Escaping Death

Chapter 29

Dean

Not that I really ever doubted her, but I'm starting to believe that Solana was right when she told her dads that she didn't need protecting. How many times in the last couple of weeks has she given us the slip? How many times has she not only finished our job but walked away from it without breaking a sweat?

Solana doesn't give away much. Our conversation earlier at the bar is only further evidence that she's isolated herself from the world both physically and emotionally. It's been literally her against the world for so long that she's in a perpetual state of fight or flight.

But she has walls built around her walls, and clearly Ace's method of brute force is no match against her fortress. Every meal she allows me to make her and every time she relaxes into my bed I get a little bit further through her maze of walls.

I'm usually very good at holding back, very good at waiting. I dare say I enjoy the journey as much as the destination. But with her I'm growing more impatient than ever. Maybe it's knowing that this job of protecting her has an expiration date, maybe it's because every step forward is two backwards.

Whatever the cause may be, my self control evaporates when I see the way Solana handled Mitch. He was already dead when Tate pulled him off of her but I put a bullet through his skull just for good measure.

Gods, she's a sight. She's wearing nothing but strappy lingerie in sky high heels, her pale skin splattered with the blood of a monster she killed single handedly. She's the sexiest thing I've ever seen and my stiffening cock straining against my pants agrees.

"Are you okay?" I hold her face in my hands, scanning her body for injuries I know aren't there.

"I'm perfectly fine," she beams at me and begins fussing with the now ruined dress she had been wearing. "You two really need to step up your game."

She pecks me on the cheek before patting my face patronizingly and walking towards the door like she's going to strut back through the club in nothing but a bra and blood.

My hand reaches out for her, grabbing onto her wrist and pulling her back against me.

Don't kiss her, don't kiss her, don't —

My mouth rushes to connect with hers, fusing our lips together. So much for my self restraint.

Tate told me about her panic attack at Lobo, how she clung to him afterwards. I overheard Hunter telling a similar tale to Ace after he brought her to close with Reef. Solana might know how to block me out of her mind but it's obvious she's buried a violent past and has been running from it on her own ever since. Again — a perpetual state of fight or flight.

The more I've come to understand this the more I yearn to be the one that can make her feel safe long enough to peek over her walls and see her true brilliance.

Our kiss is not desperate or heated, it's not full of lust and impatience. It's slow and tender. I massage the back of her neck as my tongue sweeps against hers. She moans into my mouth and when I pull back I can see why. Tate is standing behind her, tonguing her neck. Now this is my idea of taking care of her.

"Shouldn't you be with Ace right now?" Tate whispers darkly in her ear. "I'm salivating at the thought of watching Ace punish you this time."

Solana scoffs, "after all this, you guys still don't think I'm capable of handling myself? That I don't need a babysitter?"

"We've always known you were capable, Solana. Has it ever occurred to you that some of us want to take care of you? That we want you to feel safe with us?" I lay my cards on the table.