Page 56 of Save Me

I folded my arms across my chest. “He and I talked and he apologized.”

“And then you slept together?”

It took a lot of effort not to react. “He spent the night.”

He moved closer, with a predatory look in his eye that made me retreat backward until my back met a wall. He didn’t stop his approach until his body was pressed against mine and his hands were flattened on the wall, caging me. “You look like you’ve been thoroughly fucked, Shi. Your lips are swollen, your cheeks are pink, and your hair is wild, like it got well acquainted with the mattress.”

All I could do was gape at him like a drowning fish for a few heartbeats before recovering. “What if I was?”

His hands fisted on the wall. “I’m jealous.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still mad at you.”

“That’s why I’m jealous,” he snapped.

“You can fix that.”

He pushed off the wall and took a step back. “I would. I’d get on my knees now and beg you to forgive me, but I can’t get over that you ran. You ran instead of talking to us, which was something you were mad at us for not doing.”

“I wasn’t running from you.” My shoulders slumped a little. What I was about to tell him was going to piss him off more than he already was, but I went on to tell him anyway. I told him about the text message and everything that had transpired after.

“Why didn’t you say something?” he snapped. “That was so incredibly stupid, running off on your own like that.”

“First of all, I was mad at all of you, and second, if it had been Mr. X, he would have killed you to get to me. I had to separate myself from you.”

“You should have told us. I don’t care how pissed you were or are.” He shook his head. “I find it hypocritical that you're mad at us for making decisions about you when you turn around and do the same exact thing.”

“You don’t know what he’s capable of,” I seethed. “He’d gut you in front of me and then strangle me with your insides to teach me a lesson. He’s a psychopath who thinks I only belong to him. If he ever found me—”

“He won’t,” Creed assured me.

“If he did, I’d do whatever I could to save you four from what he did to my family. If that meant running, I’d run. If I had to fight him, I’d fight.”

Creed opened his mouth to argue and I covered it with my hand. “If I had to walk back into the home he murdered my family in—the one place I’m terrified of, because I barely escaped with my life—I’d do it. So long as you were all safe.”

Creed shoved my hand away and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me to him. He slammed his lips onto mine. In between kisses he said, “I’m so mad at you I could—” His hand smacked my butt, startling me.

“Creed,” I admonished between kisses.

Both of his hands squeezed my butt before he lifted me. I quickly wrapped my legs around his waist and he walked me to the dining room table. He set me down and cupped my face. “I’m sorry,” he said, pulling away. “I fucked up and I promise not to make decisions that involve you without talking to you first, so long as you promise to do the same.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but this time he covered my mouth. “I’d go in that house with you.”

Tears filled my eyes.

“All of us would. Don’t take that decision from us,” he said.

One tear escaped, then two, both rolling down my cheeks.

He removed his hand from my mouth to wipe them away. “If that fucker ever shows up, we run together or we fight together, but more importantly, we protect each other together. Promise me, Shi.”

“I promise.”

17

Around noon,after my second therapy session with Dr. Bolton, there was a knock on my door. I winced as I got up from the couch. Colt hadn’t joked about me being a little sore. My whole pelvis felt like it had gone to the gym for the first time after being a couch potato its whole life.

I peeked through the peephole and opened the door to Keelan standing on my porch.