“Come with me.”
“I can’t just walk out on a shift, Adam. I’m lucky that they didn’t fire me for asking for so much time off this week.”
When another smile appeared on his lips that didn’t quite reach his eyes, it was my turn to frown.
“You’re better than this, Bri,” he said quietly, leaning closer to where I stood on the opposite side of the counter. “There’s nothing wrong with this job, but you of all people shouldn’t have to do something you hate. You’re just—You’re too damn smart for this. Come with me.”
“You want me to quit? Just walk out?” I asked for clarification, stunned at the prospect. Could I even do that? And why did I want to so badly?
“I’ll help you find another job, I promise.”
I highly doubted that he had any personal connections anywhere that I could put my degree to use, but he just sounded so damn sure that I immediately believed him. I caught myself tugging at the strings of my apron—itching to take him up on his offer—when logic hit and I stopped cold.
“What if you can’t?”
“Trust me. I will,” Adam replied solemnly before his face lit up with a genuine smile. “And if I can’t, I’ll gladly match whatever pay you get here.”
In truth, I had already made my decision, but I narrowed my eyes at him and asked, “Do you offer benefits? Health insurance? A 401k?”
“Nope. Does this place?” he fired back, gesturing his hand around the shop.
“No, but there are plenty of other perks.”
“Like free coffee?”
“Mm-hm.”
Adam leaned over the counter and tugged at my apron, bringing us as close together as we could possibly get with the bar between us.
“I’ll buy you all the coffee you could ever want if you walk out of here with me right now,” he said softly, his eyes searching my face for an answer.
After taking a final glance around the shop and reminding myself that I had been desperately looking for a reason to quit for months now, I turned back to Adam and grinned.
“You’ve got a deal.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Adam
The romanticism of my gesture was slightly dampened once I led Brianna into the parking lot and the sight of Dale leaning against the passenger side of the car came into view. I watched some of the excitement drain out of her eyes as we came face-to-face with the reality of our situation yet again.
Dale really didn’t help matters when he opened the back door and made a sweeping gesture with his arm as he sarcastically said, “Your chariot awaits.”
Before he shut the door behind her, I reached forward to hold it open and shot him a dirty glare. He chuckled at the sight and rolled his eyes as I bent down to slide into the back with her.
“Sorry about him,” I muttered under my breath.
“It’s fine,” she whispered back, waiting until Dale got into the driver’s seat before she added, “I appreciate the ride. Thank you.”
“All part of the job,” he modestly replied before he paused. “Well, part of this particular job, anyways.”
As much as I wanted to immediately start talking to Bri, I wasn’t enough of a masochist to allow Dale to overhear and chime in with his own colorful comments on the subject of my past. Not because I planned to lie to her about anything, but because I knew that it probably looked a hell of a lot different from the law’s point of view.
Brianna wasn’t interested in that. She wanted my story and that was exactly what I planned to give her.
“Did you—” Brianna started, her eyes flickering up to the front before she continued, “Did you see your mom?”
“Briefly.”
“How is she?”
I nearly laughed at how obviously Brianna was trying to break the awkward silence, but there really wasn’t any way around it. Her effort was admirable, though, so I indulged her.
“Same as ever,” I offered up with a shrug. “She’s dating a jackass now though, so we’re not exactly on the best of terms.”
Dale snorted from the front seat but made no comment. Brianna raised a brow, but I just shook my head, thankful that she seemed to immediately realize that I’d elaborate later.
But that didn’t mean she was finished attempting to break the tension.
“Did you find out if there was a tracker on Adam’s car?”
“There was,” Dale confirmed, not at all surprised that Brianna had apparently been listening in on our hushed conversation the night before. “So he probably knows where you live, but I’ll be keeping someone watching your building until the threat is gone. The good news is that since the rental is trashed, he can’t track him anymore.”
Brianna nodded, understanding dawning in her eyes. “So even if he knows where Adam’s been—”
“He doesn’t know where he is. Bingo.”
Her eyebrows drew together in a frown, shaking her head with confusion. “I don’t get it. If he was really trying to locate Adam, why would he destroy his only means of doing so?”
“My father is a loose cannon. He gets pissed and flies off the handle—does shit without thinking it through beforehand,” I said, cutting off whatever Dale was going to say. “Not to mention patience has never been a strong suit of his.”
“Which is good for us,” Dale added. “He’s already slipped once and he’ll do it again soon.”
“You really think so?”
“I know my brother and I trust my intuition,” Dale said, his voice thick with something I was struggling to put a name to. “One way or another... this is going to end soon.”
This time, when a solemn silence took over the car ride, Brianna didn’t bother to interrupt it. We rode to her apartment in silence, but it wasn’t until after Bri and I had gotten out of the car and were walking to her building that I finally figured out what had been lingering in Dale’s voice.
Remorse.
“That was the most awkward car ride ever,” Brianna nervously said as she unlocked her door. “Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” I said with a wave, although I wasn’t entirely sure if I believed my own words. But I could only focus on one thing at a time. “Is your roommate back?”
“Yeah, but she’s not here. She dropped me at the coffee shop before going to work. We’ve got the place to ourselves for a while.”
After she swung open the door and let me inside, I watched as she latched all the locks on her door then double-checked each one. A fresh wave of guilt washed over me when I realized that this paranoia was entirely my fault.
“I think we’re safe,” I said quietly as I saw her hands move back to check them a third time.
“It’s habit.”
“A new habit?”
Her hands stopped moving over the door and she turned back, her eyes sad as she slowly nodded. I tugged her away from the door—checking the locks for her once more just to put her at ease—before I led her over to the couch and asked her to sit. She placed her hands between her knees to keep from fidgeting, but her body language was enough to tell me just how nervous she was.
“Do you want a drink or something?” I asked, scratching the back of my neck as I wondered about the protocol for something like this. It wasn’t a situation that I’d ever been in before, but at least Brianna seemed amused by me offering her a drink in her own house.
“I’m good. So... you wanted to talk?”
Just as I was lowering my ass to the couch, I shot back up and began to pace. I still hated that I had to tell this story, but I’d do it for her. I’d just prefer to do it while not looking at her.
Because if I saw something on her face that I didn’t like, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get through the whole story.
“I started dealing early in high school. My dad’s an asshole, but he wasn’t enough of one to make me peddle for him while I was in middle school. Like I said in the restaurant—that’s how my popularity began. Because I regularly sold pot and pills to a dozen guys o
n the football team. All that ‘The Body’ shit didn’t start until after.”
“So... just weed and pills? Like Adderall?”
“Yeah. Prescription meds and ecstasy were the popular choices. I had access to pretty much anything, but the kids in our school never showed an interest in the harder stuff. There was only one person near the end of my dealing days who asked for coke.”
“Is... Is that what your mom takes?” Brianna asked quietly, like she was afraid of saying the wrong thing and offending me.
Or at least that’s what I gathered from her tone of voice since I still couldn’t bring myself to look over at her.
“My mom is an alcoholic above all else. Sometimes she mixes it up with pills and coke, but she’s happiest on the bottle. Always has been.”
There was a tense pause before she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. She...” I trailed off, not knowing how I could describe this in a way that someone who hadn’t lived my life could understand. “She was always off in her own little world, so she was never much of a mother to me. She would throw parties on school nights like I didn’t even exist. I can’t tell you how many nights as a kid I shared my bedroom with someone who just stumbled in and crashed on the floor to sleep one off. But given the choice… I’d always pick her ways over how it was with my father.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of a response I was waiting for, but nothing besides silence met me. I had turned away so my back was facing her and after a long minute of waiting, I summoned up the nerve to twist my head back and dare to take a look at her face.
When I saw the tears rolling down her face as she stared at the floor in a state of shock, I felt my stomach twist. I never intended to make her cry and the guilt from seeing her tears overruled the shame and embarrassment I felt abut my past. I walked to the couch and crouched down in front of her, gently lifting her chin until she was looking me in the eye.
“I didn’t know,” she said numbly. “I spent all those years thinking you were perfect—your life was perfect—and I didn’t know. I’m so sorry, Adam.”
“I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want anyone to know. You have nothing to be sorry for, sweetheart.”
Her face began to crumple and I began to worry about how I’d react if she were to start crying harder, but Brianna surprised me yet again by managing to reel in her emotions before the dam broke and steady herself.
“Keep going,” she said, wincing a little when her voice wavered. She cleared her throat and added, “Tell me about your dad.”
“I’m not going to go into detail about what it was like growing up with him. There’s no point in it. The part that’s relevant to what’s happening now is when Dale told me to stop dealing. He wasn’t a detective yet back then. He didn’t get that promotion until he organized the bust that put my father and most of his associates away.”
Brianna let out a noise of surprise. “Did you—”
“Get in trouble? No. I should have, but Dale made a deal with the D.A. on my behalf that if I stopped dealing immediately and testified against my dad and the other guys, they’d keep my former involvement under wraps so I could have a future. We both kept our ends of the bargain.”
She wiped her tears away and her eyes went wide as she slowly began to nod as the pieces finally clicked into place.
“So that’s it. You helped put your dad in jail and got off scot-free—”
“And now he’s out and he’s pissed.”
“But he wouldn’t hurt you, would he?”
With a heavy sigh, I ran my hand through my hair and shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. It wouldn’t be the first time we came to physical blows, but I... I really have no way of knowing how far he’d take it if he were to get me face-to-face again.”
“I refuse to believe that any father would-would… kill his own son,” Brianna said, the stutter of her words betraying the firmness of her voice. She stubbornly shook her head back and forth, like her denial would will it to be true.
With a sad smile, I said, “You’ve obviously never met my father.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Brianna
Adam seemed certain that there was no way of knowing what his father would do if he found him, but I couldn’t bring myself to entertain the thought that he’d do real physical harm to his own son.
Something in my head warned that it was naive of me to think like that but I shut the nagging fear up by reminding myself that Adam was here now, Dale was outside, and the door was firmly locked. We were both safe.
Less important in the grand scheme of things, Adam had also finally told me the truth. As scary as it must have been for him to do it, he managed to give me the answers I had been so desperate for, and I felt my admiration for him grow. To show him, I threw my arms around his neck and gave him the tightest hug I possibly could.
Adam laughed as he caught my weight and leaned us back, his arms wrapping around me in return as he accepted the affection.
“What’s this for?”
“For being so amazing,” I mumbled against his neck. “After everything you’ve been through, I can’t believe you turned out to be such a good man.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I’m not—”
“You are,” I argued, effectively silencing him with the finality in my voice. “You might not be perfect like I thought you were, but you’re a damn good man. End of story.”
I felt him turn and press a kiss to my hair and I swore I could feel my heart melt in my chest. It turned into an outright puddle when he whispered, “Does that mean you can forgive me?”
“For what?” I asked with a laugh, rearing back to look at his face so I could try to figure out what the hell he was talking about.
“For being a coward and walking out last night.”
“You came back,” I pointed out with a shrug. “That’s all that matters to me.”
Adam’s happy smile was infectious and I caught myself grinning right back at him. When his eyes drooped and he cocked one eyebrow high, my thighs automatically clenched together at the thought of what was coming next.
Because whatever it was—I knew it was going to be dirty.
“Do you think I could stay here again?” he whispered, leaning forward until his breath ghosted across my lips. “Because I crashed on Dale’s couch last night and it really didn’t compare to being in your bed.”
His sultry tone was already doing things to me and I couldn’t find the strength to even pretend to think about it.
“I’d be more than happy to help you out with that.”
“I missed you, baby.”
“I missed—mmph!”
My sentence was cut short by his lips firmly pressing against mine and a mere moment later, I felt the world shift as he lifted me into the air. My legs went around his back and our lips never parted as he blindly walked towards my bedroom. I smiled against his mouth when I realized that during the few days we’d spent here together, he had committed the trek to memory.
When my back was pressed against my bedroom door, he pulled back just enough to let us both catch our breath.
“You drive me crazy, Bri,” he heatedly whispered. “I’m not sure what it is about you but I can’t stop coming back for more.”
“If you don’t ever leave, you won’t have to keep coming back.”
His eyes opened wider as he stared at my face, but the awkward tension I expected after my thoughtless comment never came. Instead, a slow smile spread across his lips and he slowly nodded.
“You’re right. Does that mean I can stay?”
“For as long as you want.”
It must have been the answer he wanted because his hold on me tightened and he slotted his lips back over mine. I gripped his neck with one hand and ran the other into his hair, moaning softly when I felt his tongue demanding entrance to my mouth where it slid sensually against my own.
I tried to break the kiss just long enough to beg him to move us into
my bedroom, but he held me captive against the door with his massive frame. I couldn’t even get my hips to wriggle enough in his tight grasp to spur him further along, so I eventually gave up my grip on his hair to slide my hand down far enough to grope at his hard cock.
That certainly got his attention.
He broke the kiss, his dark eyes boring into mine as he breathlessly asked, “Want something?”
“You know I do.”
“Tell me what you want.”
It only took a split second for the perfect words to form in my head.
“I want you to wreck me.”
Adam let out a short burst of laughter before his smile turned into something dark and salacious.
“Consider it done,” he growled, pulling me back from the door so he could hastily twist the knob and push it open.
Even though my weight was like nothing to him, he had trouble going into my room. He practically stumbled us over to the bed, frantically pulling at my clothes the moment my back hit the mattress. It was clear that he had been more affected by my words than I expected.
“Slow down,” I said softly, reaching for his hands as they twisted the fabric of my shirt. “Stacy won’t be back for hours. We’ve got plenty of time.”
But Adam only growled in response—batting my hands away gently before pulling my shirt over my head with a series of jerky movements. When he spotted the camisole I was wearing underneath, he let out a huff of frustration and literally ripped it in half.
“Adam!” I cried, torn between being enraged and turned on by the almost animalistic destruction of my undershirt. When his eyes came up to meet mine I repeated, “Slow. Down.”
“No,” he replied with a grunt, tugging down the cups of my bra and bending down to suck a nipple into his mouth. I let out a shuddering moan and swallowed hard when he pulled away and whispered, “I need you now.”
Well, I couldn’t really argue with that. Nor could I argue with the way he maneuvered me around like ragdoll—undressing me with desperate movements before running his hands softly over the newly exposed areas. He was still fully dressed by the time I was naked and spread out before him, his fingers trailing down to run up and down my slit.
The Body Page 14