Page 64 of Volatile Waters

His eyes welled before he whispered, “Because… she is everything.”

So hungry to feel what he was feeling, I growled, “More.”

In a sweet surrender, he told me, “She let me in.”

“To where.”

“The unknown.”

I inhaled for control of my aggravation. “It was only sex.”

His body sulked. “Yury, the sex was just on the outside. It was what was happening in her heart.” He gazed at the floor. “Happening inside mine.”

I snarled, disappointed to where I thought this conversation was headed. “You fell in love?”

He chuckled, but it sounded to be more out of pity. “People who say you ‘fall’ in love are wrong. You float… You float right into the safety of someone who would never let you fall.” Fingers grazed his lips as if still able to feel her lingering kiss. “Franky and I… we floated to each other.” His eyes met mine, and they filled with dominance.

A Dominant knows when confronted with another, like an alpha to alpha confrontation.

He sneered, “And that’s why I am here. I will never let her fall.” His eyes bored into mine, challenging me. “Even after you kill me.”

After I adjusted to his insult, thinking he was more dominant than I, a laugh escaped me. I sat back in my chair, believing Crash had no power in the afterlife. I lifted my camera and said, “Let’s take it from where we left off. How shitty is your life?” I tapped my phone and started recording.

Crash, being the young man I would come to admire for the rest of my days, was once again stubborn. It was his last night to exist, so he taunted me. Instead of getting past the emotional message I was refusing to hear, he continued, “Her breath exhaled across my chest as we laid together, naked in her bed, her innocence now gone.”

My chest rose and fell…

“It was wrong of me to be the one who took it. I know who deserved that first more than me. I know who loves her, even though he claimed Constance was his girlfriend. Link would give his life for the girl who was clinging to me in her sleep.”

All this loyalty was making me uncomfortable. “You speak of your brother giving his life, yet you are the one going to die for her.”

“Yeah. Good point.” He shook his head. “But I saw the look in Link’s eyes. He was going to turn himself in to you, for her—for us.”

“Why did you stop him?”

“He’s my brother. I can’t let him go down like that. Not for me.” Crash’s eyes welled. “And… because I love her… And… she loves him.”

I was confused. Crash had just told me he and Whitney “floated” to one another. “She does not love you?”

He wiped under his eyes. “She thinks she does. But it’s Link who truly has her heart. Ya gotta see them together to understand. It’s like they are an extension of each other.” Crash chuckled. “They blended long before I arrived. Franky is just stubborn, and my brother is just a dumbass.”

I was done with all this love babble and was getting back to what needed to be addressed. “Crash, we have a problem. You stole from me. Her virginity was already sold for another to take.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I think I wanted it.

Nodding, Crash studied me. Anger crossed his expression. “I’ve been to your home. I couldn’t let you take her to that godawful torture chamber you call a training facility.”

I felt Crash was playing dirty and forgetting I was holding all the cards, so I decided to remind him of something. “A debt is a debt.”

Crash knew me well enough to hear my underlying threat. Maybe he started remembering other promises I had not fulfilled. His voice was suddenly strained, not confident as it had been seconds earlier. “Paying my debt with my life keeps her alive, though, right?”

I licked my teeth. “It will keep her alive.” Then mouthed, like you did Sam.

“Wait. We had a deal.” Crash was referring to me being the one who cost Sam her life.

“And I am keeping it.” From behind the camera, I shook my head no, so Crash knew Whitney was going to be all mine.

“Is that why you’re recording me?”

From my pocket, I pulled out a red collar and leash. I had already prepared myself for my father’s wrath.