Chapter 8 : A Weakness in a Car Chase

TW: Blood and Mentions of Knife Play ADRIANO Darkness surrounded me as the ringing in my ears didn't let up. I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach, disoriented and lost. Groaning, I reached up and knocked my knuckles against a velvet surface. "Shit." My fingers touched the familiar texture of the roof of the car. Something wet dripped onto the back of my hand, and I opened my eyes to peer at the droplets of blood on my skin. Reaching up to my aching temple, I brought my slick fingertips to my field of vision. Running the pad of my thumb through the pool of blood on my fingertips, I growled. What the heck had happened? Raven. Raven was in the damn car. Shifting my focus to her, I turned my attention to the woman who sat between Nyx and me. She was unconscious and bleeding from her head where she had knocked it against something. "Damnit." Peering around at Leo and Nyx, I realized both were bleeding and disheveled from rolling in the car. Glass littered the roof, and the windows were shattered with jagged pieces of glass poking everywhere while the fresh scent of burnt rubber and billowing smoke surrounded us. Fuck. Bringing my hand up, I felt for the buckle to undo my seatbelt. My main priority was getting Raven out of the car and making sure everyone was alright and breathing. I couldn't lose my family, not like this. With a click of the buckle, I dropped out of my seat and placed my hands on the ceiling to brace my weight. Grunting, I caught myself and tried to figure out a way to orient myself in the most beneficial way. With little room to move around, I eventually ended up on my stomach. Looking through the window, I awkwardly thrust my hand beneath my suit to grab my Glock from its holster. With a glance, I realized there was no one around us. Army crawling out of the broken window, the broken glass tore up my shirt, and I ignored how it scratched against my skin—burning and searing with each long slice. With my gun heavy in my hand, I peered around the SUV to make sure whoever had struck us didn't lurk nearby to finish the failed job. Only one family could have pulled this off, and it was the same one I had been trying to protect my docks and Raven from. Leo climbed out from the wreckage with a groan and curse. "Tony's guys?" Leo hissed as he wiped blood from his cheek. Putting my gun away, I fell back onto my knees and climbed into the SUV to undo Raven's belt to catch her, so she didn't hit her head on the roof. She didn't make a sound as I pulled her from the flipped car. Placing her into my lap, I pressed my index and middle fingers against her throat to feel for a pulse. "Is she dead?" Nyx crawled out and limped over. "No, she's alive." I peered up at him and looked over to answer Leo, "Yeah, Dragon, pretty sure it was Tony's crew." Raven lay in my arms, unconscious, with blood dripping down the side of her face and running into her dark hair in rivers. Her breasts moving up and down in shallow breaths worried me. Tony was going to pay for hurting her. "We need a car. Ripper," Leo called over to Nyx. "Yeah?" Nyx glanced over at Leo with an irritated expression. "Grab us a new car, preferably a bulletproof one." Leo gave Nyx a short nod to make him move. "Got it." Nyx pulled his phone from his pocket and cursed, "Damn, screen's cracked." Dialing a number, he placed it to his ear, walking a few feet away from the crash site. Searching Raven's angelic face, I wondered what would happen if we lost her. Why did I care? I stopped myself from thinking about losing her. It didn't matter. She was just some girl. Except she wasn't just some woman. She was something I had never come across. None of us had met someone like her. Only problem was I had learned a long time ago true love didn't exist. My parents' failed marriage had taught me love was destined to break. It wasn't enough to love someone. Something else had to hold a relationship together, but a happy ending was never in my cards. My life was too dangerous for that crap. Plus, most women were afraid of me. A lack of fear made Raven different. She wasn't scared of me, but she had yet to see the worst side of me. What would she do once she saw how truly dark and twisted I was inside? Once she stumbled into the cellar of my soul, would she run, or would she open her arms and embrace it? "You're getting soft, boss," Leo teased as he went through the SUV. I glared over at him, "I can kill her if I had to." "I'll believe it when I see it." Leo pocketed a knife and gun from the glove compartment before stumbling to the back of the SUV, grabbing the two black duffle bags from the trunk. "What about you, huh?" Staring at Leo, I gestured towards him with my hand. "Never compromised a job for a woman." Leo laughed and hoisted the duffle bags over his head to criss-cross them over his chest. "I didn't compromise anything." I hadn't done a damn thing other than protect her from a bad situation. "Yet." Leo threw finger guns at me. Rolling my eyes, I scowled. "Whatever. I don't have time to argue with you over something so stupid." "Car's here." Shoving his phone into his pocket, Nyx walked toward us with an amused expression. "What I miss?" "Nothing," I shouted before Leo could enlighten him about my weakness. Stumbling to my feet, I slipped my arms around Raven to lift her from the dirt ground. Nyx and Leo followed us to the black luxury car with a spacious private cabin in the back of it, separating the front seats from the back with a soundproof partition. One of my soldiers tossed Leo the keys to the car while Nyx tried to sit in the passenger seat. Looking at him hard, I sent daggers into his soul. He raised his hands and backed up with a limp, making his way around to the back door to climb into the back seat. Holding Raven close, the soldier opened the back door to let us inside. Carefully, I placed her into the backseat beside Nyx before climbing in to sit beside her. The soldier slipped into the passenger seat, and I hit the button to make the partition slide up between the front and back seats to give us privacy. Nyx peered over at her and kept his voice low, "You sure she's going to be alright?" "How should I know? She's stable." Shrugging, I ran my fingers along the front of her soft, dark hair to look over her injury. "You know she's making us look weak." Sighing, Nyx spread his legs and ran his hand through his messy golden hair. "I know, I know." I wasn't going to argue with him. At this point, he was in the same damn boat. "They're gonna know." Nyx touched Raven's cheek and gently turned her face toward him to look her over. "Fuck, that car crash, man." "Yeah," I sighed. "What are you going to do?" Letting her face go, Nyx looked at me for direction. "I don't know yet. I'm thinking about it." I pulled Raven closer to protect her more. What would I do about it, other than get back at them for what they had done? Nyx peered over his shoulder at the tinted back window and didn't move. "A black SUV is following us." "What?" Glancing over my shoulder, I cursed. Nyx leaned forward to push the intercom button to speak to Leo as I kept my eyes on the SUV swerving around cars to get right behind us. "Black SUV, six o'clock," Nyx relayed to Leo through the speaker. The car suddenly swerved, and Nyx braced against Raven with me to make sure she stayed safe, causing her to whine softly. We took a turn hard and then another one, weaving and drifting around a corner with the squeal of our tires. Burning rubber crept in through the vents, and I peered over my shoulder to see the SUV had kept up with us. Crap. Punching the roof, I hit the intercom button, "Speed up!" "Taking side streets," Leo responded, and suddenly we were swerving. Looking out the tinted side window through the black curtains, I noticed graffitied concrete walls suddenly surrounding us. Engine purring, we sped through a concrete maze of buildings. "Still on our ass," Nyx grumbled. "We'll lose them. We always do." Gritting the words through my teeth, I turned my attention back to the partition, lowering it. "Make a few rights." "Got it." Leo shifted and drifted to the right, speeding around a corner to head in another direction. Grasping onto Raven with one arm and the back of Leo's seat with the other, holding on for dear life, he took a few sharp turns. Nyx glanced behind himself before spouting we had lost them. "Goddamn," Leo shouted as adrenaline ran rampant through his veins. "Jesus," Nyx laughed hysterically at the situation. Leo slipped into the underground garage of a tall skyscraper I owned. It was a chameleon, changing colors to match the businesses surrounding it to fade into the background. Taking the ramp down to the bottom floor, Leo parked between two other similar cars, so we blended in. I paid good money for enough security to keep it private and intended to keep it that way. Only the government knew what my business did and only what I wanted them to. Shoving the backdoor open, I pulled Raven into my lap to take her from the car. Slipping an arm around her back and the other beneath her knees to lift her, I stood up. Carrying Raven to the elevator in the parking garage, Nyx, Leo, and my soldier followed me. Leaning against the elevator's back wall, I held her close as Leo punched the number for the top floor with the side of his fist. I had had enough fun for the day, and I wanted to make sure Raven was okay, take a hot shower, and sleep. With a loud chime, we arrived on the top floor. The mechanisms of the door shifted and clicked before the doors slid open with an airy sound. Stepping out into the entryway of our penthouse, I ignored the guys and headed straight for my bedroom. I didn't want to talk. Using my elbow to open my door, I stepped inside after kicking the door open more. Raising my foot to kick the door shut, I locked it before walking over to lay her on my bed. I kept my room tidy and organized; from my drawers to my bed, everything had a place and a purpose. But my main thought was what would Raven look like sprawled across my rich, velvet bedding in nothing but my nylon ropes? The canopy bondage bed had golden bars that rose from the bedframe with various hardpoints to attach restraints to. I had designed the entire room. It was my personal dungeon away from home, one few got to see. With the mattress dipping beneath my weight, I kneeled beside Raven on the bed to check over her wounds. Shrugging off my coat, I tossed it aside before rolling up my sleeves to get to work dealing with her injuries. Looking over her tight black dress, I pulled out my knife from my pocket. Using my thumb to flick out the blade, I grabbed the hem of her dress and slipped the blade's dull edge against her upper thigh. Licking my lips, I watched how my steel blade looked compared to her soft creamy skin. Trying to focus on the task at hand and not on the fact I wanted to watch her arch her back to the feel of my sharp knife ghosting up her body, I prepared to cut her dress from her body. Suddenly her hand grabbed my wrist and yanked me down, wrapping her legs around my waist and flipping me onto my back beneath her on the bed. The skirt of her dress pooled around her hips, showcasing her lacy black panties. Placing my knife against my Adam's apple, I peered into her crazed brown eyes. Blood dripped from her temple where her cut had split open again. With a curious smirk, my gaze caught fire.