They hate me, and I have no one to blame for this hatred but myself. I did this by bringing them together in one selfish moment of not wanting to have to give either up.
Not that the option was ever presented. They never gave me an ultimatum, but there’s something deep inside of me, rooted in a place darker than any night sky I’ve ever seen, that believed this was the right thing to do.
A muffled buzzing breaks the silence in the room and Lakyn reaches into his pocket, fishing out his cell phone.
“About time,” he snarls into the receiver.
Penn uses the back of his hand to wipe his mouth, eyes still boring deep into my soul and I do my best not to break down and beg for his forgiveness.
Aiden’s too.
“Well, do you have any idea when? I’m kind of in a bind here,” Lakyn barks to whoever is on the other end of the line. “Fine,” he says after a few moments of listening. He snaps the phone shut, slides it back into his pocket and grins at me again.
“So? Which one do you love more? I’m on a bit of a time crunch here now, by the way. My ride’s due to arrive any minute,” he says with a smirk.
“Leave them alone,” I tell him, putting a hand to my chest. “I’m the one you want, and I’m willing to fucking play your games, but leave them out of this.”
“I have another question for you,” he says, resting his chin on Aiden’s shoulder and looking at Penn. He gets a steely stare as a reply and he laughs, “I see why you like this one,” Lakyn remarks, glancing at me for a moment. “The strong silent type is always fun. Less babbling, more cock-sucking. Maybe I can teach that trick to Ichabod. Anyway,” he continues dangerously, “back to us.”
Penn shoves his arm off his shoulder and Lakyn pouts at him, feigning being hurt, but Penn isn’t looking at him anymore.
His eyes are back on me and he looks angry now.
“Don’t touch me,” he tells Lakyn in a low, throaty tone. “Any problem you have with Gray you obviously know how to handle at this point.”
It stings.
Penn’s jab at Lakyn hits me in the fucking heart harder than any punch Aiden could ever throw, and I’m close to tears at this point.
He leans over and takes her hand in his, shimmies to the edge of the table and gets to his feet. He knows he can’t go anywhere without Aiden and now it’s up to her to decide if she’ll allow him to have the moment with me he’s obviously been waiting for, for so long.
And she does.
She slides out from beneath Lakyn’s arm and drops her bare feet to the cool floor below and stumbles along with Penn toward me.
Side by side.
A perfect union of love and hate and it’s all directed at me.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Whatever they choose to do in this moment is what I’ll have to accept.
A car horn blares outside rapidly, the last honk lasting much longer and sounding about as angry as a horn can sound.
Lakyn grins, “Well, that’s it for me tonight, kids. It was great to meet everyone, though. Maybe I’ll stop by again sometime.”
Feigning the motions of tossing a basketball through a hoop, he tosses the box cutter against the far wall, slides his hands into his pockets and breezes past us.
I raise my eyes toward him, never letting him out of my sight, until he disappears out the door.
“What happens now?” I ask Penn and Aiden softly as I turn my attention back to them.
“We wait,” Penn answers quietly as he raises a hand to the side of my face and presses his forehead against mine.
Twelve
Unlikely Hero