the diner. “Guess so.”
“It’s just…” I shake my head and step back from him. “This is fucking insane. I can’t just run off with you. If Barnes—”
“Are you with him, or not?” Oliver growls fiercely, making me gasp.
I blink and look up into his eyes, and I take a deep breath.
“Not.”
“Why do I keep smelling bullshit?”
“Take a fucking bath then,” I snap.
He chuckles, and I half smile as I look down.
“My dad…” I shake my head before I close my eyes. “Before Barnes ran Dark Water Falls, my dad did. Just petty bullshit small town thug crap, you know? He slung drugs, ran a few rackets, kept a few thugs halfway employed. Barnes was just this guy I’d gone to high school with—just another wannabe gangster in just another crumbling small town where there’s nothing else to do. But then he grew up and decided Dark Water Falls was his and his alone.”
I shrug and look up at Oliver.
“And now it is.”
“That why you’re with him?”
“I am not ‘with him,’” I spit fiercely. “I’m not. My dad started working for Barnes but resented him for it. He stole from him, got roughed up, and then begged me to come home to help him with his bum leg. Turns out, he owed Barnes more than he could pay or more than they could beat out of him, so he struck a deal.”
Dark fury suddenly blooms across Oliver’s face as he connects the dots.
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
“I wish I was,” I say dryly.
“Hold on, your own bloody father settled a debt by giving you to Barnes?”
I nod, and he snarls.
“Father of the fucking year, huh?”
His teeth grind together.
“So leave.”
“Can’t.”
“Yeah, Delphine, you fucking can.”
“You think I’d still be here if it was remotely that simple?” I spit back. “Well, it’s not. Because Barnes’s isn’t quite as stupid as you think he is. I’ve got one person left in this world that I care about—my grandmother, my mom’s-mom, and Bryce has some of his goons watching her, constantly. If I run, they hurt her.”
He swears viciously, and I shiver as he balls his hands into fists, his jaw clenching tight. Fuck, it’s disturbing how hot him getting so primal like this is.
“I—” I squeeze my eyes shut. “I do have to go back.”
“No, you don’t.”
I shake my head. “You don’t know him.”
“Yeah,” Oliver growls. “I do, actually.”
I frown. “Beyond the racing?”
He nods, and I suddenly get it.
“Shit, do you owe him money?”
Oliver looks away, and my face falls.
“Fuck, I’m sorry.”
I’ve seen what Bryce does with people who “owe him.” He doesn’t even want to be paid back most of the time, he just wants to own them, and control them. Because he’s a sick, twisted asshole like that.
“It is what it is,” Oliver growls. He reaches out, and I shiver when his hands slide over my waist and pull me back into him. I gasp as I fall against his chest and look up into those piercing, gorgeous blue eyes. He leans down, and I moan when our lips touch again. I melt into him, moaning again and opening my lips for his tongue as I sink into him.
He pushes me back until my back hits a tree along the side of the empty stretch of moon-lit road. The smell of pine and woods and wet asphalt sweeps over me, and my hands slide over his body as he kisses me fiercely.
But suddenly, I pull back, panting as I look up into his eyes.
“I’m not revenge against Barnes.”
“And I’m not an escape from him,” he growls, leaning in and kissing me hard again. I moan, eagerly kissing him back before I pull away with another gasp.
“I’m serious, I’m not your damsel.”
“And I’m sure as shit not your knight in shining armor,” he groans as we come crashing back together. “But you can’t go back there.”
“He doesn’t…” I shake my head. “I can handle a few slaps.”
Oliver snarls. “And beyond the slaps?”
I frown. “What?”
But then, suddenly I get what he means.
“Ask me.”
His jaw clenches. “No.”
“Ask me.”
“Fine,” he snaps. “Do you fuck Barnes?”
My lips curl. “It’s none of your damn business if I do.”
His eyes blaze fiercely, and I whimper at the look of pure animal lust and rage on his face. Fuck that’s hot.
“The answer is no,” I whisper, swallowing. “Never have, never will. He doesn’t…” I look away. “He doesn’t touch me like that, thank God.”
Oliver’s brow furrows and he’s staring at me when I look back at him.
“What?” I whisper
“He…” he shakes his