Creed
If anyone so much as looks at me funny, I’m going to kill everyone in this room. A combination of rage and something darker filled me up, and I was ready to burst. Lucky for the Carrion, they all just stared at me, waiting for something to happen. No one moved, no one seemed to even breathe. They just watched me with wary, worried eyes.
“Did you hear me? I demand you return my woman to me!” I shouted, my voice echoing off of the rafters. It was so silent inside of this place that everyone could hear me. So if everyone could hear, why wasn’t Ivy answering?
Carlos stepped forward, materializing out of the crowd like a specter, his hand wrapped firmly around Ivy’s elbow. “Here is your woman, Creed. You may take her back to the Edge.”
“So easily?” I asked, skeptical.
“So easily,” he answered smoothly, pushing Ivy toward me. She looked a little worse for wear, but she seemed to be healthy enough. Her hands and wrists were still wrapped in bandages, but she was otherwise uninjured. My eyes roved her body like starving man would devour a feast. Every time I saw her, it was like a blow. It was like I forgot how beautiful and perfect she was between every viewing.
But it would never happen again because I never intended to let her out of my sight again. I didn’t care if she was weak or useless. I wanted her, and I would take her. She was mine.
Ivy watched me uncertainly, fidgeting with her bandaged fingers as she stepped forward. “What do you want, Creed?”
“I want you to come home with me.”
She looked shocked, then uncertain. The Carrion whispered behind her, but all of them were still and quiet. No one attacked, no one even breathed too loudly.
“We wanted to talk for a moment before you take Ivy back to the Edge,” Carlos said, carefully, stepping between Ivy and me. I almost lunged for him; I wanted to choke the life from him for touching her so casually. How dare he? Didn’t he just hear me say that Ivy was my woman?
My hands flexed, wishing they were around his snotty little throat. “I’m not talking to you. Let her go.”
Ivy cleared her throat, her eyes lighting up as she shook Carlos’ hand from her elbow. “Creed, I think you should listen to them. I--” Ivy took a step forward.
But I was having none of it. “No; we’re going back to the Edge. Now.”
“But Creed--”
Stepping forward, I grabbed onto Ivy’s hands, pulling her into my arms. Despite her protests, I lifted her off of the ground, throwing her unceremoniously over my shoulder. She squealed in terror and humiliation, but I ignored her. No, I was done with being argued with for the day. We were going home. We’d sort out all of this cartel talks later.
I had something far more important on my mind.
The Carrion Club let us walk out, their eyes all locked on me. Not a single shot was fired, nor were there any new injuries, except perhaps to Ivy’s pride. The whole ground remained silent as I picked up my quarry and walked out the front door like I owned the place.
I didn’t let her down until we’d reached the car. I threw her off of my shoulder into the passenger’s seat despite her protests that she could do it herself. I wasn’t letting her get away again. No matter how much she protested.
Getting into the car, I put it in reverse, the tires spinning wildly in the gravel. I spun out, leaving the Carrion’s headquarters in the dust.
We drove in silence for awhile, Ivy staring out of the window. I didn’t quite know what to say to her yet. Ivy, I made a mistake. Ivy, I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. Ivy, I--
None of it sounded right. None of it sounded like enough. But I had to try.
So I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
“Where are we going?” Ivy said finally, her voice barely a whisper. If we hadn’t been sitting so close to one another, I doubt I would have heard her. She kept her eyes locked on the window, but my eyes kept roaming back to her body. I couldn’t believe how beautiful she was. I wanted to fuck her right here in this car. I’d give almost anything just to get her to look at me.
“The Devil’s Edge. My apartment is no longer a safe place to be.”
After a long second or two of silence, which felt like hours or days, Ivy answered, “What if I don’t want to go back to the Edge?”
“Well, do you have anywhere else to sleep tonight?” I snapped, hoping she would say no.
She shook her head, those curls bouncing around her thin, sloping shoulders. “No. I suppose I don’t. I guess I shouldn’t go back to my place either, now that everyone seems to associate me with you.”
That hurt enough that I winced. Damn, woman. Ivy seems to have gotten vicious overnight.
So I hold my tongue, driving her back to the clubhouse. It’s still a wreck, but there are rooms to be had inside. It was the only place Josh and I could stay. It was the only place any of us could safely stay. So I walked Ivy up the back stairs to the room I’d decided to take for the evening, pushing her inside.
She blinked as she looked around. “Where are we?”
“The apartments in the back of the Edge. This one is mine, for now.”
“And Josh?”
“He’s helping Pearl out downstairs and hanging out with Bax.”
Ivy nodded, running her eyes over the sparsely furnished room. There was a bed, a little kitchenette, then a second bedroom and a bathroom off of the tiny sitting room. You could see the whole place from the front door; it was all open with little furniture to block the line of sight. “With a place like this available, it’s a wonder you lived in the shitty motel at all,” Ivy mused, walking over to the window. It was so dark outside that there was nothing to see, but that didn’t stop her from gazing into the dimly lit parking lot.
“I wanted to keep Josh away from the Edge as much as possible. That hasn’t worked out very well, but I tried.”
Ivy whipped back towards me, her eyes burning with an emotion I couldn’t name. “Why did you leave me there?”
“Why were you so friendly with fucking Carlos Adams?” I yelled back, my temper flaring.
Ivy advanced on me, lava in her gaze. “What the hell business is it of yours anyway, Creed? You left me there to be tortured or killed. I can be friendly with whomever I want.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowed and dark.
“Did you have sex with him? I asked, unable to keep the rage from my voice as I asked. “Did you fuck him?”
Throwing her hands up in the air, Ivy turned away from me again, her shoulders tense. She stared out of the window again, refusing to even look at me. “I still don’t see how that is your business. I told you, what I do is no longer your concern. You. Left. Me. To. Die,” she finished, biting off the end of every word. “Carlos was going to let me go, let me find some other town to live in that didn’t remind me of my failures every time I turned around, but then you showed up.” Narrowing her eyes, Ivy turned around again to stare at me. “Why did you come back for me?”
I swallowed hard around a lump in my throat. “Because you are my woman.”
“What?”
“I claimed you as mine. You are now a part of the Edge, whether you want to be or not. I was forbidden to come save you unless I made you part of the pack first, which I was reluctant to do.”
“Why?” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of my own thundering heartbeat.
I stepped forward, running my fingers over her arms. She shivered under my touch, and I could feel my body harden in response. “Because I want you to be here. With me. With us. Josh wants you here. And now that we’ve claimed you, you will have a place. A family. People who can help you get your old life back from the woman who stole it.”
Ivy stared up at me, her chocolate eyes black in low lighting. There was a glittering of something unnamable deep in those eyes, and I was entranced. I wanted her so badly I ached with it. “You wanted me to be part of your--” Ivy stepped away from me, taking a deep breath. She sat down on the only chair in the room, her eyes glazed over. “Why would you want me? A woman you called stupid and weak? I am stupid and weak, you were right. And I don’t know if I can be whatever it is you want me to be.”
I shook my head. “You already have demonstrated your strength, Ivy. You tried to establish peace talks between two of the scariest men in the whole city. I wouldn’t call that cowardly.”
She looked up at me through the spiral of her curly hair, her eyes deep and thoughtful. “Me,” she whispered, her voice so low she might have been talking to herself. “You wanted me.” Incredulity dawned in her voice, filling up her eyes.
“Yes. It’s why I claimed you and came back for you, despite Kelly’s orders.”
Ivy’s face darkened again. “That man is dangerous, Creed. He could--”
But I touched my finger to her lips to quiet her. “He won’t. He knows I’m the only thing between his crown and a full on mutiny. He wouldn’t dare.”
“But he’s crazy,” Ivy said, her eyebrows furrowing. “He’d do it if he thought it would move his plan forward.
“He’s crazy, not stupid, Ivy.”
Her tongue snaked out from between her lips to wet them, her eyes darting around the room again. She took in the dark rooms with their thick, brown carpets and the dark exposed wood of the walls. Her eyes ran over the two pieces of furniture in this room, then over the little bed for Josh in the far room. Walking over to the kitchenette, she studied every room of my tiny little temporary home. “So, am I supposed to stay here with you two?”
“For now,” I said gruffly, hoping she wouldn’t say no. I was pretty sure my balls would be blue forever if she refused.
“I’m just wondering how I’ll ever get any sleep,” Ivy whispered, stepping into the circle of my arms to press her lips to mine.
And suddenly, I was ravenous. I couldn’t keep my hands to myself any longer. It was like the taste of her mouth tore all of my inhibitions and hesitation away. It was like a cage being lifted off of an animal that lived inside of me. An animal I hadn’t known existed until Ivy walked into my life.