by PJ Friel
I laughed again and shook my head, clinking my glass to his.
His lips curled into a real smile, showing brilliantly white teeth, and I paused to look at him objectively. DG’s most attractive feature was his eyes—bright amber in color and sparkling with laughter. His lips were wet from the wine and framed by a tightly trimmed goatee.
Speaking objectively, the man was gorgeous.
But he wasn’t Trygg.
“Thanks again for lunch.”
“Thank you for not throwing the food in my face.”
I gasped. “That would be a horrible waste of chicken parmigiana.” He gave me an offended look and I rolled my eyes. “I guess the company isn’t horrible.”
“Gee, thanks. I’m taking my cannoli and going home.”
He reached for the platter and I grabbed his wrist, laughing. “You and your cannoli aren’t going anywhere.”
“Could have sworn you had your fill of cannoli yesterday,” Trygg said from the open door of my office.
His voice rolled across the room like thunder. Murder and mayhem crackled in his eyes. Watching the cords in his neck bulge, I felt like I was about to play chicken with a semi and I wasn’t even wearing a helmet.
“Shit.”
CHAPTER 25
TRYGG
When Bart told me that DG had left his bodyguard behind at the Theater so he could wine and dine Bryn at her office, I nearly punched the guy out. Seconds later, I bolted out of the door, broke a half dozen traffic laws, and nearly wiped out on my motorcycle getting here...just so I could see Bryn holding hands with DG and talking about cannoli.
“Shit,” Bryn whispered.
Well, that said it all, didn’t it? The woman faced down a man with a gun, went several rounds with me, and told off a couple of berserkers, all without a single cuss word uttered, but now she was dropping bombs.
And her hand was inching towards one of the knives on the table.
My gut clenched. She was worried that I’d hurt her. I never would. I could easily kill DG, though. Seeing him touch her...the Monster pushed against its bars. Hard.
DG was Mordechai’s son. I couldn’t touch him. Bryn was apparently fine with him touching her, though.
I wasn’t. I really, really wasn’t. Last night, after some heavy thinking—and quite a bit of drinking—I’d realized something.
I was bound to Bryn.
It wasn’t because of anything Harry had done, but his question had certainly sparked the introspection. And right before dawn, I’d admitted to myself that my reaction last night wasn’t a loss of control. The Monster hadn’t escaped its cage. I had willingly opened it when Grimm threatened Bryn. I couldn’t blame that on Harry because he hadn’t laid a hand on me before that.
Part of me had known something was up from the moment I had laid eyes on her at the warehouse four days ago. Last night just solidified things for me. It was undeniable. Her wyrd and mine were inextricably linked.
Nineteen years ago, I made her a promise. No one would ever hurt her again. I hadn’t kept my word, and she’d been dumped at a hospital by her mother and made to feel unwanted. No one deserved that, least of all her.
Jealousy slammed me as I glared at her hand gripping DG’s wrist. I might be acknowledging that my word and my wyrd belonged to Brynja Pruedatter, but she’d made no such promises to me.
The Allfather was probably laughing his ass off right now. I’d rejected his ownership, avoided his men, and fought against his control for almost three hundred and fifty years. And now the joke was on me. His great-granddaughter had brought me to heel in four days.
She owned me.
Bryn jerked her hand away from DG and smiled at me. “Hi! You’re here.”
The fake pleasantness and the forced grin made me want to turn around and leave, but she was never getting out of my eyesight again, so I planted my feet and nodded. “Yep.”
“Afternoon, Mac,” DG said, returning my nod with a smirk on his face. “I was just plying Bryn with some chicken parmigiana from D'Agnese's.”
“It’s really delicious. Have you eaten lunch yet?”
“I’ve lost my appetite, actually.” I focused on DG and battled the urge to cave his face in. “What are you doing here without your bodyguard? Mordechai specifically ordered you not to leave the residence without your security detail.”
Yeah, I was being an asshole.
“I’m an adult. I can handle myself.” DG bristled.
“Not against a professional, you can’t.”
Come spar with me, motherfucker, I’ll show you how I handle things.
The arrogant son of a bitch began to trail his finger up Bryn’s arm, then asked, “Did you ever find those two guys who nearly killed my father on your watch?”
“Situation is under control.” My eyes never moved from watching his hand and waiting for Bryn to move away.
She didn’t. She just stared at me.
My incisors itched and I shifted my weight towards him. Bryn cocked her head. DG’s finger reached the inside of her elbow and all I could think about was what DG did to his conquests. I charged the table. I was going to rip his hand off and cram it down his throat.
Bryn jumped up from her seat and roadblocked me. “You look a little overheated, Trygg. Why don’t you take off your jacket and I’ll hang it up for you?”
She held out her hand, but she didn’t touch me, didn’t take my hand, didn’t smile up at me like she had yesterday before our fight. That stupid fight when I called her paranoid and hurt her feelings.
Of course she wouldn’t touch me, now.
We need to talk.
Because I’d ignored that message, she was giving me the cold shoulder and was, by the looks of things, moving on to someone willing to pay more attention to her. I supposed if she needed to question Jotuns, who better to team up with than the Devourer mob’s heir apparent?
Payback was a vengeful bitch.
How many times had I spent the night with a girl and then been gone with the dawn? I had no right to whine about finally getting my due. It wasn’t like Bryn and I had declared undying love.
Love?
Don’t get sappy, Mackenzie.
I drew in a deep breath and that luscious scent of hers washed over me. Okay, we might not have declared love, but there was some pretty hot lust between us and I wasn’t ready to give that up yet, bound wyrd or not. I slipped out of my heavy leather jacket.
DG sauntered over to join us. “Bryn, I wanted to invite you to the grand opening of The Prodigal Lair, my newest club. It’s in three weeks—October 6th.”
“Um. I’ll have to check—”
“She has plans,” I interrupted her. “Besides, don’t you have a girlfriend, DG? What happened to Jalena?”
Bryn glared at me.
Odin’s balls. When was I going to learn to keep my mouth shut?
“Jalena is no longer in the picture.” DG took Bryn’s hand between his. “Plans can be changed. Can’t they, Bryn? Grand openings only happen once.”
Acid burned through my veins and I dropped my jacket. Fuck it. Keeping her away from DG had nothing to do with jealousy and everything to do with keeping her safe. It would be a justifiable homicide. No judge in the world would convict me. Mordechai would probably fire me, but it wasn’t like I needed the money.
Bryn extracted her hand from DG’s with a frown and grabbed my wrist, her cool-fingered touch instantly neutralizing the corrosive soup marinating my brain. “I’ll have to get back to you, DG.”
Okay, calm down. I wouldn’t kill him, but he needed to leave. Now. “We have a case to discuss, Bryn.”
“What case is that?” DG arched a brow and looked between us. “Is this your friend’s case that you were telling me about?”
I growled and the volcano bubbled to life again. “You discussed the case with him?”
Bryn looked like she was ready to throat-punch both of us, but I didn’t give a damn. She’d let that asshole put his hands on her and I was st
ill not okay with that.
“Trygg, why don’t you go. Hang. Up. Your. Jacket.”
That wasn’t a request. We stared at each other for several long minutes, me refusing, her insisting. In the end, she won, like she always motherfucking did.
“Fine.” I jerked my arm loose from her grip and swiped up my jacket.
“And grab yourself a cool drink from the fridge. I’ll only be a couple of minutes.”
“Whatever.” Dismissed like a naughty child. I exited before I said or did something that she’d regret, but I sure as hell wouldn’t.
Like slit DG’s throat.
I walked into Bryn’s backroom and threw my jacket on a futon situated against the wall. If I’d known that was back here yesterday, I would have put it to good use.
I slammed my palm against my forehead. Thinking about yesterday was not helping. I needed to focus on what was important.
Whether Bryn wanted it or not, she was under my protection. Eamon Duff was in town. We had no idea why or if he knew who Bryn was, but just his presence was a red-hot indicator that something big was going down. Wherever Eamon Duff went, a trail of bodies followed.
I hated it, but after last night I was working with the berserkers instead of telling them to go fuck themselves. The last time we’d worked together, Bryn had been kidnapped by Svartalf, strapped to a table in a dark warehouse, and tortured.
The sense of history repeating itself was overwhelming and terrifying.
As if my job wasn’t hard enough, I was also under a gag order. Grimm and Harry were convinced that Bryn would bolt if she found out I was more than just a random Jotun. Especially, if she found out that I was the very berserker who had saved her nineteen years ago.
I went over to the fridge and opened the freezer section, intent on sticking my head in it until I cooled off. Inside was a bag of ice and six pints of Chunky Monkey. Apparently, my girl was a Ben & Jerry’s fan. I gritted my teeth. My girl? No, my girl was playing the field, which meant she wasn’t my girl. She was just my goddamn responsibility.
The Monster howled. I told it to shut the fuck up.
I grabbed an ice cube and ran it up and down my neck while trying to get my breathing under control. Tension had my temples throbbing and my teeth aching. My nail beds itched, making me check that I wasn’t actually spouting talons. If I couldn’t get my shit together, I’d have to get out of here. No matter how much I really wanted to, I just couldn’t kill Mordechai’s son.
From the front office, dishes rattled and the soft murmurs of several people filtered back to me. DG must have called in someone to clean up his little gourmet Italian picnic.
Asshole.
Several ice cubes later, Bryn walked into the backroom and glared at me with her hands on her hips.
“What?” I asked, slamming the freezer door.
“Would you like to piss on me now, too?”
I let my gaze roam up and down her body and shrugged, letting her know just how cool and unaffected I was. As if. “Golden showers aren’t my thing, baby, but far be it for me to deny a lady her kink.”
“You’re not funny.”
She marched across the room to a wall safe. Her gaze promised a long and painful death if I didn’t shut the fuck up. I wasn’t worried. Immortality has its advantages.
“I’m hilarious,” I said, watching her ass.
It didn’t even jiggle when she stomped. I scrubbed a hand down my face. I had to stop wanting her so much, but when she was pissed off... I couldn’t help but follow her across the room, like some rabid dog begging for a bone.
Speaking of bones.
Adjusting myself, I cleared my throat and tried for a reasonable tone. “Look. I know you hate the caveman stuff, but that guy—”
I screeched to a halt and raised an eyebrow when she pulled her .40-caliber Smith and Wesson from the safe. The girl did not fuck around with her weaponry.
With our gazes locked, she inserted a magazine loaded with one round into the gun, racked the slide, flipped the safety on, dropped out the empty mag, then slid a full mag into the gun. All accomplished in the time it would take me to unzip, drop to my knees, and start begging.
“That was so hot.” I swallowed audibly. “Unless, of course, you’re going to use that on me. In which case, I’m gonna need you to do that one more time before you shoot me in the face.”
Bryn rolled her eyes then put on a shoulder holster that had been hanging from a hook by the safe. “Whether I use it on you or not depends entirely on you.” She shoved the gun in the holster.
“Okaaaay.” I held up my hands. “I’ll try to be good.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Try and fail?”
Ouch. Hurtful, yet accurate.
“So, what are you doing with the gun?” I smiled to show I was being nice. “You’re not really going to shoot me, are you?”
“Undecided.” No grin in sight.
“Seriously?”
Bryn pushed past me, the gun riding her ribcage, and went into the bathroom. When she came out a few minutes later, I nearly swallowed my tongue. She was wearing boots, leather pants and a leather jacket. She grabbed a lime-green helmet from the shelf along the wall and walked back into her office.
“Wow,” I whispered as I followed.
There was no sign of DG or his lame ass seduction attempt, thankfully. Bryn said nothing, just motioned me out. She locked up and I ambled behind her because I didn’t know what else to do.
Good thing bodyguarding was second nature to me by now. She was always throwing me off my game, leaving me grasping for what to do and what to say. Like that whole Barney-loading-a-gun she’d just performed in the backroom and then threatening to put a bullet in me if I didn’t straighten up.
Who knew something like that would be so sexy?
Damn. There wasn’t another woman in the world like her. If I had to choose someone to be bound to, I could have gotten a lot worse. She had her faults, but hey, I was by no means perfect.
“I’m not riding on a bike with you,” Bryn interrupted my thoughts. She stood by her lime-green and black Ninja, hands on her hips, belligerence all over her face.
And suddenly, I was pissed off all over again. She’d let DG put his hands on her, but she wouldn’t even sit on the back of my bike and let me take her wherever she wanted to go? And where the hell were we even going anyway? She’d been too wrapped up in protecting DG from my wrath and sending him off...probably with a kiss...to tell me what her plans were.
“I’m not a mind reader, Bryn. You were too busy playing footsy with lover boy to tell me what’s going on.”
Her eyes narrowed, telling me to shut up, but the thought of her kissing DG and moaning into his mouth like she had mine yesterday felt like a knife in my gut. I’d tolerated all the abuse I was going to today. This constant power struggle between us was maddening. Time I put my foot down.
“Don’t get me wrong, sweetheart, I don’t give a shit what you do with that tight little pussy of yours, but Mordechai’s life is on the line, so how about you focus on solving this case instead of fucking his son?”
Bryn gasped and her eyes went glassy for just a second then she locked it down. “You know what, I don’t need this hassle.”
She slammed on her helmet and buckled it. “I’m going to go question people. You do whatever you want.”
Giving me the finger, she jumped on the bike and streaked out of the parking lot like a horde of demons was on her tail. By the time I mounted my own ride and got it started, she was flying down the street, zipping between cars, and blowing through an orange light.
The woman was a lunatic.
I snorted. “Do whatever I want.”
Right.
I gunned my engine and chased her because that’s what I was going to be doing for the rest of my eternal fucking life, because the Norns were assholes and had tied our wyrds together. I leaned low over my gas tank and took the corner, easing back on the throttle just enough to keep from spinnin
g out.
Thank Odin I was immortal and damn near indestructible.
CHAPTER 26
BRYN
I looked in my left-side mirror. Why was Trygg still following me? I’d given him zero reason to remain in my company, but he’d still tagged along as I canvassed Abby’s neighborhood.
Talk about a complete waste of an afternoon. I didn’t get a single lead. The only thing I’d gained from three hours of door-to-door pavement pounding was a knot between my shoulder blades, put there by that infuriating man. It felt like his gaze had driven a spike in my back.
Or a knife.
I don’t give a shit what you do with that tight little pussy of yours.
No ballistics vest in existence could have stopped those words from tearing through my chest. When had I allowed myself to become vulnerable to him? I’d only known him four days and he’d actually hurt me. No one had done that since I’d found out I had guardians instead of parents. How much worse would the pain have been if we’d dated for months? I shuddered.
That he would actually believe I would have sex with him one day and put the moves on someone else the next, made me want to punch him. Trygg’s dick wasn’t even cold yet. I didn’t swap out lovers that fast. Actually, I never had long-term lovers.
Trygg had made me want to change that.
In spite of what I’d said at the Chinese restaurant, I wanted more than just a quick desk dicking from him. I blamed the vision for that, for letting me feel real love. And then after the way we’d connected during sex, I thought maybe Trygg might want more too…until today’s lunchtime fiasco with DG.
The man who had promised me that he had me, that I was safe with him wasn’t the same man who cut me to pieces with his words. That guy today wasn’t the same lover who begged me to let go. And he wasn’t the type of person who loved a woman unconditionally.
I was self-aware enough to realize that I wasn’t the easiest person to get along with. I had issues. God, did I have issues. But I thought Trygg was strong enough to push past them, maybe make me deal with things that I really didn’t want to deal with.