by B. B. Reid
You don’t fucking say.
I sat up abruptly and caught that his body was tense and ready for battle.
“What the fuck were you doing there with her?” I whispered as loud as I could without breaking the quiet peace in the house.
“Protecting her like you told me to,” he answered just as harshly. “I couldn’t get in contact with you to tell you my leave had been approved and she had fled town, so what the fuck was I supposed to do, huh?”
“And after you killed my father? What then?”
“We both know you don’t give a shit about him, and we both know what would have happened if I’d told you what she’d done.”
“I don’t give a shit. She’s mine.”
“She won’t stay that way if you keep being a dick. She’s yours yet you keep finding the need to enforce it. The only thing threatening your hold on her is you.”
He might have been right. Fuck… I knew he was right. It didn’t stop me from destroying everything that was good for me.
“Look, it’s done. Mitch is dead. I know you wanted to get to him first, but…” He took a swig of his beer and then picked at the label as his frown deepened.
“Why?” I had to know how Lake convinced him to kill Mitch so recklessly.
“John.”
“Come again?”
“Your uncle. He didn’t deserve to die the way he did and I owed him.
“How the fuck so?”
“He saved my life, and he didn’t even know it.”
“That’s because he didn’t care.”
He shook his head and regarded me with pity. “The saddest part about this is you really believe your uncle didn’t care about you.”
“Ten years of absence will make a person think so.”
“He saved your life! He saved my life.” His voice echoed around us but neither of us seemed to notice.
“Do you really believe that?”
“You really don’t?” When I didn’t respond, he huffed in frustration and shook his head. “You cannot be that blind.”
“John was a coward.”
“And you? Are you any better?”
“What the hell are you getting at?”
“You’re going to lose that girl because you’re afraid she’ll break you, but maybe it’s what you need, man. You can’t be invincible forever.”
“Isn’t that why one would be invincible?”
“Fuck, man. You might be right.” He cracked a smile, and I found myself grinning back at him. Why was my relationship with my childhood friend unbendable when my relationship with Lake had cracked right down the middle? Could it have been because she affected me more than anyone else did? I trusted her with a part of me that no one had been able to touch before her.
I groaned and leaned back, covering my eyes with my hands. How the fuck would I get us past this? Ensuring Lake never had the chance to deceive me again was high on my list of priorities.
“How did they bag her?”
I released a humorless laugh. “She signed in. They have her signature on file the day of the murder.”
He was already shaking his head before I finished speaking. “That’s impossible. She snuck in the back. I saw her.”
My chest threatened to break open from the harsh pounding of my heart. She was still lying to me. “Did you see her leave?”
“She left before I did a sweep of the room.”
“What about her car?”
“I was a little preoccupied with not getting caught with blood on my hands. Besides, why would she stick around?.”
“She told me her grandmother is living at the facility. It’s the only reason they aren’t able to pin the murder on her yet. She has a valid excuse for being there. The father of her boyfriend also residing there was just a coincidence.” It was the story Thompson was able to spin. It was a rocky defense but the best we had. He was also planning to exploit the illegal arrest in court and obliterate their credibility. Whatever idiot made that call would regret it for the rest of his life. I’d make sure of it.
“It sounds like you need to talk to her.” He must have anticipated my intent because he added, “But not tonight. It’s been a long day. Sleep it off. You need a clear head because your girl’s got it in her head that you need to be protected. She won’t give in if you push her.”
I wanted to argue the point that Lake had been my toy for years, and I knew exactly how to break her when I realized that breaking her was the last thing I wanted. I wanted Lake strong, but I didn’t want her fighting my battles. Hell, I didn’t even want her fighting her own.
While I struggled, Q stood and announced he was crashing in the basement. I laid my head back against the couch cushions and stared at the ceiling as if the answer to how to deal with my girlfriend was in the paint.
The next morning, after I’d showered, I found her sitting on the side of the bed staring down at her phone. “What’s up?” It was meant to sound casual. The way she’d jumped and her eyes widened, I knew I sounded anything but.
“Do you think we can reschedule our court appointment? I’m due for my birth control shot.” She looked down at my morning wood tenting my jeans. “It’s not something I should miss,” she admitted with flushed cheeks.
“We can’t reschedule. It’s too late. It was also a condition of your release, warrant or not.” I didn’t add that I was eager to get this handled so I could get her home alone where there would be nowhere for her to run and no one to interfere.
I expected her to argue but she simply nodded, grabbed her toiletry bag, and walked past me to leave the bedroom. She stopped in the threshold and said, “You can’t touch me.” She slammed the door, leaving me alone to stare after her. I could tell by her demeanor that I had fucked up royally last night, and if we ever got past this, I’d be paying for it for a long time.
I took her spot on the edge of the bed and waited until she finished her shower. When she returned, her eyes avoided me as she moved about the room, clutching the towel closely around her. She was hiding herself from me and it pissed me off more than her silence.
“Lake.”
She stiffened before giving me her full attention. “Yes?”
“Why did you go back?”
Chapter Eight
LAKE
“Why did you go back?” I was beginning to expect the unexpected so when he asked me a question that seemed out of the blue, I wasn’t really surprised, but I was confused. “Q said you slipped into the facility through the back entrance. You must have gone back because how else did your signature get on the logs?”
There was murder in his eyes, and I wasn’t sure if the truth would only provoke his bred nature to the surface. “I never left.”
“Explain,” he growled. I felt the single word like an ache in my bones.
“I waited until Q left and then went back.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“It’s what I said, Keiran.” God, I felt so exposed. Without clothes, I was even more vulnerable and he looked ready to either fuck me or murder me.
“What happened?”
“I got spooked. Q… he left a message on the wall that said ‘For John’—in blood.” The veiny throb I’d come to identify as an indicator of Keiran’s breaking point made its first appearance, and I wondered if I’d just made things worse. “I suppose he didn’t tell you.”
He didn’t bother to answer and continued to grill me. “And?”
“I ran down the wrong hallway. A nurse caught me. She knew I hadn’t signed in because I wasn’t wearing a visitor’s pass.”
“Why didn’t you run?”
“With a dead body down the hall? I would have been implicated months ago.” And maybe I would have if it hadn’t been for the company’s lack of foresight on effective filing. Months of logs were missing altogether or stored in the wrong places. If it hadn’t been for the investigation, the issue might never have been brough
t to light.
“Continue,” he ordered.
“There’s nothing else. I signed in, and when the coast was clear, I left.”
“It never occurred to you that the log would implicate you? That it was all one big fuck-up from the get go?”
“Every day since then, but he’s dead now. That’s all that matters.”
“Until you’re in prison and I—I—” He made a noise that terrified me and then shot up from the bed to pace.
“You what?”
“Forget it. So Quentin killed him, and you’re his accomplice. Where do we go from here, Lake?”
“You’re asking me?”
“You seem to think you’ve got the murder game all figured out. You tell me.”
“I never claimed this would be easy. I never wanted to lie to you, but if you want me to say it, then no, I couldn’t trust you. You’re violent, reckless, and unpredictable.”
I held my breath and waited for the explosion that never came. The only sign that he’d heard was his darkened pupils. Wordlessly, he disappeared only to reappear minutes later.
I was doubly confused when he shed his shirt and reached past me to toss it and grab a bottle I hadn’t noticed he had laid on the bed. I tried to get a better look, but he captured my chin between his fingers and held my head. Time seemed to stretch as he silently studied me. I knew him well enough to know he was challenging me without uttering a single word. I lifted my chin and matched his gaze. I wouldn’t back down. Whatever game he played, I’d play it harder.
“You told me I can’t touch you,” he said slowly.
“My birth control—”
“Kneel.”
“Excuse me?”
Instead of repeating, he anchored his hands around my arms and faced me away from him. He then flattened his hand on my spine and forced me down. I struggled but he restrained me until I couldn’t struggle anymore.
“Shhh. Don’t speak. I can’t control myself if you speak.”
“This is control?”
“No, Lake. This is me taking control.” The towel—my only shield—was peeled away from my body effortlessly. I couldn’t see anything but the sheets trapped under my body. I listened to the sound of his harsh breathing as the smell of his freshly washed skin infiltrated all of my senses.
“Remember what I promised you?”
“You’ll have to be more specific.” I sensed his smile as he ran a hand down my spine to my bare ass. He stopped there and I tensed.
“I told you I would take you here…” he slipped a finger between my legs to tease forbidden areas, “when you were ready.”
“Yes.” Was I consenting or acknowledging his promise? God, I wished I knew, because he slid his knee, forcing my legs wider.
“I can’t wait that long,” he whispered.
Oh, fuck. Did he mean—
I wasn’t able to finish piecing it together because he kissed me. A harsh, possessive kiss that promised danger and retribution.
“If I can’t have your pussy… I’ll have to settle for the next best thing.” The ice in his voice froze the blood in my veins until I felt as if I would shatter.
“Keiran—”
“Shh…” His lips trailed the side of my forehead, down to the corner of my lips. After pressing a little peck, he shifted me, bringing my hips higher in the air. “I promise to make you want it.”
Could I want this?
I panted and writhed on top of the sheets as his hands freely roamed my body. Unexpectedly, I felt a hot, wet trail of desire escape me and run down the inside of my thigh. I was both mortified and hungry for something I wasn’t even sure I wanted.
“Goddamn,” he moaned and trailed a fingertip over the thigh that exposed my arousal. “You’re dripping, baby. Don’t tell me you don’t want this, or I might have to fuck you harder.”
He reached for the bottle that lay near my head and popped the top. He took a single pass over the heated skin of my ass before spreading me for his teasing. I groaned and gripped the sheets between my teeth when the first wet finger entered me. I sucked in a breath a little too harshly until I was left gasping.
“Easy,” he cautioned and slipped his finger deeper. I exhaled and my body accepted more of his invasion. I heard him shift and then his tongue was between my legs, devouring and delivering me to heights I’d never reached, all the while his finger never stopped fucking my ass.
“There’s no part of you I can’t have,” he promised after I fell apart in his mouth.
Stop this!
“Yes.” Apparently, my brain and body were at war. I turned my head in time to see him tear open his jeans with a savagery unlike men of our time. A moan escaped my lips as I braced myself for his invasion. The anticipation alone almost killed me, and when his cock pressed against me, ready to take, my heart stopped beating. He used my hair as a noose and brought his face closer.
“Keiran? Lake?” Sheldon’s voice on the other side of the door was a like a bucket of cold water, resuscitating and drowning me simultaneously.
“Yes?” The hostility in Keiran’s tone was unmistakable.
“Your niece is wondering if you two are coming to have pancakes with her before your court appearance.”
And just like a mother, Sheldon had expertly scolded us by reminding us that Kennedy could hear us, and we had somewhere to be. Another moment passed, Sheldon had already retreated back downstairs, and Keiran had still not moved away. He gripped my hair tighter in his fist and brought his lips to my ear.
“Later,” he promised, causing me to shudder violently.
* * *
I was sensitive to the touch, but Keiran insisted on keeping me in his clutch. A hand on my back, my neck, my thigh. He imprisoned me with a single touch. Several times, I attempted to move away only to be dragged closer. We were standing outside the courthouse when I decided to say something. “I don’t want you to touch me if it’s because you don’t trust me.”
“My hands are on you because I want to touch you. Is that a problem?” His brow lifted and the blank look in his eyes told me he wouldn’t care if it were.
I wanted to say something cool, snarky, and witty, but nothing came to mind. I was getting tired of the back and forth. One minute we were cold, then hot, and then cold again. I chose to ignore him while we waited to see the judge. Thompson was already waiting when we arrived so we didn’t have to wait long.
It was a while into the hearing after muddling through so much legal jargon I even began to understand what was happening.
“Your honor, my client’s rights per the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was violated the night of June 13th when an arrest was made without a warrant or probable cause.”
“Yes, I was made aware of the disgrace Detective Bennett and Detective Fulson made of the entire justice system. What is your point?”
“I request that the two detectives be dismissed from the case, and my client should be let go without bail due to charges not being brought against her to date.”
“Your honor, we do have evidence placing Lake Monroe at the scene, as well as probable cause that she murdered Mitch Masters given their history.”
“Then you should have used it to obtain a warrant.” The judge dismissed the DA with a glance and regarded Thompson with an equally cold look. Counselor, I am granting your appeal. The detectives responsible will be dismissed and replaced. Lake Monroe is free to go without bail.”
The hearing lasted less than fifteen minutes. I was still in disbelief an hour later when we were sitting on one of Dash’s many conference rooms at the request of Thompson.
“I’ll cut right to the chase. That was only the initial hurdle. The investigation into Mitch Master’s murder is ongoing, and because of this small victory, they’ll come at you harder, and we have to be ready.”
“How will we accomplish that?”
His gaze flicked to Keiran. Something had passed between them before he returned his gaze to me. “The chances of you being in
dicted increases with each secret you keep. It’s not my job to implicate you, but it is my job to acquit you.” I could feel Keiran staring as if he could exam my very soul as the lawyer spoke. “As of now, there haven’t been any charges officially brought against you, but that could change at any time. You need to be ready for that. You both do. Your grandmother’s residency at the center is a strong alibi, but if there is a witness or evidence that can place you any closer to the scene than necessary, it could destroy our entire defense.” He clasped his hand together and leaned forward. “Is there such a person?”
I saw Keiran tense, and his fists clenched over the polished oak. We were both thinking of the nurse who had now become a threat. With those simple words spoken, her life had just started to count down.
I met Keiran’s gaze and pleaded with my eyes, and when I didn’t seem to get through to him, I panicked and silently mouthed, “No.”
“Good.” Oh no. I’d spoken the word out loud unintentionally. “This means we have a better chance of beating this case before it even starts.”
Yes, but only because Keiran would ensure the nurse never had the chance to testify. Thompson left, and Keiran and I continued to stare at each other long after the door had closed.
“No.”
“You didn’t leave me much choice, did you baby?” The calm tone of his voice belied his malicious intent.
“I don’t want anyone dying for me.”
His eyes narrowed and his lips curled. “You can’t say that after you helped kill my father.” He then stood up seemingly to dismiss the conversation.
“I don’t want anyone innocent dying for me. I said no.”
He shoulders tensed as he gripped the door handle. “It’s not your decision. Besides… you didn’t give me a chance to say no.”
Chapter Nine
KEIRAN
I practically ran from the conference room to keep from doing something that would make our situation worse. How the fuck could she ask me not to protect her and at the same time, assume the worse about me? It seemed as if Mitch’s murder was bringing to light everything that remained unresolved between us.