Nobody_Does_It_Better_Kobo

by Lexi Blake

  Sure she didn’t, but then it had been a handy way to manipulate him.

  Now he could easily see every move she’d made had been to get him to a point where he would place her in the best possible position to do her job. In some ways, he even admired her for it. He could understand. Hell, his job was all he’d had until he’d met…his job was all he had, too.

  “They listen to me in the playroom?”

  “I’m not sure,” she replied. “It’s very likely.”

  So they would know about his proclivities. They would have heard him topping her, saying things that could be taken in the nastiest of contexts. They wouldn’t be able to see his expression or how she responded. Without the aid of sight, the words themselves would be harsh, the commands of a man merely using a woman for sex. Since they’d talked openly about the club and its members, he would have to deal with that as well.

  But that wasn’t his only problem.

  “They listen in my bedroom. Don’t they? They would have heard us talking last night after your dads went to bed. Are they really your dads? They were surprisingly effective. They could be actors.”

  She swallowed once and then again. “Yes. Yes, they are. And I wasn’t thinking about that last night. Josh, those tapes won’t ever go anywhere. No one outside this operation will ever hear them.”

  He’d whispered his story to her because she’d been the only one on the planet he wanted to share it with. In doing so, he’d spilled his secrets to a group who dealt in them, who fed off them. His words would go into a file for the Agency higher-ups to read and they would decide what to do with the information. His sad-sack life, his blood, spread out for everyone.

  He’d paid blackmail for years, but love had been the thing to bring him low.

  “Please say something,” she begged.

  “You wouldn’t like what I have to say.” His heart actually ached. It thudded in his chest, squeezing and unclenching, and every beat hurt.

  “I love you.”

  He closed his eyes because he couldn’t stand to look at her. “Don’t say those words. They’re meaningless coming from your lips.”

  “Josh, I do love you. We have to talk. I know you don’t want to, but I can see you’re angry with me. It’s okay. I would be pissed off, too. I’ve lied to you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. It doesn’t mean that I intended to leave you. I prayed we would get to Hector’s and save the operative and you wouldn’t have to know. I was going to stay with you.”

  He opened his eyes and looked at her. Really looked at her. She was wearing chic clothes that had designer labels all over them, her hair still shiny from the blow-out she’d had earlier. Of course she was staying. She had a taste for his lifestyle now. “I’d like you out my house in the next hour. Tell Shane and Declan they’re fired as well. I think I’ll stay at Jared’s until I can find somewhere else.”

  “What?”

  He stood up. It was time to put an end to whatever this was. And maybe he wouldn’t go to Jared’s. It was time to end that, too. He’d been better off without friends. Jared was the one who’d talked him into… Of course. What a complete idiot he was. “Jared’s in on this. His brother works for you people. Naturally.”

  She shook her head. “No. No. Jared has no idea what’s going on. He’s your friend and he thought he was helping you. He wouldn’t do this to you. I promise. You can trust him. But Josh, you can’t kick us out. You can’t fire us. I know this is all going to hell, but we need to talk.”

  “Talk about what?”

  “Talk about why you’re so cold right now.”

  “I’m cold because this is who I am.” He was cold because if he let even the slightest hint of heat in, he would have a hand around her throat. He was cold because it was important that he stayed nice and numb. If he let a sliver of emotion in, he would hate her every bit as much as he’d ever loved her. He put a hand up. Perhaps there was another way to end this. “Look, you’re making a lot of something you probably shouldn’t.”

  She sighed, her eyes soft as though she pitied him. “Don’t try to tell me this wasn’t real. I won’t believe you.”

  He had to make the attempt. Maybe if he said the words, he could believe them. “I got emotional last night. I’m sure a shrink would tell me I carried that secret around for too long and it got to me. I mistook good sex for real affection. Rookie move, but I’ll get over it. You were excellent in bed and genuinely amusing. The funny girl thing works for me. I’ll make a note of that when I find the next one of you.”

  There wouldn’t be a next one. Not ever again. He’d been burned so often, but it would be this woman who finally taught him the lesson.

  Again that nauseating sympathy lit her gaze. “I don’t buy that for a second. I can see you creating dialogue in your head. You think I haven’t learned you inside and out? I know that when the emotional shit gets too real, you go deep and find some character to play so you don’t have to deal with it.”

  Excellent. Then she wouldn’t mind if he played the massive asshole. “And when you come up against a problem, sweetheart, you spread your legs and make a whore of yourself.”

  He prepped for a bitch slap and was surprised when she merely took a deep breath and sighed.

  “Okay, I can handle that. I can even see the point. I don’t like the word, but you’re feeling mean right now, and given what I took from you, I’ll allow it.”

  “Allow it?” Did she honestly believe she was in control here? Well, he supposed that was his fault since up until now she’d happily led him around by his stupid cock.

  “Yeah, call me names, babe,” she encouraged. “Whore, bitch, cunt. I can handle them all as long as we keep on talking because at the end of this conversation, we’re going to be okay.”

  “There is no we. There never was a we. There was an idiot me who let his dick do the thinking and there was a manipulative, ruthless bitch who saw an easy mark and took it.” Despite his best of intentions, he was starting to heat up. “And of course you would stay, darling. What whore leaves a john who can buy her anything she wants? All you have to do is fuck me and hope I never find out all the other shit you’ve lied about. Who was the man on the beach, Kayla?”

  Because it occurred to him that she’d been lying about everything today. Every fucking thing.

  Her jaw firmed. “He’s another agent.”

  He bet that’s who he was. From the way Jared explained it, the two had been cozy. “Does he like you fucking the targets? Is that why he took off the way he did? Did you tell him he was going to lose you at the end of this op? How many of us have there been?”

  “More than I like to admit,” she replied quietly.

  “Hey, it’s cool. I was a whore, too, but then you know that and now all your buddies know it, too.” They would use it against him. Something like that didn’t get hidden away somewhere.

  “I will get that tape. I’ll make sure it doesn’t exist. I swear it.”

  “Your lies mean nothing. Get your shit and get out. Take the assholes with you. If I ever see your lying, whore face again…”

  “Hey,” a deep voice said from above. “What the fuck is going on? You don’t talk to her like that.”

  “Declan, this is between Josh and me,” Kay said quickly.

  Ah, finally someone he could turn a little rage on. Despite everything she’d done to him, he couldn’t start a real fight with her, couldn’t wrap his hands around her throat and squeeze. And she couldn’t give him the physical pain he needed. But this asshole could. “Nah, this is a fucking family affair, man. You in on this? Does she fuck all of us? Is that how she keeps you two in line? I’m going to tell you, sweetheart, whatever Kegels you’re doing, they’re fantastic because somehow after all that cock, you’re still tight as a drum. Although maybe Dec’s a little light in that department.”

  Instead of punching him in the face, Dec looked back at Kayla. “Shit. He knows. What the fuck? I thought we were going to get through this without telli
ng him and have a goddamn happily ever after. You knew that shit was going to fuck his brain over.”

  Kay put her hands on her hips. “Well, it wasn’t my idea to tell him. I was planning on going to my damn grave with that one. I didn’t want to hurt him that way.”

  “Fucking Agency,” Dec spat. “They can’t do anything right. Who screwed up? I’ll take them out. I hate these jobs. Josh, you gotta understand that me, Shane, and Kay, we were all for knocking on your door and asking for your help. This undercover shit is not how we do business. I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry?” That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Not even close. “I don’t give a damn about your apologies. You can take it and shove it up your ass. I want you and Shane out of here, and take the whore with you.”

  Dec’s eyes flared, but Kay got between them.

  “Don’t. It’s his affectionate name for me now,” she told the big bodyguard. “He’s using it to get to you because he can’t hurt me the way he wants to. He’s in bad shape and I don’t know how to fix it.”

  “You can fix it by leaving my house.” And then he would sell the place because it was tainted now. He wouldn’t be able to trust it. He would move again. This time he would find a place far outside of town and be alone. Someplace where no one could find him.

  And maybe he had enough money. If he gave up his career, no one would give a crap that he’d been a child used and discarded again and again. The only reason anyone cared now was his status as a movie star. If he sacrificed that, they would leave him alone.

  “We can’t go,” Kay was saying. “You still need protection. And we have to think about our operative. Morales is more dangerous than you know.”

  “Do I have to call the police?”

  “The Agency will override them, man,” Dec said with a long sigh.

  “I’m not helping you or anyone. You can all go to hell as far as I’m concerned.”

  “I can get it all back for you,” Kay said with a tremble to her voice. “I can promise you that tape will never see the light of day, will be utterly and completely erased, but you have to let us come with you to Mexico.”

  He stared at her for a long moment. “Ah, there’s what I expected. A little blackmail of your own.”

  She shook her head. “You won’t let me protect you any other way. I have to do this job and I have to make sure you’re alive at the end of it. Morales wants something from you and he won’t allow you to brush him off with excuses. When you don’t show up, he’ll know something’s gone wrong, and I think he’s going to come after you.”

  “Why?” He didn’t understand any of this.

  Her jaw tensed. “I don’t know.”

  “You’re lying.”

  She moved into his space. “It doesn’t matter now. I fucked up. I get that. You’re not going to come back from this and there’s no happy beach life for us at the end of this op. But you will be alive and I will handle all those problems I said I would. When this mission is over, you won’t worry about blackmailers again and Morales won’t darken your doorstep.”

  “You’re going to kill him?”

  Her eyes had darkened and it took all he had to stand his ground. This was the Kayla he hadn’t seen, only heard about. This was the warrior goddess who enjoyed the kill, who lived for it. “Oh, yes, Joshua. I’ll have his head and bring down his entire organization if it’s the last thing I do on this earth.”

  God, she was glorious. Why did it have to be her? Why had she turned into such a liar? She could win back almost everything, but trust? That was gone and it wouldn’t come again.

  “We can go to the room Shane and I are in and talk about this,” Dec said reasonably.

  He wasn’t about to do that. He wasn’t going to listen to fucking reason. He stepped down a stair, coming up against Kayla. “Move out of my way.”

  “If you want to take a break, I can understand,” she said. “But you have to take Declan.”

  He reached for her, unable to contain it a second longer. She was right there and he still fucking wanted her. After everything she’d done, all the lies, all the brutal manipulations of his life, what he wanted to do was carry her upstairs, strap her down to the spanking bench, and not let her up until she was properly submissive to him. He’d played around with it, but she’d still truly been in charge. The primal male inside him knew he wouldn’t find another like her. That fucking caveman wanted to mark her, bind her, take her until she couldn’t lie to him ever again.

  Until she couldn’t leave him.

  His hands wound around her arms, shaking her a bit harder than he’d meant to, but then violence was bubbling up and she wouldn’t let him fucking go. “You do not give me orders. You do not have me on your goddamn leash.”

  He felt a hard hand on the back of his neck and he was pulled away. Fuck that hurt and it lit something inside him. Declan had hold of him, the monster of a man easily hauling him off his feet.

  “Go away, Kay. I need to deal with this. Send Shane down. He’s going to need more than one of us.” Declan eased him down.

  Kay’s eyes widened. “No. No, you can’t hurt him.”

  But fuck he wanted that hurt more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life. Maybe even more than he’d wanted her. That pain would be real and visceral, and it would release the agony he was in.

  She’d been nothing but an illusion.

  He struggled, but Declan strong-armed him down the stairs past Kay. He maneuvered Josh into the basement, away from prying eyes.

  “No ears down here,” Declan said, letting him go.

  He wheeled on the larger man and hit him with an uppercut to his gut. Declan didn’t move. Didn’t grunt. Didn’t show that he’d felt anything at all.

  “That’s it, buddy. Take it out on me. I can handle it,” he said. “Hell, sometimes I fucking crave a good fight. A few rules though.”

  “You can’t hit his face,” Kay said, looking vulnerable as she stood watching them. “Declan, please don’t hurt him.”

  “He needs this,” Declan replied. “We can do it this way or he’ll find a way to hurt himself. I should know. I would do the same. He’s a pressure cooker waiting to explode and destroy everyone around him, but you and I are going to let off a little steam here.”

  Declan pulled the T-shirt he was wearing over his head and tossed it to the side, but not before Josh saw that his back was covered with ink.

  “Are those wings?”

  Declan turned, a predatory look in his eyes. There was a smile on his face, but it was a feral thing. “Yeah, I’m a fucking guardian angel. Remember that over the next couple of minutes. And remember that you can take all this out on me, but you touch her and I’ll take your balls off.”

  “Please don’t hurt him,” Kayla said.

  “Fuck that,” Josh growled.

  And went to town. That first punch he took had him seeing stars, but he was finally satisfied.

  This…this was exactly what he deserved. Pain. Cleansing pain. Agony that would remind him that this was all the universe had to offer him.

  * * * *

  Kayla barely managed to make it up the stairs. She couldn’t watch that, couldn’t see what she’d done to him. Josh and Declan trading punches was nothing more than the outward symbol of how she’d just dealt him a damn death blow.

  She’d watched the light die in his eyes. He’d been sitting there, holding her and being the warm, loving man she knew he was, and the next minute her words had shoved him right back into the darkness. He couldn’t do anything else. He’d tried to protect himself, tried not to show how badly she’d hurt him. Not for one second did she buy the whole “you meant nothing to me” routine. She had ears. He’d been trying to leave her behind out of pure terror for her safety.

  He loved her.

  Had loved her.

  She’d killed that love.

  She stumbled on the step because she could barely see from the tears that now poured down her cheeks. The world was blurry and the
steps she’d come to know so well now seemed to shake under her feet.

  Probably because it sounded like someone was being thrown against the side of the house.

  He was down there, taking a beating because he had no other way of letting the pain out. She’d done that to him and put the entire op in danger. What were they going to do if they couldn’t convince Josh to go along? It wasn’t like she could force him.

  Although she’d practically blackmailed him to do it. That’s exactly how he’d seen it.

  “What the hell is going on?” Shane stepped out of the house. “I can feel this place shaking. Are we having an earthquake? Hey, are you crying?”

  She wiped away the useless tears. They wouldn’t bring him back. “Josh knows.”

  Shane stilled. “How?” When she was silent he cursed under his breath. “Damn it, Kay. I know you care about the guy, but this is going to get you fired. I like the guy, but he’s unpredictable to say the least. Is Declan with him? Or did he take off on his own and we need to go find him?”

  The stairs shook again and a low moan could be heard. That sound was all pain.

  “Dec’s with him,” she admitted. “They are working things out the hard way. Dec asked me to get you.”

  Shane started down the steps, stopping on the one below her. “I suspect he took it poorly.”

  “I think I ruined his life, Shane. The way he looked at me…”

  His head shook in the negative. “You were doing your job. You didn’t lie to him about your feelings. This is why I hate the spy shit. I’ll go down and make sure no one gets hurt. Well, seriously hurt. I take it Josh needed someone to take his anger out on and Dec volunteered?”

  “I think Dec is giving as much as he’s getting. He thinks Josh needs an outlet. Pain and violence were their selections today.”

  “I can see that. Though sometimes I think that big bastard enjoys the fight way too much. I’ll make sure they don’t kill each other.”