A Shot of Pretty Poison (Pretty Poison Trilogy #3)

by Kelsey Clayton

“You’re going to give me a heart attack,” I tell her, with a little less venom in my tone than she probably deserves. “Don’t ever do anything like this again. Okay? It’s not worth the risk.” She nods, with my forehead pressed against hers. “Okay, but you have to give a little, too. You can’t take everything on by yourself.” I can’t help but smirk. “Isn’t that exactly what you were trying to do tonight?” “No,” she nods across the street. “I had eyes on me.”

Looking over, I see Cam and Mali in the window of an upstairs apartment building, like a couple of horrible spies. A goddamn blind person could see them. And when I see the binoculars Cam is holding to his face, I flip him off. I’ll deal with his ass later. “Lai,” I deadpan. “What the fuck were they going to do if someone showed up and tried taking you? Jump out the window?”

“Babe, listen,” I say calmly. “I need you to trust me here. We’re in this situation because I didn’t trust you when you had a bad feeling about someone. I should’ve listened to you about Monty from the start, but I didn’t. Because of that, we ended up here and it almost ruined us.” I take a step closer to him and wrap my arms around his neck, staring into his eyes so he can see how important this is to me. “Please don’t make the same mistake that I did.”

“Mali!” I call. She spins around, and there’s a nasty gash on her collarbone, possibly from the seatbelt. She looks like she’s aged a million years in only a matter of minutes. Cam runs to her and wraps his arms around her tightly, but I’m still looking for my wife. “Where’s Laiken?” I ask her. Her bottom lip starts to tremble. “I don’t know.” What? “What the fuck do you mean you don’t know?” She’s physically shaking as she starts to cry harder. “I mean I don’t fucking know! Someone slammed into us full force, and I was knocked out. And when I woke up, she was gone!” No. This can’t be happening. I grip my hair tightly as I look around, hoping to see any trace of her, but there isn’t any.

“Please, God,” I beg as the tears start to fall. “Please don’t take her from me. Give her back. I just want her back.” Cam comes over and kneels down beside me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “We’re going to find her, H.”

“I can’t lose her again,” I say with a sob. “I can’t.”

My phone dings twice in my pocket, and I rush to open it, hoping it’s something about Laiken. But what I see isn’t at all comforting. Instead, it confirms my worst fears. It’s a picture of Laiken, taken from above her. She’s unconscious and in what looks like a wooden box. They’re fucking burying her alive. The message after is just as sinister. She’s alive, but she won’t be for long. You can find her hidden away in sacred secret places. Just hope you’re not too late. ;) xx Oh my God. I shove the phone into Cam’s hands just in time for me to turn around and vomit everything in my stomach onto the ground. The pain is excruciating. To know that she’s going to die if we don’t find her, and not only that, but it’s going to be so damn terrifying for her. I can’t handle it. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Cam shouts.

“Where are you, Lai?” I whisper, squinting as my eyes struggle to scan the area. And then I see it. My old hockey jersey. “Laiken!” I scream, taking off and running like hell. I fall to my knees next to the jersey and begin clawing at the sand. My hands work desperately to get to her. Cam and Mali both help me, all of us rushing to uncover the box in time, until I finally feel something hard beneath the surface. “I’ve got it!” I shout.

Mali moves out of the way while Cam and I use all of our strength to grip the cover of the box and pull it open. The wood creaks as the nails give way, but nothing can withstand the sheer force of our adrenaline. Finally, it gives way and we get the lid off. Laiken blinks up at me, almost like she’s in disbelief. She’s crying and she’s weak, with dried blood on her face from the injuries she must have sustained during the accident. “Thank God,” I breathe.

At the sound of my voice, she finally moves, sitting up and holding her arms out to me. I wrap my arms around her and pull her to me as she breaks down, sobbing hysterically while I hold her. “...

“I love you, too,” I tell him quietly. “There’s never been a day that I haven’t.”

“You are everything to me,” he says, kissing his way down my neck. “There isn’t a thing about you that I don’t love.”

“Hayes,” I plead, needing more. The corner of his lips raises, and I look down in time to see his tongue dart out to moisten them. “I love the sound of my name when you say it like that.”

“Like what?” “Like you’re going to self-destruct if you don’t get what you want.”

“Fuck, baby,” he moans. “You’re already desperate for it, aren’t you?” “I’m always desperate for you,” I correct him. “You’ve turned me into a fucking sex- addicted monster.” He smirks, bouncing his brows excitedly. “I know. It’s the second best thing I’ve ever done.” “What was the first?” “Marrying you.”

“That’s it, baby,” he tells me. “You’re such a good girl, moaning for me like that.”

“Hayes,” I beg for him. “Please. I need you.” “You’re getting me, baby,” he promises. I shake my head. “I need you closer.” The look in his eyes softens as he understands exactly what I mean. There’s never been a time we’ve felt closer than when he’s inside of me, holding me close as we chase the high together.

“Hayes,” I pant. He focuses all of his attention on me. “Yeah, baby? Tell me what you want.” “I want you to come inside of me.”

“I went and got the shot,” I tell him. “About a month ago, actually. But I waited to tell you because I wanted this to be special.”

He expels all the air in his lungs, and he drops down on top of me. “Seriously? We can?” I nod. “But I want to be on top of you. I want to be the one making you come.”

“That feels so good,” he groans. “You make me feel so good, baby. I can’t wait to fill you up.”

The moment he lets his cock slip out of me, I can feel his cum leak out of my pussy. “So fucking perfect,” he murmurs. His eyes bounce between me and where he’s watching his cum dripping out of me. “There’s nothing better than you. Better than this.”

“I love you,” I tell him as he lies beside me, trying to keep him with me in this moment. He smiles tiredly. “I love you, too.”

Laiken is shaking her head before he’s even done speaking. “No. I can’t. I can’t go back there. Not after the last time.” I position myself in front of her, holding her face in my hands and looking into her eyes. I’ve got to calm her down now before it gets out of hand. “Baby,” I say softly. “I know you’re scared, but you have to know that I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I’ve got you. Okay? But we have to end this once and for all.”

She still looks unsure, so I pull her in and kiss her, making sure she knows that she’s always the first thought on my mind. “You left a piece of you there that night,” I tell her. “It’s time we go get it back.”

She looks up at me with fear in her eyes. “I just want this to be over.” “You and me both, baby. So, let’s go put an end to this.”

“It’s really all over?” she asks. I nod, pressing a kiss to the top of her shoulder. “It’s all over, baby. Except us. You’re stuck with me for the rest of our lives.” She spins around in my arms and smiles fondly up at me. “I love you.”

I kiss her forehead before saying the words that aren’t nearly enough, but they’re the only thing that comes close. “I more than love you.”

pull into the parking lot of our special beach, the same one that was taken from us the night Monty and Riley buried Laiken alive here. Laiken’s breath hitches, and she looks at me with fear in her eyes, but I put the truck in park and turn my entire body to face her. “If you want to leave, we can,” I tell her. “But if you think it’s something you can get through, I’d really like to get out of the truck.” She takes a deep breath as she stares back at me. “They’re gone.” “They’re gone,” I confirm.

“What are we doing here, H?” she asks. My head turns as I look around, surprisingly feeling a little nervous. “This place was so special to us, and it was just one of the many things that were stolen from us. But I plan on changing that. They don’t get to take away this place or the incredible memories we have here. So, I’m taking it back.”

I drop down on one knee and pull the ring out of my pocket. The same one she put on the island next to the words I’m so sorry before she left. Her breath hitches as she recognizes it immediately. “Two years ago today, I married you in the middle of our living room in front of our closest family,” I say, with all the love I feel for her pouring out in my words. “Now I’m asking you to marry me in front of everyone we know and love, here, on our special beach.” Laiken’s smile stretches from ear to ear as she giggles. “You’re such a caveman you have to marry me twice, huh?” I huff out a laugh as I stand, grabbing the back of her neck. “You know it, baby.”

“So, is that a yes?” I ask once we stop for air. “Of course, it’s a yes,” she answers. “But I have one condition.” Condition? We’re literally already married. It’s hardly the time for bartering, but I’ll entertain her. “What is it?” “It has to be soon because I want your mom to be there.”

“Hey,” Laiken says, coming to stand beside me. I sigh in relief, feeling everything somehow get even better now that she’s here. “Finally. I missed you.” “You literally saw me an hour ago,” she teases. Turning toward her, I give her an incredulous look. “Woman, I miss you when you walk away for five minutes. Don’t act like this is news to you.”

“I think, deep down, I always knew you’d end up back in my arms.” “You did?” she asks, tilting her head to the side to look at me. “Yep.” My eyes lock with hers and I smirk. “After all, I’m your pipe dream.” Laughter bubbles out of her, and I bask in the sound of it. Luck has a way of rarely being on my side, but I think that’s only because I must’ve spent it all on her. Laiken Rose Wilder is the best part of my day. She’s my present, my past, and my future, and because of that, I’ll never regret a single thing. All the times I stumbled and thought it couldn’t get any worse, only to be proven wrong—it was all worth it because it brought us here. I will spend the rest of my life being incomprehensibly in love with her. And if there’s a life after this one, I’ll go to the ends of the earth to find her again, because her soul and mine are two halves of a whole.

There’s no me without her.