A silence falls over the table, and I think back to last night. I remember all of it. Ethan showing up and spilling April’s drink on her. The fight in the bathroom. Cross being covered in blood … the restroom fuck. Him carrying me upstairs. Our conversation. It was the first time I felt loved. Really loved. And I want to return that favor to him. Because I feel like he’s never experienced it.
_______________
AFTER THE GIRLS and I finish breakfast, I make my way down to Tit for Tat.
“Good morning, Alexa.” Rachel’s replacement smiles at me.
“Hello, Evelyn.” I really like her. She’s super nice and hasn’t tried to fuck Cross, so that’s a bonus. “Is he in?” I ask, pointing at the hallway.
“He just stepped out for a second. But you can go on back there.” She picks up the phone on her desk that starts ringing.
I make my way down the hall and back to his room. Stepping in, I close it behind me. I know he doesn’t have an appointment until later today because I heard him talking to Bones on his phone yesterday while on our way to the Airport last night.
Spotting his Zippo on the counter, I pick it up and run my finger over the engraved words. And they make me feel even better about my decision. To prove to him what it’s like to be loved.
“Hey, gorgeous.” I hear him enter behind me.
I turn to face him. “Hi.”
He’s dressed in a black Kingdom shirt that pulls tight against his chest, shoulders and tatted arms. Light wash jeans and black sneakers. You would never know he killed someone last night. The blood gone, probably washed down a drain. He shows no sign of remorse. And I didn’t expect him to. That’s not who my King is.
“Busy?” I ask, biting my lower lip.
“Never too busy for you.” He comes up to me, wraps his arms around my waist, and leans down, kissing me on the lips.
I open up for him, and he deepens the kiss. His large hand runs up my back to tangle in my hair. I moan into his mouth when he pulls on it.
He starts to walk me backward, and I pull away. “I didn’t come for sex,” I say quickly before I’m lying naked in his tattoo chair.
He sighs, reaching up and running his hand through his hair. “If this is about last night ...”
“It is,” I tell him, but not in the way he thinks. Turning around, I pick up his Zippo.
“Alexa …”
I face him once again, holding it up, and he trails off, staring at it in my hand. I flip it open and light it up. I watch the flame dance gently in my hand from my soft breath. It’s beautiful. How something so deadly can also be harmless. That’s Cross. He is what he needs to be when he needs to be it. To a man stuck out in the cold, fire is what will keep him alive. To a man trapped in a car, fire is his enemy.
I was that cold, lifeless body freezing to death, and Cross came along and lit my world on fire.
Closing the Zippo, I look down at it, and my thumb rubs over the engravement once again. We all have a cross to bear.
“We don’t have to bear our crosses alone,” I say, looking up at him through my lashes. “You know that, right?”
He looks away from me, and I watch his Adam’s apple move as he swallows.
I set the Zippo back on the counter and walk over to him. Cupping his face, I force him to look down at me. “I love you. And whatever cross you bear, I will help you carry it.”
CROSS
I LIE IN my bed of the Royal Suite, the TV on but the sound off. Alexa sleeps curled up next to me. Her arm draped over my bare chest.
I rub my hand up her arm to her hand and turn it over, looking at the tattoo I gave her earlier today when she came to visit me.
She showed up at Tit for Tat. I thought she was going to walk away from me. After what happened last night, I wouldn’t blame her. I showed her who I really was at the Airport. She said she could take it, but I wasn’t sure how she would feel once she woke up this morning.
The tattoo she wanted proved she was right.
A cross on the inside of her left wrist. It’s burning bright like a fire. “A reminder you’re not alone.” She had told me. It’s a much smaller version of the one on my back. I got mine when I hated the world and wanted to cover up my past. She wanted hers to prove love is real and we have a future. A brand to show the world we bear the same cross.
I’ve only ever had the Kings. And although I love them like brothers, Alexa is my world. The piece I didn’t know I needed.
She’s not my redemption. No, she’s my reminder that you don’t need to be saved in order to be loved.
I kiss her wrist and set it back down on my chest, closing my eyes, knowing that when I wake up, she’ll still be here.
EPILOGUE
CROSS
“YOU SURE?” I ask, leaning back in my chair in the conference room.
Jeffrey nods. “Positive.” He tosses some papers across the table. They slide to a stop in front of me.
Sitting the front legs down, I pick the report up.
“What are you doing with this information?” Bones is the one who asks.
Jeffrey throws his hands up. “You’re the only ones who know what I’ve found. I know you Kings prefer to handle your own shit.”
“We do.” Titan nods.
“Then …” He pushes his chair back and stands. “I’ll leave you to it and wait for your phone call.” With that, he picks up his cell and the bag full of money off the table and turns, exiting the room.
I slap the papers down on the table and place my tatted forearms on the surface. “He went to the police. Gave a statement.”
“Of course, he did. Mitch is a pussy.” Titan scoffs.
Shuffling through the papers, I pick up the tattoo stencil. I’ve been collecting these since I was young. When I got my first tattoo. The skull with a tilted crown and crossbones—all the Kings have one.
“So, he wanted to kill her and frame you for it?” Grave growls.
“Looks like it.” I run a hand down my face, feeling my stubble. “And I’m guessing he wanted Rachel to take the fall.” Two birds, one stone. Kill Alexa, put me in jail for loving her, and frame Rachel for having a past with me.
“Rachel is just as guilty as him,” Bones states. “Doesn’t matter what the motives were, she still acted.”
I can’t disagree with that. She is the only one who could have gotten into my safe at Tit for Tat and grabbed the stencils. I had them in a case. One was found outside of Lucky’s in the parking lot during Jeffrey’s inspection. I know it wasn’t Alexa. So, Rachel is the only option.
“But the fire was started with accelerant inside of the bar. Wouldn’t they have known she wasn’t there?” Titan adds.
“I don’t know.” I rub my temples, feeling that headache coming on again.
“Maybe once they got there, they realized there was no turning back. They burn down her bar. It gets blamed on Cross, and then she never speaks to him. Actually, that works out better for him because she’s still alive, and he can slide in.” Bones guesses.
“It doesn’t matter,” I mutter, lifting my head. “The why, the how. All that matters is they did it.”
“What do you want to do?” Titan asks me.
I glance over at Derek who sits there silently next to Grave. He looks as pissed as I feel but hasn’t said one word. I told him to be here this morning to witness our meeting with Jeffrey. He’s going to see how we handle shit and get a chance to redeem himself with the Kings. He will be my brother-in-law one day, and I’d hate to have to kill him. “What we always do,” I answer.