay here from time to time.”

  “I don’t . . . I don’t think I should be here.”

  “Really?” she asked, sounding more curious than was necessary. “Why?”

  A strained laugh forced from my chest. “Because your boyfriend tried to kill me. Because I stabbed him. Because I don’t know any of you and I just—I need to leave.”

  Einstein watched me in silence as seconds slipped by. “A long time ago we tried to be there for my sister when she ran, but she was too proud to accept the help. Maybe a little afraid,” she added softly, a sad smile touching her face. “We can be a little intimidating. But she should’ve accepted the help.”

  “Wait, what—?” I started when she rose from the couch, my bag in her hand.

  “Dare told Johnny never to touch you again. If that wasn’t enough for him, Johnny knows why you’re here now, and he knows I’ll leave him if he goes near you,” she said as she dropped my bag onto the bed near my feet.

  I studied her in
tense stare to see if there was anything there—anything that might let on she had gone through the bag and seen more than she should’ve—but there was nothing.

  “I don’t understand anything you’re telling me,” I said when she began turning toward the door.

  She stopped, her eyes dropping to my mouth before searching my face. “Libby told me about you before the guys showed up at the house. Was she right . . . are you running from someone? Hiding from them?”

  I hesitated then nodded.

  “And Dare . . . why him?”

  I blinked slowly, trying to absorb her question. “I don’t—” Another breath of a laugh left me, the sound laced with my aggravation. “I don’t understand your questions or your rapid change of direction in this conversation.”

  She didn’t respond, only continued to watch me as she waited for my response.

  “There is no why Dare—I can’t even say I know who Dare is. I meet a friend at Brooks Street Café every week, so I see Dare there. But we’ve never spoken before last night, and I planned on never speaking to him again once I left. Then I ran into Libby at the bar, and she refused to let me leave without her. I thought I would be gone from your apartment before Dare ever knew I was there.”

  Einstein not only seemed to accept that answer, but was relieved by it. “Then all you need to know is you’re safest here,” she said as she once again turned to leave.

  “What—no. After what happened today, this is the last—I shouldn’t be here,” I reiterated, stumbling over my words.

  She paused, but didn’t turn around. “I’ll never forget how paralyzing the grief was when Johnny found my sister’s body hours after she left us, because she’d been so determined to run from her ex. It’s something I live with, and will continue to. It’s a past that made me who I am now.” Looking over her shoulder, she held my stare and whispered, “She should’ve accepted our help. You’re safe here . . . trust me.”

  I watched her go, stunned into silence, then dropped my head into my hands.

  A moment from the night before flashed through my mind.

  Libby’s hand squeezing and releasing my wrist. “If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that girls need to be there for each other. Especially during the hard times.”