Blackness Takes Over & Blackness Awaits (14 page)

“How much have you had?” I hear Sully in my ear. I push back and look in his face.

“Not enough,” I say pointedly and slam my next shot. He’s trying to figure out how to stop me without pissing me off. Not likely. I feel an arm around my waist and snap my head to the side. Teal eyes.

“Let me take you home,” he says sweetly into my ear.

“You had that chance earlier, Kel. Take home the chick with black hair, I’m sure she’s more your speed.” I’m even in my tone. No emotion. I’m not mad at Kel, but I didn’t come out tonight to sit around sober and watch these guys get play. I am however fucking sick of being handled by these guys today. Fuck that! I never get drunk. I actually have a hard time getting drunk. I have decided however, tonight I want a good buzz and a little fun. Fun seems to be out the window so I’m off to seize my buzz.

I grab my drink and start to chug away. Kel puts his hand around mine and pulls my glass away from my mouth. He doesn’t say a word just tips it back down his throat. My round is gone and there’s not a new one in front of me. Sully’s still eyeing me and I can feel the tension in Kel’s arm that’s still around my waist. I lean into the bar to try and get Heath’s attention. He doesn’t see me. He’s been ushered away by my boys. Well let’s see about remedying that.

I pull Kel’s hand off my hip and head toward the stairs, still spry on my feet. I skip down the stairs and feel the reverberations of the herd of elephants following me. I glance over my shoulder and sure as shit all five of them are in tow. There’s a bar on the far side of the dance floor so I need to move through hundreds of bodies to get there before my boys. I push through the crowd, hoping to lose the boys in the sea of people. I push and push and push my way through, until I am at the bar.

I order my round and look for my stalkers. I don’t see any of them. Good, I lost ’em. I look upstairs at our balcony and see all the girls my boys just left to chase me for no good reason. I’m on my second shot when I see Finn breech the crowd and stride toward me. He’s fucking livid. I laugh when I see his face. You’d think he just found me naked in church with the scowl he’s wearing. I chug my last drink. I’m done. This night went from awesome to shit and now I’m good and buzzed and I want to maintain my buzz. The rest of the boys filter through the crowd and are at my side.

“You fuckin’ promised,” Kavy screams in my ear. He’s drunk. Actually they all look drunk and they’re worried about me. The ridiculousness, I start laughing. Kel doesn’t look drunk, pissed off yes, but not drunk. He’s my target.

“What’s got your panties in a twist?” I yell at Kel, ignoring Kavy.

“You,” he yells back at me. Me? Whatever! He blows me off, after I serve myself up on a platter, and he’s blaming me. Wow!! I shake my head. I don’t have time for games…I don’t play games. I gave him his shot and he chose his play. Fuck him.

“You boys shackin’ up tonight?” I glance around at my entourage. Nods all around, nothing from Kel.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow then.” I turn on my heel to leave the club. I have to make my way through the sea of people again to get outside. I text Rodger, so he’ll be waiting. As I start to push my way through the crowd I feel an arm around my waist. I look back and see Kel’s superb face.

“What are you doin’?” I yell into Kel’s ear.

“Takin’ you home,” he’s matter of fact.

“Is that so?” I turn to face him with a “you really wanna do this face”.

“Yes. So stop fuckin’ lookin’ at me like that and get your ass movin’.” He’s trying to prove a point. He thinks he can tell me what to do. My feet are fucking planted now.

“Nuh uh, Kellerman, you made your choice earlier. You don’t get to boss me around after you’ve dismissed me. You wouldn’t get to boss me around if you didn’t but you sure as fuck don’t get to after you cast me off,” I snarl.

“We’ll discuss this once we’re not in this club. Can we please leave?” His voice is full of attitude, which I choose to ignore since he said the correct words. I turn on my heel, and push through the crowd.

Kel pushes ahead of me at some point so he can shove us through the now larger sea of bodies. He’s way bigger than me, so I don’t complain. He tries to grab my hand but I wrench it away from him, which he doesn’t care for but acquiesces to. There’s a little space between us, but I stay close enough to take advantage of his crowd parting abilities. We’re halfway out of the crowd when I feel a hand on my ass. This is not a graze or a pat, it’s a full-on grabbing a handful-of-my-ass kind of hand. I stop and turn to find the perp. Creeper, imagine that. He’s smiling at me like I’m a shiny new toy, then sweeps his arms around me pulling me tight to him. I get my hands between us and push back against his chest, but with clutch in hand and his grip, I don’t create much distance.

“I can’t wait to see how good the rest of you feels,” he slurs in my ear. He smells like smoke, booze, body odor, and maybe vomit. GROSS!

“Get your fuckin’ hands of me asshole,” I scream in his face, “before I remove them from your body!”

“Don’t be like that.” He tightens his grip and smashes his mouth on mine. Yeah, there’s vomit there. I stomp on his foot with my heel, hard. He lets go and stumbles back a bit, I try to retreat. Where are my boys and Kel? Creeper grabs my wrist and yanks me back. I spin and face him trying to pull my wrist free.

“I was gonna be gentle,” he snarls, “but I can do rough. I like ’em feisty.” A memory of Liam flashes through my head. I can hear someone screaming my name, but I don’t know who it is or where it’s coming from.

I pull my fist back and catch Creeper in the mouth with a left hook, since he has my right captive. His head snaps and I keep pounding away at his face, as blood is splattering and his tooth pops out. He’s so stunned at the assault, all he does is double over, hanging onto my wrist that he’s grasping. When the tooth flies free he releases me to grab his mouth. I grab his ear and rip it toward me.

“Don’t ever again in your life touch a woman like that,” I scream in his ear. I let him go, turn and almost run smack into the torso of heaven. He’s looking down at me like I’m a stranger. His gaze moves past me and is visually communicating with someone. I turn around and see my boys grabbing Creeper, Jason’s with them. Kavy grabs me and spins me around.

“There’s fuckin’ blood on you, Kid.” He’s about to go ballistic. “You hurt?” I hold up my hand that is in fact split across the knuckles. Never hit someone in their mouth. I know better, sorry Uncle Mick. I grab Kavy by the lapels and pull him into my face.

“I’m fine, Kavy. I took care of it myself.” I let go of him and turn back to Kel. Kavy wraps his arms around my body tight, I can barely breathe.

“Love you. Get home safe!” I nod and he lets me go. Kel grabs my wrist hard and pulls me through the crowd and out the doors. The clubs are starting to close and the sidewalks are packed, but right in front of us is Rodger. He sees the state of me and his face goes white. We make our way to him and he grabs me away from Kel.

“Do you need a hospital, Shannon?” He’s scanning every part of my body trying to figure out if I’m injured.

“I’m fine Rodger. I just wanna go home. You should see the other guy.” I smile, trying to let him know I’m okay. His face relaxes just a little. Kel crawls in the back and I follow, forever shielded by Rodger. In a flash he’s moving us into traffic. The car is like a sauna with the heat blasting.

“Rodger you can turn down the heat, I’m fine,” I implore him. They must be burning up. He turns it down just enough to keep it warm but not baking.

“You sure you don’t need medical attention, Shannon?” He glances in the mirror at me. “Your hand doesn’t look good.” Kel hears that and flips on the car light, snatching my hand to inspect it. I roll my eyes at Kel.

“I’m sure Rodger. I’ll call my doctor tomorrow. I just wanna go to bed.”

“There’s quite a bit of traffic, I’ll see what I can do to get you home quickly.” He nods at me in the mirror and gets to the task at hand. Kel is done with my hand, puts it back in my lap and turns the light out.

“Nothing’s broken, but you need a tetanus shot.” He’s pissed and not looking at me while he speaks. What’s new today?

“Thanks Doc,” I snark, “I’m up to date on my booster and I’ll call my doctor tomorrow. Thanks for your concern.” Super snark. He shakes his head and laughs at me again…like he did on the dance floor. I’m getting pissed off and quick.

“Do I amuse you, Kellerman?” I snap.

“You definitely entertain.” He smirks.

“Well I’m glad I could be of some service to you this evening.”

He shakes his head and laughs again. I close my eyes and concentrate on my breathing. Calm down.

I must calm down to the point of sleep, because I come to in Kellerman’s arms.

“What the fuck are you doin’?” I grumble.

“Gettin’ you in your house,” he huffs, as he opens my front door with my keys and the alarm chirps. I jump out of his arms and scramble to the panel. Code in, alarm down. He shuts the front door and moves toward me.

“You can go now. I’m in my house.” I gesture around at the space. Little wobble that time. That’s a tired wobble not drunk. He doesn’t know the difference and scoops me up into his arms again.

“I sent Rodger home. I’m stayin’ the night to make sure you don’t knock out anyone else’s teeth.” Now he’s snarky.

“It’s a little hard to knock out teeth if I’m home alone. But if you’d like some work done, I’d be happy to oblige.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

He carries me into the kitchen and sets me down. He opens the freezer and finds an ice pack, making his way back over to me. Kel picks up my hand gently. It looks so tiny lying in his huge mitts.

“Where’s your first aid kit?” he asks softly.

“Under the sink.” I flap my elbow in its direction. He grasps my wrist and pulls me over to the sink, turning on the tap, getting the water warm. While he’s waiting for the tap to warm up he gets out the first aid kit and starts rummaging around, pulling out different things: cotton balls, wound cleanser, antibiotic cream, gauze, and tape. Kel takes my hand running it under the water. I’m just watching him, mesmerized by his gentle touch and attention to detail. Once my rinsing is done, he pats my hand dry with a paper towel. I wince a little at the pressure.

“Sorry,” he soothes. Taking a cotton ball in his hand he douses it in wound cleanser and then dabs it along my cuts on my ring and pinky knuckles. That fucking stings. I suck in air between my teeth. He quickly blows to relieve the burn.

“Thanks,” I say softly. He studies my hand closer now that it’s cleaned up. I do too, it’s not horrible but it’s not good either.

“There’s a pretty big chunk missing off your pinky knuckle.” His voice is just above a whisper.

“I’ll be all right. I’ve lived through worse.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. He doesn’t say anything, just grabs the gauze and smears it with antibiotic cream. After I’m all bandaged and cleaned up, I look down at myself. There’s blood spattered all over my chest and dress. No wonder everyone was so freaked out. Kel finishes putting the kit back under the sink and stands up to look at me in the eye. He hasn’t looked me in the eye since we were in the club. He seems hurt. I can’t look at that, so I break eye contact and look down at my bandaged hand.

“Thanks for fixing my hand and bringing me home,” I coo softly. “There’s a spare bedroom you can sleep in. I’ll show you there now, if you want.” He doesn’t respond so I just start moving to the stairs. I hear his footfalls behind me. The spare room is near the end of the hall where my room is, I flip the light on.

“There’s a bathroom through that door.” I point at it. “An extra toothbrush and toiletries are in the drawers with fresh towels on the racks.” I turn and leave the room. When I come back he’s sitting on the end of the bed. I hand him a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt.

“Those are Cally’s so they should fit you. You two are about the same size. I’m gonna go get all the blood off me. I’ll see you in the morning. Thanks again for your help with my hand.”

I never look him in the eye, keeping my gaze fixed on my hand. He doesn’t say anything so I turn and leave the room. As I’m pulling the door shut, “Good night, Shannon,” he whispers.

“Night,” I whisper back and shut the door.

I leave my bedroom door cracked. I figure he’ll run out in the night and I’ll have to turn the alarm off, less obstacles the better. I climb in the shower and scrub off Creeper’s blood. I do it one handed so I can keep my bandage dry. Once out of the shower I slip on a cami and boy shorts, flip off the bathroom light, and head to bed. I’m stopped in my tracks at a half-naked Kel sitting shirtless in pajama pants on the edge of my bed with his head in his hands, elbows resting on his knees.

“Did you need something, Kel?” I ask softly.

He doesn’t respond so I make my way toward him, stopping just in front of him. He reaches out and grabs me, pulling me between his legs smashing my body to him. I throw my hands up in the “I’m not doing anything pose” for a few seconds until I realize he needs comfort. I loosely put my arms around shoulders, very aware that his face is half smashed into my un-bra covered boobs.