Bound In Secrets : A Death Kings Novel
Cut Deep

**Carter**

Here I am, allowing Dillian to paint my nails. He at least painted them a green so dark they almost look black. Green is my color according to him, not that I'm going to argue because it is my favorite color. It goes with the sea foam green color of my hair. Sawyer didn't want me in the middle of the brawl happening on the floor mats of the apartment building's gym. Come to replace out Sawyer owns the entire building and is leased out to members of both the Seraphim Serpents and the Death Angels. The reason she doesn't want me fighting has to do with my broken ribs, courtesy of Ajax. I'm okay with that as I watch them from the sidelines.

Riggs didn't have the training we did, but so far, he has held his own against Storm. Storm is our leader not only because of his leadership skills, but he is the best fighter. This new guy's skills might not be as refined as us from training under the Death Kings for over fifteen years, but he is a talented brawler. The more I'm around him, the more I like him. He fits with Sawyer and with the Death Kings. No wonder they were looking for him. If the Death Kings honed his skills more, he would be even more deadly. The Black Mamba already has the reputation of being an executioner for the club. Members hold him with amounts of fear and respect. He is the local boogeyman, along with the Viper King.

I don't see how the rainbow beauty laughing with her gay best friend is so terrifying to the criminals and gangs of Grêle. Maybe therein lies the problem. We know has a kindhearted girl with a love for silver-haired anime boys. We haven't seen the warlord underneath the surface. The woman who eradicated and forced out gangs from all over the state would follow her rules or pay her operating fees. She is dangerous, more so than we are, but we also have seen the soft side, so it's hard to adjust. Storm might want to figure out how we are going to work with her because there is no way we are going to be like C.H.A.O.S. Nope, this state belongs to our woman, so we better get with the program before she forces us beneath her. I like that mental image.

"What you over there grinning about?" Sawyer asks me.

"Being underneath you," I say with a wink and a grin. She moves from sitting beside me to straddle me. Watching Storm getting his ass kicked has now been forgotten as I look at this gorgeous creature in my lap.

She brushes my hair away from my eyes. "How are you, Orpheus?" Now there's a loaded question.

"The depression meds are working." She shakes her head at me. She shifts and I hiss in pain. Her brown eyes narrow on my blue ones.

"Pants off," she snaps at me.

"You gotta get me alone if you want me doing that, Eurydice," I joke, but she isn't laughing.

"You're cutting again," she accuses.

"So? What do you care?" I snarl, instantly regretting those words as her face hardens.

"You're not doing this. We are going to my apartment, and you are going to show me the cuts on the inside of your thighs. You aren't pushing me away. I will not allow you to." She barks at the teenagers, who grin wickedly at her commands. The next thing I know, I'm tied up from neck to ankles by Kassius while JT holds me down. JT is carrying me slung over his shoulder. "When you asked me to join you in your bedroom, Dollface, this wasn't what I had in mind," JT says as he throws onto Sawyer's bed.

"Sorry for the misunderstanding, Capone, but after I check his thigh, I'll make it up to you," she purrs at him with her fingers dancing just above the waistband of his slacks.

"Why want his pants off so badly?" JT questions.

"He's cutting again," she states, and JT glares at me with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I thought you were past that?" JT queries.

"He's an addict. He needs that endorphin release," she explains. I want to argue, but there is no point. She is correct. With no longer having Razor to cut me, I found another outlet.

JT's hand wraps around my throat. "You're a fucking idiot for hurting yourself. Next time, use ice instead of a blade." "That won't work," I dispute.

JT's eyebrow hikes up. Sawyer and JT share a knowing look. "I'll untie him if you go get the ice, Doll." She nods, leaving.

Once I'm untied, he removes my joggers before I can think or say anything to warn him I wasn't wearing any underwear. He ignores my hard-on, undoing the bandage I placed around my thigh. "You need stitches. You cut too deep in a few places." "The kit is under my bed," Sawyer comments, carrying a metal cup. JT nods before getting on his hands and knees to dig out the medical kit.

"When you hissed, I knew you cut too deep. Other ways won't leave scars," she says before popping an ice cube in her mouth.

"I'm going to stitch these up and then Sawyer and I are going to show you a safe way to get your oxytocin high," he says, injecting lidocaine around the areas of my thigh that need stitches. Within five minutes of silence, JT stitches. "You almost nicked the femoral artery. Do you have a death wish?" JT snarls.

I'm shocked. "Of course not! I didn't know," I mutter dejectedly.

"You're an idiot," he growls, continuing his work.

"This right here is why we're going to show you there are better ways. If you had been centimeters off, you would have bled to death by cutting your femoral artery," Sawyer says placing her forehead with my face in her hands. "You can be such a couyon, but damn it if I don't love you."

"You love me?" I question, perplexed.

She scoffs. "Of course I do. I never stopped loving you, JT, Jensen, or Storm. Yes, I was angry at you guys for leaving me when you guys just promised you wouldn't the night before. I get it. Tee explained everything to me the moment he trained me. I just need to hear the story from you four as well."

"I'm sorry, Eurydice. I'm so sorry. We didn't want to leave you, Sawyer, but we had little choice. Us being in prison wouldn't have done anyone any good. At least this way we are somewhat free."

"I know," she breathes. We stay locked like this in silence until JT is done.