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Jinx didn’t hear me. She was on her feet raving.

Me and Arlen shared a look.

We both knew there was no getting out of here, not without heavy planning. And where the hell would we even go? Three women out on their own in the Badlands with no goods to sell except their bodies and zero funds, it was pitifully comical.

I’d just survived two weeks and that was begrudgingly with Tito’s help. I didn’t want to struggle for survival day in and day out. And then there was the whole pregnancy detail I hadn’t breathed a word about. I’d be far safer in the lion’s den.

“We have to leave,” Jinx finished with a huff. I wondered if she knew she’d just said that fifteen times in ten minutes.

“Leavin here would be a fuckin suicide mission,” Arlen retorted. “I saw the shit just about to hit the fan as Grimm was bringin me here. It’s safer for us under the Savages’ protection. And you know she can’t go for obvious reasons, so I don’t really understand you suggestin she do.”

I agreed, but I wasn’t going to try and reason with her; that would be pointless, so I kept it simple. “I can’t. Even more so, I don’t want to.”

“Callista. Yes, you can.” She ignored the last part of my sentence completely.

“She isn’t going anywhere.”

Shit.

“Shit,” Arlen echoed my thought aloud.

Romero strolled into the room followed by Grimm, Cobra, and a guy I’d never seen before.

He was a little shorter than Rome, well built, had a head full of brown hair and the brightest pair of green eyes I’d ever seen.

Grimm’s dark orbs fixed on my face and his mouth tilted up on one side, offering me the closest thing to a smile I’d get. I quickly returned it just as Jinx did the stupidest thing she could’ve done.

She whirled around, glaring at Romero, and stepped over the line I considered personal space. “You can’t keep her here like some hostage. What do you even want her for? Who do you think––”

The rest of her sentence was cut off with a loud and painful yelp. Romero lifted her up by the throat and slammed her back into the wall.

“I don’t know who the fuck you think I am, but if you ever talk to me like that again, it’ll be the last thing you do. Consider this your only warning, courtesy of Cali.”

Jinx made a keening sound and scratched at his hands. I slowly rose from the bed, earning a slight headshake from Grimm, warning me not to intervene.

“Cali’s a queen. You’re nothing but a hole for Tito to dump his come in. Judgmental bitches like you don’t deserve to breathe the same air as her. Just know from this point on that she’ll always be well fed, she’ll always be safe, and she’ll always be thoroughly well fucked for the rest of her life.” He tossed her across the room like she weighed nothing; she nearly landed in the hall with a small sob.

“Lock her up,” he ordered.

“I got it,” the brown haired man volunteered, striding right back out of the room.

“Brat,” Grimm called to Arlen.

She went to him without rebuttal, squeezing my hand on her way past.

As soon as they were gone and the door shut with Cobra following behind them, Romero turned to me. “You don’t love me?” His voice was as tense as his muscles. The question sounded like a threat, and I wasn’t expecting him to ask it.

It was the first time I could say I’d ever been tongue tied. I wish I could rewind time and take it back.

I couldn’t just split open my chest and spill my guts. Not when it came to discussing that. Nothing had ever scared me more than what I felt for him. I wanted to give him everything but I knew if he abused it or didn’t feel the same, it wouldn’t just crush me; it would severe my lifeline.

But, I wasn’t going to avoid the herd of elephants in the room any longer. I once wished I could be with him without having to pretend otherwise, and now I could. It was freeing, liberating, to think of mysel

f and what I wanted without worrying about betraying someone.

“You don’t trust me. I don’t trust you, not fully. I know you’ll keep me safe, fed, and thoroughly well fucked,” I teased to lighten the mood, “But I don’t know if you have some hidden agenda to screw me over.”

He studied me like the idea of what I was saying was preposterous.