Page 35 of Dirty Little Secrets

I blink, dazed, and see Xaiden first. Dressed in black, blood on his knuckles. There are some guys with him, clearing the room. One disarms one of the guards in seconds. The other moves toward me, cutting my restraints with a switchblade.

Xaiden doesn’t hesitate. He walks straight to the man who hit me and shoots him point-blank in the chest. No hesitation. Then he drops to his knees in front of me.

His hands trembling but steady, voice rough. “Nori.”

I collapse into him. He holds me like he’ll never let go.

Then Brent’s voice shoots through moment. “You thought you were going to ghost me? After everything I done for you?”

He tosses a burner phone into my lap. The screen lights up. A video starts playing.

It’s me. In a room inside Obsidian. Blindfolded. Moaning. Xaiden’s voice followed by mine. The sounds of a night I thought was private.

“You recognize that?” Brent grins like he just won the fucking lottery. “You thought you could keep that little secret from me? That no one knew you was Red all along?”

I don’t answer, I’m frozen in Xaiden’s arms.

“I gave you a way out. You fucked it up when you started spreadin’ your legs for this playboy piece of shit. He thinks he can control everything.” I glance at the guys standing behind Xaiden until my eyes find his trying to gage what are we going to do.

Brent says with a smirk. “Your little princesa ain’t who she says she is, ese. She played both of us.”

Xaiden doesn’t speak. My heart drops and it feels like my soul left my body with the betrayed look he gives me.

Brent laughs. “You been fuckin’ the enemy. She’s mine. A toy I wind up to how I see fit. Now you know why she was so damn good at pretendin’.”

Xaiden turns around movign me behind him, his voice is cold. “Move.”

“Or what? You gonna kill me like you did one of ours? Show her what kinda man you really are?”

Relic steps forward. “You run your mouth too much, ese.”

“Fuck you, Relic. You think you're down, but you just follow orders like a lil’ bitch.”

Xaiden’s eyes are locked on mine. His hand cups my jaw, thumb wiping the dried blood from my mouth.

“You should’ve told me, Nori,” he murmurs.

“I—I wanted to. I swear. But I couldn’t. You’d ever see me the same.”

His breathes slow, his gaze never wavering. “I already saw you different. I let you in didn’t I?”

My chest caves. Then Xaiden turns to Brent. He sucks his teeth then says, “Leo. Smoke this fool.”

“Gladly,” Leo mutters, pulling his piece without hesitation.

Brent’s grin falters. “You serious, ese? Over a bitch?”

Xaiden glares. “She’s not a bitch. She’s mine. There’s a difference.”

The shot rings out a second later. Leo wipes his nose and mutters, “Pinche basura.”

Xaiden doesn’t flinch. He turns, lifts me off the ground, steadying my feet and walks out like the world behind us don’t matter.

Because now, nothing does but us.

The silence in Xaiden’s SUV is thick enough to cut. The engine hums beneath us as the skyline bleeds into early dawn. My hands tremble in my lap. He hasn’t said a word since we left the warehouse. He drives like he always does, steady, commanding, not a single ounce of hesitation.

When we arrive at the private airport, we arrive at a safehouse tucked behind a tall gate in the Bronx, guarded and wired up like a fortress. Inside, it smells of leather and cedar and faint cologne.

Xaiden helps me down gently. His fingers linger at my wrist where the cuffs bit into me.

“Sit,” he says, motioning toward the edge of the leather couch. His voice is low, not cold anymore. Just… frayed.

He disappears into another room. I stare at my scraped wrists.

I don’t realize I’m crying until I feel the warmth down my cheeks.

When he returns, he’s got a first-aid kit.

He kneels in front of me again like back in the warehouse.

He takes my hands without asking, working in silence.

The antiseptic stings, but I don’t flinch.

“Are you gonna kill me?” I whisper afraid I dodged one monster to only be devoured by another.

He looks up at that. His jaw tics, like he’s grinding down something ugly in his throat.

“No, Princessa.” He smiles. “You already been through enough.”

My breath hitches.

“I didn’t want it to happen like this,” I say, voice cracking. “I’m so sorry about everything.”

He nods and cups my face again, but this time he kisses me. Not rough. Not demanding. Just real.

“I don’t care who you were,” he whispers against my lips. “You’re mine now. And I’m glad you’re both Red and you. It’s why I couldn’t stop touching you as Red and couldn’t wait to be with you as Nori. I love you, Nori. And I shoot anyone between the eyes if they try to take you from.”

“I was one of the girls.”

“I know baby.”

He does. He must if he’s killed one of them in the past. “I need to get them out.”

“The Kings are on it.”

I close my eyes tears of relief pouring down my cheeks. “The kings. As in, the cartel.?”

He nods slowly. “We protect what’s ours.”

Maybe that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. To be loved.

“I love you, Xaiden.”

He grins. “Good, because it would hard to ask you to marry me if you didn’t.

The End

I hoped you enjoyed Dirty Little Secrets. More of Kings is coming real soon.