Discovering Me (Breakneck #4) (17 page)

“You’re breakin’ me here, darlin’. This was supposed to be a good talk, and I fucked it up, like I always fuck shit up,” he growls and goes to stand. I stop him by reaching for his hand and shaking my head no, and lift my free hand up to gesture him to keep going.

A good talk? I am in desperate need to hear one of those from him.

“It got me thinkin’, ya know? That there is a reason me and you are so fuckin’ close. That our chemistry is there. It isn’t forced. It’s just there. We don’t need to create it, because we already fuckin’ have it.” He smirks at me.

Damn that beautiful, crooked smile he has melts me every time.

Okay. So maybe I do need a piece of paper. I grab it and scribble my question down and pass it over to him. He removes his hand from mine, picks up the pad and reads aloud.

“So, what are you saying?” He reads my note and chuckles, sets the pad back in front of me and gives me all of his attention. “I’m sayin’, I want to give me and you a shot.” He pauses and then continues. “Why the hell not? We get along, I love you, you love me, and our sex is unfuckingbelievable.”

My ears can’t be teasing me right now. This is what I wanted. This is what I fought for when breaking out of that basement. A chance with my best friend. A chance to be truly happy.

I scurry and write down something else. I have to know the answer to this.

“Is this so you can keep a better eye on me?” he reads and caveman grunts. “Piper, seriously? Baby, I know after this, your gun isn’t leavin’ the holster on your body. This has nothin’ to do with wantin’ to keep a better eye on you. Grant you, tomorrow, when Storm comes to sit with you, I’ll be a nervous wreck leavin’ you, but I know you can handle yourself. You’re fuckin’ Piper,” he taunts. “My badass best friend that weathers anythin’ thrown at her.”

If he only knew how close I was to giving up, he wouldn’t be saying these nice things to me. He would be so disappointed, but I don’t dare say a word. He would be beyond hurt.

“This, between me,” his hands ghost between us, “and you, has everythin’ to do with me wantin’ you to be mine.”

Come again? He is not suggesting what I think he is. He wants to date? He wants to be boyfriend and girlfriend? What the hell is he saying? I don’t speak guy language.

“I see the confusion on your face, beautiful. I want to be with you, and more than just friends. We’re both looking for love while we live so carelessly, so why not look for that love together? With one another?”

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. The tears begin to roll down my face. I fought like hell to survive for him, and maybe deep down, this is what I really wanted. To be with him. To be his and him be mine. Maybe I am dreaming, and I am still in that god awful basement. Sniper wanting to be with me is too good to be true. It is like the heavens are finally pouring the light that I crave down on me.

“I know you can’t say anythin’ because it’ll mess up your jaw more, but I expect some sort of response here, babe.”

I snatch up the pad and scribble my words as fast as I can. It takes me forever, but my best friend is patient with me and understands. Another reason I love him. When I hand the paper over, he again reads out loud.

“When I was down in that basement and going through my past all over again,” he chokes out, “I wanted to give up.” He reads my honest words. “I wanted to give up so bad, but during those last few hours, I thought about our photo booth fun at the mall. You know the day,” he strangles out while he lays the pad down, reaches into his back pocket for his wallet, and hands me our photos before going back to finish reading my true words.

“Your face was all that replayed in my mind. Your gray eyes, your crooked smile, your boisterous laugh, the way you are with me, and the night we were together that you begged me forget. It was there, stuck in my mind, and it made me fight, fight like hell, because I deserve someone like you. Someone who cares about me. Someone who would die for me,” he whispers those last few words, “I know deep down that you, Perseus… that person is you.”

Sniper takes a deep breath to regain control of himself and continues. “I believe there is a reason you and I click so well together. Everything about us is in sync, in fine tune together. You know that song you hate that I play over and over again.” He chuckles and nods his head as he reads more. “I am your lighter to your cigarette. You wouldn’t burn without me and vice versa for me.”

He sets the pad down, goes to his liquor cabinet to pour a shot, and returns to his seat after he downs it.

“I have been through a place far worse than hell in my life. I deserve happy, and I want that happy to be with you. So what I am saying is that if you are serious, and you want to see where we can end up, I’m here. I will always be right here with you, forever and always,” he says quietly as he reads my last words.

He scoots his chair closer to mine, lays down the paper, and gently takes my swollen face into his hands to peer directly into my eyes. “I’m right here, are you?” he says with the most caring tone I have ever heard from him. And when I nod my head, he brings his mouth down to mine, and gives me the most sensual, soft, slow kiss I have ever had in all my life.

When he lifts his lips away from mine, my toes still curl and the butterflies in my stomach still flail about as he leans his forehead with care against mine. “We were looking for love in the wrong places. Wanna bet it was right here all along?” His voice cracks and he gives a nervous laugh. I’ve never seen my best friend so emotional.

I reach a shaky hand up to his face and caress his cheek to force him to look into my eyes again. It may be selfish, but I know this special moment between us is just that, between us. I won’t get this Sniper when others are around, and I will cherish every bit of him when I do get these small glimpses.

“You called me Perseus.” He laughs under his breath. “You, and only you, could ever get away with that. I fuckin’ hate that name.”

I secretly love it. It is a very strong name. The only reason I even know it is because we trade one secret for another, and that is a secret he gave me in return. This is the first time I have used it.

“So we’re gonna do this, Pipe? Huh, darlin’?”

I nod my head and he brings his lips down to mine once more. When our mouths touch, we both sigh. It is as though our hearts are meshed together as one, and we have finally found what we have been looking for all along.

Each other.

***

Chapter Twenty Four

Sniper

My brother calls me to tell me that him, ZZ, and Storm are on their way and that I will get the start to extract my revenge. Can’t say I am not beyond fucking thrilled, but I don’t want to leave Piper just yet. I know she can take care of herself and she doesn’t need me, but I want to spend every moment I can with her. I want to explore what we have and I can’t do that when I need to fucking kill motherfuckers for hurting my best friend. This is a perfect example of a rock and a hard place. But if I don’t take this opportunity for revenge, my brothers will, and it is not their fucking job. Protecting Piper is my job, no one else’s. She is my girl, not theirs.

“Storm is on her way. She’s gonna stay with you while I go shoot some lead,” I say to her as I sit next to her on my sofa. She is watching reruns of some girly show. I gaze at her, and even with her bruises, wrapped up face, and slow movements, she is still the most beautiful woman in this fucking world and I am goddamn lucky we are going to try this out. She reaches for her notepad, scribbles quickly, and hands it over to me.

Piper can talk, but we both don’t want her to risk her jaw to the point where she might need to have surgery. The Doc says she only has a week or two left until the swelling should be down enough to where she can talk a little each day. Not a lot, but enough to where I can hear her sweet voice and giggle.

God, I can’t wait for that fucking day.

I take the notepad from her and read it out loud. She likes when I do that. She says my voice sends shivers down her spine. And being the man that I am, I love making a woman happy, especially when that woman is mine.

“Shoot some lead, my ass. You’re gonna go kill some people,” I read and laugh so loud, it echoes around my living room. “Shoot some lead
is
killin’ people, darlin’. You know that.”

She does her best to smile at me and takes the notepad from me to write something else. I tap my fingers on my knee while I wait. I have learned to be patient because for her, it counts. It matters. Waiting for her means everything.

“Kiss a bullet for me?” I read. God, I fucking love this chick. “Of course I will, darlin’. Do you even need to ask?”

I taught her that phrase. Kissing a bullet means marking it with a name to exact revenge for the one that was harmed.

I read the rest of her note. “My gun, where is it?”

That right there breaks my heart, because no matter my love for guns, or my obsession with them, it sucks she feels she needs it all the time. And my woman should not feel that way at all, at any fucking moment. “The shotgun is loaded next to the door, and the handgun I gave you is in the drawer in the bedroom beside our bed.”

The smile that spreads should look ridiculous, what with the white gaze wrapped around her head, but it doesn’t. She has doe eyes and love shines through them while her mouth sings to me.

“What?” I ask.

She hasn’t smiled this big since before she was kidnapped.

She jerks the paper away playful like, writes something underneath the part I haven’t finished reading, and hands it back.

“You said our bed.” I read.

Silly woman, I have her now. If she thinks she is going anywhere while we see if this connection of ours is the forever kind, she is fucking wrong. I finish reading what she wrote above that line before I answer her. “I have another gun with the safety off in the drawer beside this couch. Do you not know me at all, darlin’?”

A small giggle escapes her and she groans. I hate her sweet giggle causes her pain, but deep down, I am fucking thrilled to know it is still in there.

“And yes, it is our bed. Baby, I wouldn’t risk you and me if I weren’t serious, yeah?”

Piper once again takes the paper from me and scribbles so fast my eyes cross.

“I’ll be okay,” I read over her shoulder as I wrap my arm around her. “Continue to write, darlin’. I’m quite comfy.” I chuckle in her ear and sniff her hair. Fuck, I love the way she smells.

“I know you’ll be okay. You’re Piper.”

She huffs and writes some more. “I want them all dead,” I read with a growl to my words. “I don’t want them to do to anyone else what they did to me and Jinx. Kill them. Kill all of them,” I seethe out.

I unwrap my arm and turn her to look at me. When her green eyes are staring back at me, I speak. “They’re all gonna be six feet under, yeah? They hurt you, the woman who has been my best friend for over a year and now the woman that I’m pretty fuckin’ sure I’m in love with. So yeah, baby, they’re fuckin’ dead,” I say a tad louder than I should.

Piper gasps and tries to write, but with a gentle ease, I move her face back towards mine. “Yes, I think I’m in love with you. I’ve never been in love, but I’m fuckin’ damn sure this is what it feels like. I want to kill every last motherfucker that has put a hand on you, and I know I for damn sure don’t want any other man havin’ what’s mine. So yeah, darlin’, I think I’m in love with you.”

I watch a single tear slide down her face, and this time when she reaches for the paper, she stops herself and holds up the I love you sign. And for the first time in all my years, I say those three words to a woman besides my mother, and mean it with every fiber of my being. “I love you, too, darlin’.”

I kiss her on the forehead because, now that she is mine, I want her healed quickly, and I don’t want to fuck that up. When I lift my mouth from her, she pens something and I look down to read it. “Sniper, my heart is happy.”

God, how can five words cause my heart to speed up and my palms to sweat in a good way?

“I’m glad, darlin’. You deserve all the happy in the world,” I respond and wrap her in my arms.

I can’t believe I waited this long to make her mine. Hell, I can’t believe it took me this fucking long to figure it all out, but now that I have, I am not letting her go. I’ll have to stop breathing before that happens.

***

I am a nervous fucking wreck when I leave Piper alone with Storm and Phish. Phish replaced Rap when he was patched in. And, Phish passed Russian Roulette so I know he will put his life on the line for the club and whomever we tell him. It still does not ease my nerves in the least. But it is what it is, and if I want my revenge, I have no choice but to leave my girl. I have discovered it is one of the hardest fucking things I have ever had to do in my life.

“Sucks, doesn’t it, brother,” Braxxon says as we straddle our ladies.

“What?” I ask, as I throttle upwards and kick my kickstand up.

“Bein’ in love,” he replies, and ZZ laughs from beside us.

Does my own brother not know me at all? He knows I have been looking for love, and I think I have fucking found it. My leather clad ass is sitting on cloud nine.

“Maybe for you,” I snort. “But… this feelin’, fuck this feelin’ I got is somethin’ else.”