I shoved through the back doors of the Pit, livid.
Lex hadn’t waited for me and she had left already. I cursed under my breath, kicking at an empty soda bottle.
I didn’t waste time and jogged to the street and my heart stopped. A tiny figure walked alone in the middle of the street.
Picking up my pace, I marched after her. The clicking of my shoes overpowered hers and she paused, glancing over her shoulder. Her eyes widened at the sight of me. All I could hear was the blood rushing in my eardrums, the rage biting at my senses urging me to go and find any of those cowards who had just attacked us. But I told myself to forget it. Lex needed to get out of here. Far away from this hellhole.
“I’m fine,” she said as I came to her, but I didn’t give her a chance. I gripped her wrist and started walking, pulling her along.
For once, Lex was silent. Maybe the events weighed heavier on her chest than I would have guessed.
I wanted to snap. I wanted to turn around and curse her out for not waiting for me, but I kept walking, marching into the dark streets of the Queens.
The cool autumn air barreled down my throat, but the chill of it was not enough to calm my anger. A few men leaned against a brick wall, watching us pass by, the cigarette smoke making me crave a hit of belladonna. To take the edge off.
My beast twisted inside me, stuck on the image of that man touching Lex.
“You should have stayed where I left you, Alexandra,” I hissed when I had a better hold on myself. On my control and fury. “You shouldn’t be at the Pit at all.”
“Why?” she snapped back, trying to jerk her hand away from me, but I didn’t let her go. I kept pulling her along in the night. “Because of the fights? The violence? Because there are drugs? Because there are sleazy men that would gladly touch me without my consent?”
“For fuck’s sake, you’re eighteen, Lex,” I said, pressing my thumb harder on her wrist bone. That was a mistake though. Because I could feel just how wild her pulse was. Just how wild she was.
She huffed, jerking her hand and this time I let it go. “Why do you keep saying that? I’m legal. I’m an adult. I’ve been through things that people twice my age haven’t dealt with, Beau. I’ve tasted filthy souls, I’m not the pure girl you need to protect from the ugliness of our world. I know that ugliness as much as the next fucking low life. I was born in it.”
I clenched my jaw and slowly turned to face her.
The confidence in her baby blues faltered at the sight of my expression and I watched in appreciation as she scanned my torso. I both liked and hated the way she looked at me. In hunger, her need so visible on her delicate features it would make the noblest beasts want to dominate her.
“I’ve tasted you,” I said, lowly, voice deep in my throat, thick and challenging as I scanned her flushed features. “I’ll be the judge of how pure you are.”
She was wise beyond her years by living through so much horror and filth, I could give her that, but her body—her body hadn’t been ruined. Her soul hadn’t been touched yet, hadn’t been destroyed. And that was what the beast in me yearned for.
Her lips shook at my words and I knew she wanted to snap back at me. Her dark locks curled just underneath her dainty, pointed chin, a few strands curling up to her bottom lip. So dark and harsh to her porcelain skin and eyes so violent and vivid she probably had drowned a thousand men with them.
“I’m taking you home,” I told her, ignoring the stir of arousal deep in my abdomen, fisting my hands on either side of me.
Instead of anger, her eyes widened in fear. “No!”
I frowned at her, face half-turned. “You don’t get a choice in the matter. Now move.”
Her eyes shook, and she looked behind her back, toward the darkness of the street. A street lamp was blinking in and out above us. Alexandra Harvey was in my blood, inked into every fiber of my being, into the shell of my bones, and the longer I watched her, cloaked in the warm darkness so deceiving one could easily drown, the more I wanted to feed her my poison.
I stepped closer, invading her space, towering over her and she shivered, her nipples two hard stones through her t-shirt. “Should I tell my brother? Tell him about your late-night activities when he returns?”
She tilted her head back to glare up at me, but it only made my length harden in my slacks. “Fine.” She pushed by me, her shoulder brushing across my chest.
I clenched my jaw and followed after her. Like a shadow, tracking her every move into the night.
I studied her profile, watching her features melt between anger and frustration and then sadness. I focused on the area we were in as we continued walking. It seemed to be nothing but old factories that had been abandoned and now sat in ruin.
Our feet crunched leaves and stones and then Lex stopped.
We stood in front of a red brick apartment building, at least five levels high, with broken windows and crumbling stone. A car alarm blazed close by.
I curled my hands into fists at my side.
“Why the fuck are we stopping here?”
“You walked me home, you can go now,” she snapped, walking toward the building.
I gripped her forearm, stopping her from going any farther and forced her to face me.
“This is where you fucking live?”
Her eyes wouldn’t meet mine though and the answer dawned on me.
She wasn’t giving me attitude because she was angry.
She was embarrassed.
That calmed me instantly, bringing my rage to a low simmer instead of the explosion it had threatened to become mere moments before.
“Show me,” I said, my voice commanding, but gentle.
She hesitated, but turned, guiding us through the rubble and in through a bottom window. I watched as she moved carefully without touching the broken glass on the edge of the windowsill and disappeared into the building. I followed after, having to bend low due to the fallen floor from above.
She walked into the next room and I stopped in the doorway. Unlit candles littered the rotting hardwood floor, a blanket laid out in the center. The constant sound of water dripping echoed in my ears as I moved farther in.
I bent low, nudging an old backpack with my booted toes.
Lex stood by a corner, an arm wrapped around her waist, head bowed.
A thousand words stormed my mind. I bit my tongue, trying my best to ignore the anger inside of me. She was living here. By herself. In an abandoned apartment building that should have been demolished.
An eighteen-year-old girl.
Unprotected.
Unsafe.
If someone had found her…if someone took advantage of her…
I dug my nails deep into my palms, feeling the rush of blood seep out.
“If Tensley knew…” I whispered, my teeth grinding together.
“I can take care of myself,” she snapped back, her head still bowed. “It’s as good of a place to live as any other. All that matters is that I have a roof over my head. I don’t need much to survive.”
I tsked, shaking my head. I kicked at her candles, watching them roll across the unbalanced floors. With each step, the rotten wood squeaked in horror, so close to breaking under my weight. This place was a danger hazard.
“This is not like any other place, Alexandra. The fucking ceiling could collapse at any moment,” I told her, my anger filling the room and I knew she tasted it by the way she shifted, her breathing picking up. I wanted to rein it in, but seeing this, seeing where she lived, angered me. If she hadn’t been here, I would have destroyed the place. “Fuck.”
“I’ve been looking after myself for years now, Beau,” she said. “I’m fine here. I can handle myself.”
When I looked back at her, her eyes fell again to the floor. There were too many risks, too many dangers here. Of other demons, of criminals using this place to hide out, of even the building collapsing on her. I raked my fingers through my thick, tangled hair and swore under my breath again. What I should do was call someone. For someone else to look after her. She wasn’t my responsibility.
She folded her arms underneath her chest, one of her legs shaking. She probably didn’t even realize that it was. I traced her tiny frame, her skirt hiked up, exposing her firm thighs.
I glanced back at the room and slowly, my stomach dropped. That backpack. That dirty, blue backpack seemed to be what contained her whole life. I frowned.
“That’s everything?” I asked, nodding to the backpack.
Lex still didn’t look at me and I watched her closely as she licked her top lip. “Yes.”
I sucked at my teeth, again surveying the room, but my eyes always came back to her. I didn’t need to see her face. I could feel her pain—thick and heavy on my chest. A girl so young shouldn’t have to carry so much sorrow. I saw myself in her. Alone in the dark world with no one to help me, and that made my brows fall into a deep scowl.
Lex was a girl who had to grow up too fast. No one held her hand in the darkness, through her pain and loss. No one had wiped away her tears, no one had held her tight when she’d needed it.
She had grown up entirely by herself.
I sighed, bending down and picked up the tiny backpack, swinging it over my shoulder.
When I looked up, Lex’s baby blues were on me, wide and wet. Her mouth fell open.
“You’re staying with me tonight,” I told her, my voice leaving no room for argument. “We’ll find you somewhere else to live.”