by Sybil Bartel
His huge hands pushed his wet hair back, and his arresting eyes opened. As if he knew I’d been standing here the whole time staring, his unwavering, intense gaze met mine.
Cooling water on my skin or desire, I didn’t know which, but a shiver ran up my body. I crossed my arms over my breasts and suddenly aching nipples. “I didn’t dry off.”
“I see that,” he deadpanned, shutting the water off.
That’s when it hit me.
This was it.
I should’ve realized what it meant when the entire time he’d soaped me, he hadn’t touched me sexually. And now, with his erection protruding from his narrow hips, the tip angry red as he reached around me for a towel and still didn’t touch me—I should’ve known.
It was over.
My heart crushed in on itself, and the shiver turned into a full-body shake.
“Fuck.” Muttering the curse under his breath, he dropped eye contact and draped the towel over my shoulders, carefully not touching me. “Dry off.” He stepped around me and grabbed a second towel. Without bothering to dry himself off, he wrapped it around his waist and headed for the door. “I’ll grab our clothes.”
Fighting tears, I stood in the walk-in shower and pulled the towel tight around me.
How incredibly stupid I’d been.
Chastising myself, I used the towel and the toilet and tried to ignore the soreness between my legs, but when I wiped, I didn’t encounter blood, period or otherwise. Just my traitorous core humming with memory and yearning for something I would never get more of, not from him.
Shamelessly searching through a stranger’s bathroom drawers, I came away with a comb and angrily drew it through my wet locks. Drips of water mixed with a few tears I let fall before I dropped the comb and gripped the edge of the vanity. Sucking in breath after breath, I forced myself to get it under control.
I would not let him see me cry.
I would not.
I’d asked for everything he’d given me.
That was all me.
He had no responsibility toward me, no obligation, none.
But as I said the last word, his steps sounded on the stairs and my resolve started to break all over again.
Fighting myself, my stupid emotions, my anger at everyone and everything, I held the towel tight and stared into the mirror. My eyes on the doorway, I told myself I would give him nothing when he walked in except indifference.
If it was casual to him, then it was casual to me.
I promised myself I would not show an ounce of emotion.
Not one drop.
But then his frame filled the doorway and his gaze immediately met mine.
“The shower?” He bit out, anger pouring out of him as he tossed our clothes on the counter. “Don’t ever fucking look at me like that again.”
Shocked, confused, I didn’t immediately reply.
He gripped my chin. “I’m no fucking hero, you hear me?”
Do not back down, do not back down to this man, I silently chanted. I didn’t know why it was so important, especially in this moment, but it was. I could feel it, deep in my bones. Bolstered by sheer desperation, I said what I wanted, not what I should. “What are you afraid of?”
He dropped his hand, and every muscle in his body went rigid, except his nostrils. They flared in lethal warning. “You think I’m afraid?”
I hadn’t thought he was afraid of anything until the subconscious words had tumbled out of my mouth. Now I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t have to.
“Who fucking pulled you out of a fortified compound with twenty to one odds?” He got angrier. “Who stole a money launderer’s only leverage and started a war with the deadliest fucking cartel in the world for nothing more than a fucking hundred and fifty bucks an hour?” His fist clenched, and the veins on his neck popped. He dropped his voice and leaned toward me. “Who slit the throat of the motherfucker that was about to rape you?”
My own insecurity vomited out. “Then why don’t you like me?”
“Fucking Christ,” he spit out, standing to his full height and grabbing the pile of clothes off the counter. Pulling out my dress, bra, and the long-sleeved shirt I’d borrowed, he silently tossed them at me. Throwing his shirt and pants over his shoulder, he abruptly stilled.
Staring at the two pairs of his boxers in his hand for a beat, he glanced at the pair he’d been wearing on the floor.
His shoulders lifted with a deep inhale.
Embarrassment colored my cheeks. “I—”
“I get it.” Without making eye contact, he handed me both pairs of his boxers.
I took them. “Thank you.”
He lowered his tone and his voice came out tired. “Get dressed.” Without waiting for a response, he walked out.
I WAS A FUCKING ASSHOLE.
But I knew the second I saw the look on her face in the shower, she’d made me into something I wasn’t and she wanted more.
I didn’t do more.
This was exactly why I didn’t fuck with virgins. I was too fucking old for that shit, goddamn it.
But fuck. Fuck.
Two fucking pairs of my boxers because she had her period, and I still hadn’t done a damn thing to take care of her. I’d sure as fuck pounded her tight cunt the second I’d had the chance though. When she was sitting on my lap, I’d hadn’t given a shit if I’d lost my job over this shit, but I deserved to be fired.
Throwing my clothes on, I tossed the sheet in the wash. I was grabbing two more waters out of the fridge when she came downstairs.
Her hair combed, her dress back on, her face bruised—it was all fucking with me. Worse, she was wearing my shit, and that made me feel possessive.
I held out a water for her. “You okay?” I was an asshole for what I said to her upstairs, but she needed to know who I was. And who I wasn’t.
“Fine.” Her tone not giving away shit, her small-as-hell hand took the water.
I remembered her fingers digging into my biceps as I took her, and my dick pulsed. Fuck, I wanted back inside her. But I’d meant every word I’d said. I wasn’t what she wanted, or needed, not past the handoff that was coming, and that more than anything was pissing me off, especially since I knew she didn’t want to go home. But what the fuck was I gonna do? Take her to my place and shack up until the next time I took an assignment I might not come home from? She deserved more than that.
I chugged my water, she sipped hers, and I stared at her because I couldn’t fucking look away. My finger twitching, I wanted a cigarette so goddamn bad, I would’ve killed for a nicotine fix.
She opened her mouth to say something, and the phone rang.
Startled, she pressed her lips together and dropped her head.
I answered on the second ring, but I didn’t speak.
“It’s Luna, I’m thirty seconds out.”
“Copy.” Staring at her, I palmed the gun she’d kept from falling into the water, then I focused on what the hell Luna was saying. “You watching your six?”
“Yeah, nothing. Collins is a block back. I’m pulling in first.”
“I need to return the vehicle to the paramedic.”
“Negative. Not our priority. Leave the keys on the back tire, and I’ll text him the address after we’ve cleared out. Pulling up in fifteen seconds.”
“Ten-four.” I hung up and glanced at her. “Our ride’s here.”
Setting her water down, she nodded, but her expression had changed slightly.
I’d been around her enough to read that something was up. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head.
“Ludeviene,” I warned.
“We should go.” Barefoot, she turned toward the door.
I let her get one step away. “You regret it.” I had no fucking right to say shit when I’d pushed her away, but goddamn, I didn’t want her to regret me.
“No, I don’t,” she protested, but her voice caught.
Grasping her arm, I turned her
toward me. “I told you the score before I took you.”
“And I assumed nothing different.” She swallowed hard. “It was just sex.”
It wasn’t just sex. I’d fucked so many women, I’d lost count. I knew fucking, but this woman, looking in to my eyes like she could see through all the bullshit, her kissing my chest, that wasn’t just sex. But fuck if it could be more. She was like a goddamn Rockefeller, and I was going after a cartel golden boy. This shit didn’t mix.
“You knew this would never work.” I didn’t know what I hated more, the shit coming out of my mouth or the fact that I hadn’t been able to stop pulling the trigger since I’d gotten out of the Marines.
Her fucking proper voice showed back up. “There is no issue. We don’t need to discuss anything further.”
Luna pulled in to the driveway.
“Then why the fuck do you look like I killed your dog?”
Her arms crossed, and all the shit I never wanted to see on her face came out—anger, hurt, fear. “Honestly, Ty, what do you want from me?”
Luna got out of his Escalade.
“Tyce,” I corrected, out of time and fucking hating it.
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
“My full name. Tyce.” Wanting to hear her say it, just once, I waited.
Two fucking heartbeats she stared at me.
Luna knocked.
She glanced at the door, then back at me. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I think we have to go, Tyce.”
Goddamn, I was a glutton for punishment.
HE WAS SO MERCURIAL AND confusing, I wasn’t surprised Ty wasn’t his full name. I was only surprised he’d told me. And his name fit him, but he would always be just Ty to me.
Someone knocked on the door again. “Ty?”
“Coming,” Ty called over his shoulder before grasping my chin in a dominant gesture I wished didn’t make my knees weak. “You good?”
Good was a hot cup of coffee when you were cold.
Good was a decent night’s sleep.
Good wasn’t losing your virginity to a man who scared you how much he was wrong for you but you couldn’t think of a single thing you wanted more than to be with him.
I lied. “I’m good.”
He nodded once and dropped his hand to the gun in his back waistband. “Let’s go.” His other hand went to the small of my back, and he walked us to the front door and opened it.
A man almost as tall as Ty and just as muscular, but with a completely different disposition, stood on the doorstep.
His smile kind, his brown eyes warm, he held his hand out. “Miss Loic, I’m André Luna. Your father hired my firm to get you home safely. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
My back stiffening at the mention of my father, I shook André’s hand. “Thank you… for everything.”
He clapped Ty’s shoulder. “All Ty’s doing, ma’am.” His expression turned serious. “Now, if you’ll follow me, I’d like to get you home.” He cupped my upper arm.
I flinched.
André dropped his hand as his gaze cut to Ty and he raised an eyebrow.
“Surface wound,” Ty clipped, stepping to the opposite side of me as André.
“Was she checked out?” Looking over my head at Ty, André asked the question almost accusingly.
“I checked her out.” Ty gave André a warning glare as his hand moved to the space between my shoulder blades. “She’ll be fine. Let’s move.” He stepped forward, pulling the door shut behind us.
Flanking me, André didn’t let it go. “I made Loic a promise.”
This was ridiculous. “I’m right here, and I can answer for myself. I’m fine.”
Both of them scanned the street as an identical black SUV to the one already parked in the driveway pulled up.
André opened the back door of the Escalade that was already parked. “In you go, chica.” He nodded at the SUV behind us before closing my door.
I settled in to the soft leather as Ty first stopped by the paramedic’s car, then got in the front passenger seat as André got behind the wheel. Both men were quiet, but I could feel the tension as they scanned the street and surrounding houses.
André touched a device in his ear. “Collins, you’re taking the lead. Direct route.” He reversed out of the driveway and fell in behind the other Escalade.
We were all silent as André wove through residential streets and picked up US 1 heading north.
I didn’t have a sense of what time it was or even what day it was at this point, but every second the Escalade drove further north, I got more anxious.
I didn’t want to see my father, and I didn’t want my mother to see me like this. If I was lucky, my father didn’t even tell my mother what had happened. It would only upset her, and anything stressful made her symptoms worse.
André kept glancing in the rearview mirror at me, and Ty stared out the window. An uncomfortable silence had descended as the reality of the situation sank in.
I couldn’t go to my condo. I wouldn’t be safe there alone. And after experiencing what had happened, I had zero confidence in my father’s security personal. I’d never questioned their qualifications before, but it was clear anything less than what Ty was capable of would not keep me safe.
I couldn’t go home, I couldn’t go to my parents, and none of the casual friendships I’d maintained since high school or college were an option.
André glanced at me in the rearview mirror again. “We’ll have you home in three hours.”
There was only one option I could think of.
“May I borrow your phone?” I asked André.
“For?”
“To call Falcon.” I didn’t know his last name, but I knew he worked for André, and I couldn’t think where else to go, or who else to impose upon. Ty had said he was going after Dante, and I didn’t doubt him. But I didn’t know what would come of that, or how long it would take, and I just couldn’t go home. Dreena and her boyfriend seemed like my only option, but I didn’t know if André would have her number, and I didn’t have my own phone to look it up.
André frowned. “You want to talk to Tank?”
Ty turned in his seat to glare at me.
I ignored him. I had to. “Yes, I want to—”
I never got the rest of the sentence out.
A vehicle slammed into the side of the Escalade.
Screeching tires, crunching metal, breaking glass—Ty was half out of his seat, grasping a handful of the front of my dress and yanking me to the floor before the SUV had even stopped moving from the impact of the crash.
“Down, down, down!” His other arm straight out, he held me to the floor and fired off shots as bullets hit the side of the Escalade.
STRAIGHT T-BONE, A SUV SLAMMED into the driver side of the Escalade.
I was out of my seat yanking her down before Luna had control of the vehicle. Her bulletproof window shattered but was still holding as the first shots rang out.
“Down, down, down!” Holding her in the footwell, I aimed out her window and unloaded.
The driver ducked, but not before I saw who it was.
“Motherfucker,” I cursed. “I’m out.”
Luna fired out of his half-open window. “Thigh holster.”
I grabbed his second piece and fired off three more rounds as another SUV flew at us. Braking at the last second, the driver spun the wheel and came to a stop inches in front of the Escalade, blocking us in.
Goddamn it. “Get us the fuck outta here, Luna!”
“Collins,” Luna clipped into the comm, ignoring me. “Passenger side, grab her now!” He ducked. “Reloading, cover.” He reached for a magazine on his vest.
I fired off more rounds as bullets fucking sprayed into the Escalade from the front and side.
Fuck this. “Where the hell is Collins?”
“Five seconds.” Luna aimed out his window at the new SUV.
“Ludeviene, stay down,” I ordered, shoving my door open. “Luna, cover me.”
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“Copy.” Luna fired off a new burst.
That motherfucking pussy Addis was gonna die. I got out of the Escalade as Collins ran up in a half crouch with two rifles.
I took half a second to grab the front of his shirt. “She dies, you die, you fucking hear me?”
He shoved the M16 and an extra magazine at me before slinging the other rifle’s strap over his shoulder. “End this.” Opening the door, he reached for Ludeviene. “Keep your head down and crawl out. We’re getting you out of here.”
Face down, her body prone, she didn’t move.
My heart fucking stopped. “Ludeviene!”
Collins flipped her over.
Her eyes open, her stare vacant, her arms were crossed over her chest.
My fucking ears rang, and my shit tunneled. “Ludeviene.”
“She’s breathing. She’s good,” Collins clipped as bullets flew past us. “She’s not hit. She’s in shock.”
“Get her the fuck out of here!” Luna yelled.
Collins yanked her out of the Escalade and threw her over his shoulder. “Cover us.”
I stared at her.
“Ty,” Collins barked. “COVER.”
I fucking snapped out of it. Stepping on the running board, letting out a roar of rage, I fired the M16 over the top of the vehicle. Round after round, I fucking unloaded into Addis’s vehicle until he fell out the driver door and slumped to the pavement.
Stepping down, I pounded on the roof of the Escalade as sirens sounded in the distance. “Pull up, pull up!”
Still firing at the vehicle in front of us, Luna floored it, using the weight of the bulletproof Escalade to ram the other SUV.
“Cover me!” I ran around the rear of the vehicle and grabbed Addis, dragging him back behind the Escalade as Luna continued to ram the other SUV.
Hit in the chest and the arm, blood coming out of his mouth, Addis looked up at me with a look I’d seen more times than I could count.
He knew he was a dead man.
“I had no choice.” Addis sputtered, coughing up blood.
“Where the fuck is Dante?” I had no fucking sympathy for him.
The sirens got louder
“It was her or me.” He tried to laugh but only coughed up more blood. “Guess it’s me.”