Chapter 7 (Zero)

Those words pause me in my track, she says it loud so we all hear her. I've never heard a female's voice so raspy before.

Soon after she speaks, Knight and Storm are laughing at her confession, no doubt trying to lighten the mood and hopefully save the poor girl some embarrassment.

I don't look back even though I want to. I head straight for Falon, her blue eyes lost when she sees me and I know I've fucked up.

I've been worried about another mysterious woman without a fucking name. Getting my dick hard for a pretty face, when the woman I plan to claim as my own and have a future with was almost raped.

Shit, I fucked up big time and I know I got to fix it.

I touch Falon's face with my fingers, her gaze softening under my touch. Venus and Chadley move out of the way, and I swoop Falon up, ignoring the gasp of the two girls seated down, and the eyes of my brothers.

She cuddles her face in the crook of my neck, and I don't let her go for twenty minutes.

It's how long it takes us to get our room sorted out.

Falon is out by the time we get to the room.

I lay her on the bed and start stripping off her boots. She stirs when I get to the jeans but doesn't wake.

I pull up her t-shirt, revealing the purple and blue bruises forming on her stomach and ribs. Her small pouch of flesh on her abdomen she always complains about is now red with finger marks.

I graze the pads of my fingers gently across the bruises, all the while watching her features under the dim glow of the side lamp.

She's relaxed and sleeping, but I'm anything but.

That homeless girl saved my woman. I want to hate her for stirring up things in me, for making me want to protect her when I have no business feeling that way about a woman I just met, especially when I got sweet Falon with me. I can’t.

Falon is my future, she's real. I know who she is. I've known her most of her life. Falon's perfect.

What I'm feeling for that homeless girl is totally normal, I'm the Enforcer, and technically unofficially she's already one of us.

I'm supposed to feel protective around her.

Who wouldn't? A young girl living on the streets.

And my dick getting hard, well that's understandable, I haven't had sex in three days.

With Falon denying me the right to claim her and keeping stuff away from me I just wasn't feeling it.

I shake Falon’s shoulder.

“Baby, you need to get up.” She stirs but doesn't wake.

“Falon, come on,” I try again, “We need to talk.”

She mumbles something but after a few minutes open those blue depths I have come to know so intimately.

Her face is all puffy and shit, her red hair sticking up all over the place. I swipe my index finger across her lips.

She gives me a small smile,

“Are you going to tell me you told me so?”

My gaze softens, “No baby, I'm just fucking relieved that you alive, but I need to know what happened.”

She sits still watching my hand rub her thigh. Falon once told me it calms her when I do it.

“Ah,” she sighs.

“We were talking on the phone. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was, and I walked further away. I ended up on the other side, but by then the two guys leaning against the wall saw me. I told you someone’s coming and cut the call, then walked to the club doors. I wasn't sure if they were following me.”

Her voice hitches, “I...I started going faster and I would've made it.”

She sniffs, still not meeting my eyes.

“but my heel got stuck and I lost balance for a second, and then they grabbed me.”

Her tortured eyes finally lift, “The girl came.”

I watch the half-truth come before it leaves her lips in a rush,

“She grabbed the guys gun and shot them. You know the rest.”

“Did they rape you?”

“No.” She turns away from my comforting hand and sobs into the pillow. I'm at a complete loss.

I lift my woman, and she instantly nestles in my arms.

“I'm so sorry baby.”

She cries harder.

She practically crawls onto me until her body is wrapped tightly around mine.

I've always liked Falon’s shortness.

People always stare when we’re together in public. She’s barely 5 ft 3in like her mama and tiny, apart from her rack.

The sex is great.

She's mostly on top because I fear crushing her, and we never take it slow which I like.

All in all, the woman is a good woman.

She's a great cook, good in the bedroom, knows how to act and dress.

Plus, she's faithful.

And I'm sure she put up a fight with those assholes who tried to rape her. I rub her back in circles, hushing words in her hair.

I never told Falon I love her, I know she needs the words. I should say it. She's told me many times, but I can't.

I feel deep emotions for her, care about her, but even now that I got her in my lap, vulnerable and bruised after such a fucked-up night, I can't say the words.

I feel sorry for her, angry that those motherfuckers hurt my woman, but I don't feel that undying need for vengeance, that increase in emotion that my woman could've got hurt.

I tell myself it's because the men are dead because there's no revenge to be dealt with. Truth is I think I'm just incapable of love. I'm incapable of that emotion.

A half ‘n hour passes before she's asleep in my lap. I put her into the bed and leave the room to give her space and go to the one place I know I'm going to get the answers I seek.