Cross (Dark Kingdom, #4) — Chapter no 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

ALEXA

I THROW BACK my sixth shot since Cross left me here with the girls what feels like hours ago. My temperature’s rising due to the alcohol and the fact he’s still lying to me. Something is going on.

I think I’ve proven to him that I can handle whatever he’s doing. I know, I’ve probably only seen a small part, but I’m not a fragile flower. No, I’m a bomb that will blow out the side of a mountain. But I think a part of him wants me to be in the dark. I haven’t gotten to ask Emilee or April just how much they know about their Kings. Maybe he’s just doing what he thinks is right.

A guy who looks to be around our age squeezes his way up to the bar, pushing Jasmine out of his way. “Excuse you?” she snaps, turning to face him.

“Sorry.” He looks at her, then to the bar, his head snapping to the right, getting a better look at her. “Hey, sexy.” His smile widens.

She rolls her eyes.

“Are you interested in twelve monthly payments for eighteen years?” he asks.

April and I laugh out loud as Jasmine shoves him back into the crowd.

“I don’t get it.” Emilee frowns. “What’s so funny?” She throws back a shot.

“Twelve monthly payments for eighteen years …” I say slowly, hoping she’ll get it, but she shakes her head at me after a long moment. “It means child support. He wanted to fuck her and knock her up.”

“Oh.” Emilee’s brows pull together. “That was a horrible pickup line.”

“Right!?” I signal to the bartender for another round. He acknowledges it with a head nod because we haven’t moved from our spot since the guys left us. We’re drinking like we’re fucking fish.

“April?” We hear her name being called out.

We turn around to see Ethan coming toward us.

“Hey!” She holds her arms out for him to hug her.

Instead, he comes to a stop and looks her up and down, pulling his lip back at the short dress she’s wearing. “Is Grave here with you?”

“Yep.” She nods her head quickly.

“Fuck!” He runs his hands through his shaggy dark hair.

“What are you doing here?” She narrows her eyes on him. “You’ve been avoiding my calls and texts.”

“I’ve been busy,” he growls, his eyes searching the crowd. His eyes land on mine, and he asks, “Is Derek here?”

His question makes me pause. I don’t know where Derek has gone. At what point did he walk away? He didn’t go with the Kings, did he?

Wherever they went.

“Ethan.” She places her hand on his chest, trying to get his attention.

“You need to come home.”

“No,” he snaps, taking a step back from her. “We don’t live together anymore.”

“But you could,” she offers, stepping into him again. “Come live with Grave and me. Go to meetings …”

“Fuck no!” He shoves her back from him, causing her to dump the entire whiskey sour she was holding all over her dress.

She gasps.

“What the fuck!” Jasmine shoves at his chest, making him fall back into another guy. “Get away from her!” she shouts.

April looks down at her white sweater dress and sighs.

“Let’s go the bathroom,” I offer. “Get you cleaned up. We’ll all go,” I say, grabbing her hand. I know Cross said to stay here, but I also remember what he and Grave said to Jasmine and me that first night here about it not being safe. I’m not sending her to the bathroom alone.

The four of us make our way through the crowd and down the hall. I push open the door and almost hit someone in the face. “I’m …” I trail off as I look at the woman. It’s Rachel. She stands there with her hands on her hips and a constipated look on her face.

“Oh, it’s you.” Emilee crosses her arms over her chest, popping a hip out.

“You should have just hit her.”

Rachel smiles at me, ignoring Emilee. “It must suck to be as insecure as you are.”

“Excuse me?” I step into the restroom, getting closer to her. “I’m not …”

“Having Cross fire me because you were afraid he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off me.” She runs her pierced tongue across her teeth. “How does it feel to know I’ve fucked both your boyfriend and fiancé?” she asks.

Walking by me, she adds, “He’ll come back to me. They always do. You can’t satisfy either one of them.”

Come back? So, she’s still fucking Mitch. That’s exactly what she means, which I couldn’t care less about. But Cross? I’d set this bitch on fire using his Zippo if she were to so much as touch his arm.

“Don’t get so attached to this one,” she adds, trying to push past me, but I grab the back of her hair and yank her farther into the bathroom. The girls enter, letting the door close shut.

“Get off me,” she screams, and I shove her face into the wall by the door.

She turns around and charges me, shoving my back into a bathroom stall.

The door flies open, and we fall to the floor. Normally, just the thought of being on a public bathroom floor would make me vomit, but right now, that’s the last thing on my mind.

I pull my fist back and punch her in the face so hard it rips her nose ring out. She is screaming at me while I sit on top of her.

Her hands are flying, and one hits me on the cheek. I go to hit her again, but I’m ripped off her with an arm around my waist.

“What in the fuck are you doing?” I’m shoved into a wall, and Cross stands in front of me, pinning me to it.

I don’t answer. Instead, I’m trying to catch my breath. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been in a fight. Forgot how exhausting it is. The moment the adrenaline wears off, I’m going to want to crash.

A quick look around him shows Titan yanking Rachel up, and he escorts her out with the girls on his ass.

“Alexa?” Cross snaps, gripping my chin and forcing me to look up at him. “I asked you a question.”

“She … she pissed me off.” I manage to get out.

“Pissed you off?” he questions with a huff, clearly unhappy with my answer. I try to rip my face free, but he just holds on to it tighter. “I told you to stay at the bar.”

“And I told you not to lie to me!” I shout back.

“Fine.” He takes a step back from me, releasing my chin, and holds his arms out wide.

My eyes drop to his black combat boots and run up over his jeans and T- shirt. I blink, wondering just how much I actually had to drink. “Cross …”

He’s covered in blood. “What happened?”

“You want the truth, Alexa? Here it is.” He takes a few steps back and walks over to the sinks. Turning on the water, he starts to wash his hands and forearms. Blood covers the porcelain sink, splashing up on the countertop.

“Where did you go?” I ask, trying to rack my brain about how long he left me at the bar for. I can only count the drinks I’ve had but even that number may be off by a few.

“I had business to handle,” he clips. His green eyes stay on mine in the mirror while he washes away any evidence of what he did. Or who he hurt.

I swallow, running a hand through my hair, pushing it from my face.

Once his hands are dried, he turns to face me once again. “You wanted to see the real me. This is it.” He arches a dark brow. He’s challenging me.

I know I should be terrified. There are a thousand questions I should be asking or just running from him. But I’m not. He’s right; I wanted to see the real him. Cross—the Dark King. Here he is in the flesh, covered in someone else’s blood.

I’m hot. Like physically burning up hot from my fight. My limbs heavy from the alcohol and my body tingling from the way he pinned me up against the wall after he pulled me off Rachel.

We haven’t spoken about her. Ever. I know he fired her, but I never asked him to do that. He told me he had fucked her the night before I ran into him here at the Airport. And although I hated that he slept with her, I never worried about him doing it since we’ve gotten together.

He takes a cautious step toward me. I stand my ground. Not retreating.

I’m not afraid of this man. Or what he’s capable of. I’m stronger than he gives me credit for. Rachel was wrong. I can be whatever he fucking needs.

A Queen protects her King. She stands in front of him because she knows he’s got her back.

Fuck her. She can have Mitch. But Cross? He’s mine. I won’t give up my King. She’ll have to fight me for him. And I refuse to go down easily.

He takes another step toward me. “Alexa—”

I step forward, going to him, pressing my lips to his, cutting off whatever he was going to say. I’m not in the mood for talking or fighting. “Fuck me!”

I growl into his mouth as I hear “Play with Fire” by Sam Tinnesz and Yacht Money play through the speakers.

He lets go of me and pulls back. I can see the hesitation in his eyes.

“I can handle the real you, Cross. Try to prove me wrong,” I challenge him back.

Without hesitation, he leans over, locking the bathroom door. “With pleasure, gorgeous.”

I yank my skirt up, and he reaches between my legs, shoving my thong to the side. He plays with my already wet pussy while I rip his bloody shirt up and over his head, tossing it to the floor, my hands exploring the familiar curves of his muscles as they flex. There’s not even a scratch on him.

He nibbles on my lip. And I turn my head to the side to give him my neck while my hands go to his jeans. I undo his belt, button, and zipper, pulling his cock free, and he bites into my neck, making me gasp.

“Turn around,” he orders, yanking away and shoving me to face the wall.

But I can’t kiss him in this position. He’s now standing behind me.

“Cross …”

His hand comes up and covers my mouth, silencing me while his shoes spread my high heels wide for him. Then I feel his free hand between my legs and his cock slides into me, stretching me to accommodate his large size.

I moan around his hand, mine fisting the wall. Once he’s all the way in, his now free hand drops from his dick to grip my left thigh, and he lifts it, my heel coming off the floor, allowing him to get deeper.

He fucks me from behind up against the wall in a bathroom at the Airport with blood on his clothes that isn’t his, and I couldn’t be more turned on.

CROSS

I LOWER HER shaking leg and turn her around to face me. She is panting, her big tits bouncing with each breath. I cup her chin and kiss her parted lips.

“Don’t think this means we’re not going to discuss what happened later.”

She gives me a weak smile. “Oh, we’ve got a couple of things to talk about.”

I groan, pulling away from her and shoving my cum-covered cock into my jeans. She manages to walk over to the stall I yanked her out of and use the restroom. Seconds later, she exits and washes her hands. “Come on.” I unlock the door and yank it open to find a line of women booing us as I pull her down the hallway for occupying the restroom.

I told her to stay at the fucking bar, but of course she didn’t listen. I wasn’t surprised to return and find her missing. Thankfully, the women’s restroom was the first place we looked.

We return to the bar where the rest of the Kings are. The women are all smiling while the guys are shaking their heads. They’ve managed to clean themselves as much as I have.

“God, that was awesome. She’s such a bitch,” Emilee states, referring to Rachel. “Our girl needs a drink.”

Titan already has one lined up and places it on the bar in front of her, and she throws it back.

I take the empty glass and slide it across the bar. “We need to go.”

“What?” The girls whine.

I don’t even give her a chance to argue with me. Taking her hand, I start dragging her out of this place. The Kings and I are bloody; we all need showers. People don’t even look at us twice here. Shit like this happens at the Airport all the time. I just need to get her home before I end up killing someone else tonight. Thankfully, Turner offered to take care of the body we left in one of their cells. Otherwise, we’d be heading out to the desert to bury it.

“My brother spilled my drink all over me.” I hear April telling Grave as

he drags her along too.

“I’ll take care of it,” he assures her.

“He was mad we were here,” she goes on, sounding sad.

“I’m sure he was,” he tells her through gritted teeth.

We make it to our cars. The girls hug goodbye, and we put them in our

cars before I turn to the Kings.

“Any word on where Ethan went?”

“No,” Grave growls. “But that fucker is dead. I’m tired of this shit …”

His voice trails off as he looks over at Bones. Grave’s eyes are full of remorse. For once, he finally realizes what he’s put his brother through all

those years. The worrying, the unknown. Granted, he never put his brother’s life in danger like Ethan has April, but it’s not much different.

Bones slaps his brother on the shoulder. “We’ll find him.”

We look over as we hear someone approaching, and it’s Derek. His wide eyes look each of us over, seeing the blood that still remains on our clothes.

Bones is by far the filthiest. “You guys okay?” he asks, swallowing.

“Where the fuck did you go?” I bark, ignoring his question. He left them.

Just like I told him not to.

He shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I saw Mitch and went over to talk to him to keep him away from Alexa. He was acting strange, avoided me, and came up with some lame excuse that he had to go. Then I decided to order a drink before I returned to the girls. As I was ordering, I looked over in time to see Ethan spill April’s drink and Jasmine shoved him away… then they stormed off to the bathroom. What was I supposed to do?”

I can’t be mad that he went over to talk to Mitch because he did the right thing. “You walk into the women’s bathroom like you fucking belong there!”

He snorts as if that’s absurd. But it’s not, not here. I’ve done it to protect the girls. Other men do it with bad intentions.

“I’m out,” Titan tells us, giving us Kings handshake hugs. “I wouldn’t be surprised if my wife is puking in my car right now.” He chuckles.

“See you in the morning,” I call out as he climbs into his Maserati.

“Are you drunk?” Bones asks Derek.

“No. I only had one drink. Didn’t get to finish the second one I ordered.”

“Here, Jasmine’s in her passenger seat. Drive her home.” He goes to hand him the keys but then pulls them back. “Drive her home and then you

go home. Got it?”

“Got it,” Derek agrees.

With that, Bones drops the keys in his hand, and gets into his car.

“Hey, I’m sorry, Cross.” Derek sighs heavily. “I didn’t think—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupt him. “It all worked out. This time.”

With that, I give him my back and get into my driver’s seat. Alexa stays silent in the passenger seat, but I can feel the heat radiating off her body.

She’s pissed. I can’t say I blame her.

Taking a quick look over at her, I ask, “Going to tell me what happened

back there?”

“I don’t see the point.”

I snort. “You’re joking, right?”

She stays silent.

“I found you on top of another woman in the bathroom. That’s the point.”

She’s got her head leaning back against the headrest. Opening her eyes, she tilts her head to the side so she can look at me. “I hate Rachel.”

“Why? Because I fucked her? Alexa … she meant absolutely nothing to me.”

“I can’t help who you fucked before me. Just like you can’t help who I’ve been with.”

I tighten my hand on the steering wheel at that thought. Fucking Mitch. I can understand how she feels about Rachel because I want to fuck him up

for ever touching her.

“She fucked Mitch.”

So she does know that he’s sleeping with her? I didn’t think she’d care.

Obviously, I was wrong. “What?” I growl. “Why the hell do you care that she fucked your ex?”

“I don’t now … I did when I found her in my bed with him … and we were engaged at the time.”

I did my research on her. Social media told me that she was once engaged, but he cheated on her? With Rachel? Knowing both of their track records, I’m honestly not that surprised. “I’m sorry,” I say.

“Are you?” she questions, licking her lips.

There’s no telling how much she had to drink while the Kings and I were down in the basement. It took longer than I expected it to. “Of course …”

“Because if he hadn’t cheated on me, I wouldn’t be here with you right now.”

“Good point. No. I’m not sorry. I lied. I take it back.”

She laughs softly. “Rachel told me that you fired her because I’m insecure. I never once asked you to do that.”

“It needed to be done,” I say.

“Because of me?”

“Yes and no. I was with you. I only wanted to be with you, and she wanted something that I refused to give her.” I reach over and grab her hand

and bring it to my lips, kissing her knuckles. “I didn’t want any additional problems in my way to getting to you.”

“She said that you’d go back to her just like Mitch did.”

I sigh, lowering her hand to my lap but keep ahold of it with mine. “She was feeding you lies, and you ate them up like you were starving.”

“No. I wasn’t.” She snorts. “I was a little drunk and a lot pissed. I couldn’t care less about Mitch, but you … I care about you.” She lowers her voice. “I love you, Cross.”

“I love you too, gorgeous.” My thumb gently rubs over her knuckles

while resting on my thigh.

“I’m so tired.” She yawns.

“And also drunk,” I add with a laugh.

We pull up to the private back entrance of Kingdom and exit the car.

Making our way up the stairs and into the double doors.

She leans into me, her head rolling across my shoulder. I reach down and slide my arm behind her knees and pick her up, carrying her into the elevator.

Once I get her up to the Royal Suite, I help get her undressed and into my bed. She opens up her pretty green eyes. “Get some rest.” I lean down and kiss her head.

I go to walk away, but she reaches out, gripping my shirt. Looking down at her, she blinks, her drunken stare trying to focus. “Did you kill whoever it was?” she asks, letting go of my shirt, running her fingers over the dried blood.

I expected to have this conversation tomorrow once she’s sober and pieces together all of tonight’s events. “Yeah. He’s dead,” I tell her.

“Why? Did he hurt you?” she asks through a yawn.

I kneel next to the bed, reaching up to push her bleach-blond hair back off the side of her cheek. “No.” He threatened to hurt those who I love.

The road to being a King is paved with dead bodies. Eventually, our sins will catch up with us and demand a payment for all the carnage we leave behind. They can have my Kingdom, but they will never touch my Queen. I will set fire to the world and watch it all burn, me included, before I let her pay for my sins.

She closes her heavy eyes, and whispers, “I love you, Cross.”

I kiss her forehead once again. “Love you too, Alexa.”

Walking into my bathroom, I get undressed and start the shower, needing to wash off before I can lie down with her and finally crash.