by Anna Brooks
And I am not liking what I’m hearing. At all.
“Okay, but you let me know if that changes. I’ve always got your back, angel. Know that.”
“I know.”
“Always, Brinley.”
It sounds like she’s sad now. “I know, Danny.”
Okay, I’m done. I kick the door open, gun drawn, and this Danny fucker is on his feet with his weapon pointed at my head. I stare down the barrel and into his eyes, promising without words I’ll have no qualms about blowing his brains out.
“Stop it.” Brinley stands and walks between us. “Put those down.” She turns her back to me and boldly places her body in front of mine. She reaches out and puts her hand on top of Danny’s, pushing his arm down. With a flick of his thumb, he puts the safety back on and tucks his gun away at his waist. Rinny turns back to me and raises a brow, then I do the same except I secure mine at the back of my jeans.
“Come here,” I command, and she complies immediately. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her next to me, turning her body to plaster her front against my side so I’m more in front of her than not. I tilt my head down to catch her worried eyes. “Talk. And give me one good reason I shouldn’t beat the shit out of a guy who orchestrated some fucked-up shit to kidnap you.”
“Noble, Danny. Danny, Noble.” I ignore that stupid ass lame introduction and growl low in my throat. She gets my drift because she keeps talking. “Danny and I were in a home together a long time ago. I was supposed to get in touch with him to let him know I was okay, and I didn’t, so—”
“So he sent some fuckin’ amateurs to throw you in the back of a van to kidnap you and mark up your face?”
She shrugs as best she can. “Yes.” The one word has such a bite to it, Danny winces.
“Brinley is special to me,” he cuts in, and I narrow my eyes at him. “My men have already been dealt with for their carelessness, but the fact remains that she told me she’d check in, in a week, and she didn’t.”
I tip my head down. “You talked to him while you were at my house?”
“We communicate a lot, where and when doesn’t matter, but she knew I’d want to know where she was. It was only a matter of time before I tracked her down anyway. She just made it easier for me to find her sooner. And something you should know about me and get straight now; I get what I want.”
Oh, okay. He thinks he can challenge me. “You can’t have her.”
“I already have,” he states with a quirked eyebrow, and Brinley screeches his name.
Gently shoving her aside, I take the three strides to come face to face with Danny, who sighs, trying to tell me he’s not intimidated. He’s a couple of inches shorter than my six feet three, but with his cockiness, he probably thinks we’re on the same level. I lower my voice so she can’t hear me. “You may have had her, but she belongs to me. And something you should know about me. I’ll die before I let you or any-fuckin’-body else touch her ever again.”
“Okay, okay. Can we stop, please?” Brinley grabs my hand and tries to tug me away, but I don’t move a muscle. “Dammit, I knew something like this would happen. Stop it, you guys.”
“You understand me?” I tilt my head, my patience gone.
He looks over his shoulder, and when they catch on Rinny, they soften. “Hurt her, and I hurt you.”
“It won’t happen, but if I harm her in any way, I’ll let you.”
His jaw clenches, and he takes a step back, conceding. Something a man like him doesn’t do often, I imagine, if ever. So the fact he did it for her is another indicator that she means something to him. Something I need to know, but I won’t find out here. I need her back at my place where I have the upper hand and where I know she’ll be safe.
“Time to go.” I wind my fingers through Brinley’s and turn around, then yank her next to me. My arm goes to her waist, and my fingertips span her hip to hold her tight.
“But—” She tries to dig her feet in, but Danny cuts her off. “I’ll be in touch, angel.”
“We’re leaving, Brinley,” I growl and lift her feet off the ground, carrying her out of the room. I step over one of the men I downed.
She wiggles and pushes at my arm. “Oh my God, what did you do?”
“I got to you.”
“Is he dead?”
“No.” I’m pissed as shit she’s missing a shoe and could hurt herself, but even if she wasn’t, I’d still carry her out. My patience has worn thin but my fear needs her in my arms to reassure myself she’s okay.
As soon as we get outside, I do a quick scan and head straight to my truck. After setting her inside, I don’t hesitate to get in and get the fuck away from there.
“Noble, I—”
I hold my hand up to cut her off. “No. Wait till we get home.” I need to be alert, and I also need a minute to breathe.
“Okay.”
I should be shocked as shit that she’s involved with a fuckin’ street thug, but I’m actually not. If anything, I’m pissed as shit that that’s what she’s been keeping from me.
Chapter 13
Brinley
Noble was way pissed. Angrier than when I ran from him, and definitely a different kind of mad than when I told him to go fuck himself. No… this was a different kind of anger. As soon as we got into his house, he pointed at the couch and barked for me to sit.
Normally, I’d say something to him about yelling at me like I was a dog, but the anger he was trying to control made me obey him. I sat down and waited for him as he dug through the freezer and got some ice. He came to me and pressed the baggie wrapped in a towel to my face. “Talk. And do it fast and don’t fuckin’ lie.”
I took the offered ice pack and rested my head on the back of the couch. It’s clear he doesn’t want to be kept waiting, so I talk. “It was two houses before the one I was in when I met Katie. That was where I met Danny. I was eleven, and he had just turned seventeen, but he looked closer to my age. He was so skinny and frail, and when I finally found out what he’d been through, it made sense. It was just us two in the house, which confused me because they usually didn’t place boys and girls together.
“Anyway, the foster dad was so obviously a pervert that I have no clue how he was approved as a foster parent, but whatever. I was only at that house for a few weeks, but in that time, Danny and I got close. He’d been there for about six months before me, and somehow, we just took to each other right away.”
“It was just you two and the guy, no other woman?”
“No, just him. I think he was married at some point, but they got divorced or something. I’ve thought a lot about it, and when Danny stayed by my side the whole time I was there, I thought it was to protect me, but I realized it was to protect himself.”
One night, I heard what he was doing to Danny… or trying to do. The sound he made was awful, like a wounded animal or something. I didn’t think, I just called the cops and waited. I hid under my bed and did nothing, but as soon as there was a sound of sirens, the guy ran out of Danny’s room, then I ran into it.” I sniffle at the memory. “I’ll never forget the look on his face… God.
“I called the police, I told him. I reached out to touch him, hug him, or something, but he tore away from me and frantically grabbed what few things he had. He told me he had to leave. He was done. He couldn’t do it anymore. He asked me to come with him, but I was too scared to leave.”
“Did this guy touch you, too?” Noble’s control wanes.
I shake my head. “No. But… please don’t think I’m a bad person. I’m not, I swear, I just—”
“Nothing would make me think you’re bad. You’re good down to your soul, and I know that.” He won’t think that when he hears the rest of it.
“I’m a criminal, Noble. Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Okay…” Here goes nothing, or everything. “When the cops came, Noble, I… I told them he touched me.”
Noble’s brows shoot to his hairlin
e.
Before he can get mad, I have to justify it. “What difference did it make? If Danny wasn’t there to tell him, he’d just get let off the hook and do it to another boy. I wanted to stop him. So I did.”
“What happened to him?”
I drop my head in shame. “He’s in jail.”
“Good.”
My shocked gaze finds him. “Really?” I thought for sure he’d be upset that I lied to the cops since he used to be one.
“Yeah, people like that don’t stop. If it wasn’t Danny, it’d be another kid he found somewhere, so you lying about it being you was the truth in a way, and who knows how many kids he hurt before that. What happened to you after he was arrested?”
“Nothing exciting. I bounced around. Met Katie. Bounced around some more. Then I went to the house with Paisley. That one was the worst because they hit me all the time. Called me the redheaded stepchild.”
“Why didn’t you call the cops on them?”
I huff my indifference. “They at least fed me. And I think I kind of just gave up, to be honest. Katie was gone, Danny disappeared, everyone I ever cared about had left me, and it was easier to take the pain and hatred. I was only there about six months so… whatever.”
“No. Not whatever. Fuck, Brinley.” He spikes his hands through his hair and stares off into the distance at nothing, bouncing his leg.
I got him this far today, and there is no way in hell I want to go backward. The subject needs to be changed, and we need to move on. “Are you hungry?” I ask lamely, practically pleading to just forget about everything and get back to where we were earlier today when he promised he’d never let me go.
When I try to stand, he grabs my arm and pulls me down. “What else happened?”
“Nothing.”
“What. The fuck. Else. Happened?”
He’s too goddamn smart for me to pull anything over on. And now that he’s caught a scent, he won’t stop until he has everything. “I aged out of the system and tried to survive. I couldn’t even do that on my own and ended up homeless.”
“Where did you get the car you lived in?”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
“I’m not gonna ask again.”
Oh, God. Okay. “I stole money and bought it.”
His tongue runs along his top straight, white teeth. “You stole money from where?”
“The last foster home I was in. I took their support check from the mail and cashed it using the mom’s ID that I stole before I left.” The bank didn’t even question it. Just gave me the money. I ditched the ID in the trash on the way out, though.
“Okay. But tell me this. Danny. The guy who held a gun to me, who says he owes you everything, that guy? He let you live out of a fucking car? You see where I’m going with this?”
I do, but I shake my head.
“That doesn’t make sense, Rinny. What are you hiding? And before you open your mouth, remember, I told you not to lie.”
God. “I’m not hiding anything, Noble. He’s not my keeper. He helped me out a little bit and—”
“Now I know you’re lying because I know men like him. And a man like him doesn’t let the one thing in the world that means something to them suffer like you’ve been.”
“I haven’t been suffering.”
“You have been!” He pushes up to standing, his hands in white-knuckled fists at his sides, and then paces behind the couch. His gait is agitated, and his breath comes out in sharp, hard pants. The frustration is practically painted on his face, and I know it’s time. I can’t keep it from him anymore. “What aren’t you telling me? What the fuck are you lying about? Just tell me… please, just fucking tell me.”
It’s only been a few weeks that I’ve had him back, but I’ll always remember them as the best of my life. I drop the towel from my face and cross my legs but don’t look at him anymore. I can’t see the disappointment when he finds out the truth. More truth. “I’m not homeless.”
I hear his movements cease. If it wasn’t for the sweltering anger rolling off him, I’d think I was alone.
“Not anymore. I have an apartment. A nice one, small but cute. Danny pays for it. It’s in the building we were just in, a few floors down from him.” He doesn’t say anything, so I don’t either. My heart pounds and my hands shake as I hold my breath, waiting for him to kick me out.
“You’re not homeless?” I can’t tell the tone of his voice. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Part angry, part sad, part disbelief.
“No.”
“You’ve been lying to not only me, but everyone else?” He states it like a question, but I don’t answer because I really don’t think he wants one. “What else does Danny do for you?” His voice booms from behind me, and I jump.
The shaky breath I release is audible. “Looks out for me.”
“What do you do for Danny? Man like him? He doesn’t do shit for anybody without payback. So, Brinley, what do you do for Danny?”
“I can’t tell you.”
He finally rounds the couch and stands in front of me, the coffee table between us. His legs are spread casually, but his beefy arms are crossed, the veins coiling in his forearms. “Oh yes, you fucking can.”
“No. I can’t. If I do, you’ll be an accomplice.”
The disappointment washes over him, and he drops his arms. I know what he thought. I know exactly the first thing that crossed his mind, and it hurts, but I don’t blame him for thinking the worst of me. He thought I was Danny’s whore. I wasn’t. Yeah, we slept together one time in the past, but we both agreed it was a mistake. “Brinley…”
“I’m sorry.”
“What did you do?”
My teeth sink into my lower lip before I confess. “Will you call the cops?”
“No, darlin’, I won’t call the cops. Is that why you’ve been keeping everything bottled up inside? You were afraid I’d get you in trouble?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, you were a cop. And not only that, but you’re a good man, Noble. You follow rules and have a moral code. I’m a street kid who survives by any means necessary, and a lot of the time, that isn’t necessarily legal, as you’ve already found out. And I’m afraid that once you know the truth, you’ll never want to see me again.”
He doesn’t say anything to that; he just stands here, looking at me expectantly and waiting. So I tell him and pray to God he keeps his word because if I was the reason Danny got in trouble, I’d never forgive myself. “I was a, um… kind of a lookout for him.”
“What were you looking out for?”
“Noble—”
“What were you looking out for, Brinley?”
It hurts when I swallow, but I do. “Cops.”
He nods and takes out his phone, then his thumbs run over the screen. After a second, it beeps, and he slides it back into his pocket. “I’ll be back.”
“What? Why? You said you weren’t going to tell.” I sit up on my knees and grab his wrists. “You can’t tell. You can’t!”
“I ain’t gonna tell, Brinley. I’m not a cop anymore, so I have no obligation to report anything, but even if I was, I wouldn’t do that to you. Christ, you really think I’d do anything to hurt you?”
“No, I’m sorry. I just… where are you going?”
He unclamps my hands from him and gently pushes me back down to sitting. “I’ll be back.”
I scramble up again and grab his arm. “Where are you going?”
His fingers wrap around mine on his arm. “We’ll talk when I get back. Let me go so I can come back.”
“Promise?”
He sighs and turns his head, catching my eyes over his shoulder. “I’ll always come back for you, Brinley. Always. You do know what’s happening between us, right?”
“I know what I want to happen.”
“Then that’s what’ll happen. You’ve just gotta give a man a minute to adjust to the fact that the lonely, unsatisfying life he was living is about to be fulfilled in a way he never thou
ght he’d have.”
My throat tingles, and I sniffle back the burn. “Okay.”
“And you’ve also gotta let a man do what he’s gotta do to make sure his girl is taken care of in every way that she needs.”
Noble
I’m not surprised his new guards let me in right away, and I’m also not surprised he’s behind his huge desk with a fresh tumbler of scotch. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”
“Cut the shit.”
One of his soldiers follows me in, but Danny looks over his shoulder and shakes his head. The door closes behind me. “What do you want?”
“I want to know why she’s been pretending to be homeless because she thinks she’s some kind of informant for you when we both know what you have her doing is pointless.” He stares at me. Calculating. Maybe he wasn’t expecting I’d call him on his shit. I don’t know, and I don’t really care. But something about her story doesn’t add up. “And I want to know what’s in it for you, and I’ll warn you that she’s mine, so don’t piss me off.”
He sits up, steepling his fingers as knowing brown eyes bore into me. “She was mine first.”
“Wrong, motherfucker. You may have had her, but she never belonged to you.”
His chair squeaks when he leans back and crosses his arms. Tattoos cover every inch of visible skin.
“And I need to know if there’s something else she’s not telling me because I need to give her fuckin’ everything. I’ll warn you, also, if you don’t tell me, I’ll sic every man at Royal on your ass to find out what I need to know, and the way I do it won’t be pretty.”
“Don’t come here and think you can threaten me. You have no fuckin’ clue who I am.”
That’s where he’s wrong. I know exactly who he is. Q’s a genius and had everything I needed to know about Danny Dakota by the time I pulled up to the curb in front of his place. “I know exactly who you are, and I don’t like you because no man who’s got any fuckin’ balls lets a scared as shit woman sit on a street corner pretending to be homeless. A man like you does that, there’s something in it for him. What’s in it for you, Danny?”