Out of Love, page 18
“How long did you watch?”
My grin swelled a little more. “Until the end.”
He laughed. “Seriously?”
I nodded. “She lurched forward, collapsing onto her stomach, and he ran his fingers through his hair and turned as if he finally sensed my presence.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. My body ached too much, and I needed to vomit. Lucky for me, brunette girl’s fancy handbag was right by the door, so I emptied the contents of my stomach into it, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and told Patrick I’d be back for my stuff later. So there you have it. Just another case of me getting my heart broken. Have you had yours broken?”
He shook his head slowly, as if the whole concept was foreign to him.
My smile lost momentum, and my hands fidgeted with the edge of the blanket as I focused on the thread coming loose from the stitching. “You’re next. I just feel it.”
“Next to what?”
“Break my heart.”
“Why do you say that?”
My gaze inched up to meet his as he dropped his hands from behind his head, leaving them limp beside him on the bed. “Because I don’t know why you weld or what you’re making in the garage. I don’t know why you got Jericho or your mom’s name. I don’t know how your dad died or who that woman is who drives the Lexus and hugs Jericho and kisses you. And I don’t know why you dropped out of school.”
His stone face didn’t move for several seconds. “That stuff is important to the wellbeing of your heart?”
I nodded.
“I haven’t asked your mom’s name or how she died … and I’m fine.”
“Ryn. And she died in a car accident when I was fourteen. We buried her in a soft pink dress that she wore the day she brought me home from the hospital. My dad literally slept on her grave for several days afterward while I stayed with my aunt and uncle. When she met my dad, she had a German shepherd named Gunner. I saw pictures, but I don’t remember him. It’s what first drew me to Jerry.”
“Jericho.”
“Fuck you, Wylder. He’s always going to be my Jerry.”
“Oh, Livy…” he leaned over to set his computer under his nightstand “…we’re definitely going to fuck.” The second he faced me, his hand grabbed the back of my head, pulling my lips to his.
I reared back. “Tonight, you get charged for sex.”
“Then I’m good.” He rolled over and shut off the light.
I remained idle, frozen in disbelief as he situated his pillow and pulled the sheet partially over his bare torso, releasing a deep breath while resting his hands on his chest. Not everything in life had to be a game, but I hated feeling like he was in fact playing me … and he was winning.
“Night.” I shrugged off my shirt and shimmied out of my panties, resting them next to his head on his pillow, so he’d know, in case he didn’t catch what I’d done. Nestling under the covers, I rolled onto my side, putting my back to him.
It took several minutes, but he broke the silence. “Mary.” He rolled toward me and his hand rested on my naked hip. “My mom’s name is Mary. And I’m welding a wine bottle rack for her because her sister took the one her dad made when my grandparents went to a nursing home. My mom was broken-hearted because my grandfather was a welder and he made it for my grandma. And her sister doesn’t even drink wine.”
I rested my hand on his and guided it up to my breast. He squeezed it before trapping my nipple between his thumb and finger, giving it a slight tug and sending a jolt of need right between my legs.
“One of my targets … he had a new puppy. A German shepherd. When he … died … I took his puppy.”
Jericho belonged to a man whom Wylder assassinated. I didn’t see that coming. It took me a few moments to swallow that information, but when I did, I moved his hand from my breast to my abs, right at my navel. He tugged on my piercing, and the sensation tickled me a little lower.
“My dad died in the line of fire. I don’t remember anything about him … I was too young. He never married my mom or lived with us.”
My fingers ghosted along his arm draped over me before I covered his hand again and moved it lower.
I sucked in a sharp breath when he shoved two fingers inside me, faster and harder than I anticipated. His whole hand cupped me down there, pulling me closer until his erection slid between my legs. I didn’t realize he’d removed his boxer briefs.
He fingered me hard and slow, curling them to hit my g-spot.
My hand clawed at his, the intensity almost too much, but I didn’t really want him to stop. I just wasn’t expecting it to go from a two to a ten in under five seconds.
His hot breath brushed along my ear. “The woman in the Lexus …”
I panted, digging my nails into his unrelenting hand.
“She’s my cousin. Abe’s daughter. She cleans up my messes.”
“W-Wylder …” I was so close to seeing all the pretty orgasm stars.
“And I was someone’s target for a while, so I had to disappear until the threat was neutralized. Are we good now, Liv?” he whispered, and it was so deep and controlled I nearly lost it just from his voice.
His fingers vanished, and his teeth dug into my shoulder.
A controlling hand gripped my leg and lifted it over his hip as he slid into me from behind with a hard thrust.
I was good.
He was good.
Everything was so … damn … good.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Wylder
“She break it?” I asked, sitting across from Abe at our usual table. Usual cafe.
Same grease stench.
Same waitress.
Same fan above our heads making a clicking sound.
He ran his finger along the bridge of his nose. “Nah. Not gonna lie, I wasn’t expecting it.”
I grinned. “Clearly. She got me too, a while back. Her aunt … in her fifties … has been training her in self-defense. A fucking actuary.”
“Her aunt, huh?” Abe set his sandwich down and wiped his mouth.
“Yeah.” I took a drink of my ice water, staring out the window for a few seconds. “What were you doing there?”
“Just wanted to see her.”
“Why?”
“Do I have to have a reason?”
His answer grated on my nerves. “I’m watching her. Keeping her safe. You don’t have to worry about it.”
“Oh, I’m not worried. I know you’re all over her.” He smirked.
I kept my reaction neutral. Abe was the man I’d trusted most in my life. He was also the person I feared the most. I felt pretty sure it was exactly how he intended for it to be.
“She knows you don’t have friends. What else does she know about you?”
Shrugging, I glanced at my phone screen and the message from Livy.
Livy: Surfing. Dinner with the girls. Don’t wait up. x
“Nothing. Why are you so concerned?”
“I’m concerned she’s whispering dreams in your ear after sucking your cock, and you’re going to lose focus and slip up … tell her something about you that she shouldn’t know.”
“Again … why are we here? Do you have something for me that doesn’t involve babysitting?”
He took a bite of his sandwich and grinned while chewing slowly. “Don’t worry,” he mumbled. “Your babysitting days will be coming to an end really soon.”
“How soon?”
Abe reached into the pocket of his suit jacket. “As soon as you take out your next target.”
“Why? Is my target a threat to her?”
“Not exactly.” He tossed a photo on the table. “It is her.”
I stared at the photo of Livy on the beach, carrying her surfboard. Abe had used a serious zoom lens to capture it. “What is her?” I asked slowly.
“Your target.”
The muscles in my fingers twitched as I forced them to stay slack instead of balling into a fist. My jaw didn’t manage to do the same.
“And I’ll need a souvenir to send home.”
Acid climbed up my throat.
A souvenir … that was code for a body part. I never knew for sure, but I’d always suspected souvenirs were for revenge killings. An eye for an eye. Sometimes it was a finger or even a whole hand. Once it was an entire severed head. I didn’t deliver the goods to the family; I just delivered the souvenir to Abe. Honestly, I didn’t want to know any more about those situations. Until Livy.
“She’s innocent. We don’t kill innocent people.”
“Aw, son … I was afraid your dick would get in the way.”
“I’m not your son,” I gritted between my clenched teeth.
“Well, I’m the only father you’ve ever really had. Is this going to be an issue? You know how this will play out. She doesn’t live. If you don’t do it, I will.”
My gaze lifted from the picture to meet his purely evil expression. “You don’t do this anymore.”
“I’ll make an exception. This one’s personal.”
“Why?”
“You’ll find out when the time is right.”
“You’ve handed me her photo. I think the time is right. And what was the fucking point of protecting her if she’s a target?”
“I told you, it’s personal. I wanted … I needed her to love you. The payback is so much sweeter knowing that she willingly let you crawl between her pretty little legs. She knows, doesn’t she? She knows you saved her life behind that convenience store.”
I shook my head. “That was you. You had the man do that to her?”
Abe cackled. “I needed your job to feel legit. I gave you the kill you love. You should thank me.”
“I’m not your fucking pawn.”
“You’re whatever I want you to be. Imagine my surprise and pure delight when she enrolled in the same university. Imagine how perfect the timing was that the house you live in now was available right when I wanted you to go back to school. A house just feet from hers. Seriously, fate fucking loves me.”
“She doesn’t love me.” I shrugged.
“She’s living with you. Even if I made the stretch to believe that you don’t have feelings for her pussy, I know there’s no way she’d agree to live with you if she didn’t love you. It’s a girl thing. I realize you have no social skills, especially with women, so I don’t really expect you to realize what you’re doing—”
“Just shut the fuck up.”
His pie hole shut, but his eyes narrowed. I’d seen that look too many times and nothing good ever came from it. “Watch it, boy.”
I bit the hell out of my tongue and swallowed hard.
“Now … you have two weeks. Just in time for the holidays. I’m tempted to say that pretty little head of hers would be my first choice for a souvenir, but I’ve always left that part—no pun intended—up to you.” He stood, tapping his lighter on the table a few times.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Livy
“It’s just sick,” I floated on my board next to Kara and Missy, watching Aiden, my favorite OG (Original Gangster) catch the next wave.
“Um … is that who I think it is?” Missy asked, glancing over her shoulder toward the shore.
I followed her line of sight to my guy and my dog on the beach. He looked completely out of place in his jeans and boots.
“Thought it was a girls’ night,” Kara said.
“It is.” I turned and paddled inward, catching the end of a wave that took me to shore. “I texted you.” I grinned, heading up the beach with my board.
“I know.” He slipped his hands in his front pockets as I parked my board in the sand and wrung out my hair.
“So what’s up? You clearly didn’t come to surf.”
“I’m crashing your girls’ night.”
“Crashing?” I narrowed my eyes. “As in joining us?”
“As in taking you home.”
“Why?” I reached around and unzipped my wet suit.
“Because Jerry said he wants us to grab takeout and do something like watch a movie.”
Pausing with one arm out of my wet suit, my jaw unhinged. He didn’t say that. It was his body, but those weren’t his words. “Who are you? Jerry? Takeout and a movie? What gives? This isn’t you. This isn’t the guy who complimented me on my lack of neediness.”
“Fine. I want to tie you up and bury my face between your legs. Better?”
I coughed a laugh and glanced around to see how many people were in earshot. “You said you were the guy who made sure no one ever tied me up.” Pulling my other arm out of my wet suit, I gave him a lifted eyebrow in a question of his own words and new intentions.
“I’m trying really hard to be…” his lips twisted “…amicable and persuasive.”
Pushing the wet suit down to my hips, I glanced up. “Amicable? What exactly is the alternative to you being amicable with me?”
He squinted against the sun, peering over my shoulder for a few moments. “You’re the straight-A student. You tell me, what’s the opposite of amicable?”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I trapped my lip between my teeth until he returned his focus to me. “Unfriendly. Hostile. Are you suggesting if I don’t go home with you now, things will get unfriendly? Hostile?”
“Affirmative.”
“Go home, Wylder. I’ll be home later … or tomorrow.” I bent down and kissed Jerry on the head. “Daddy’s a little cray cray tonight, isn’t he?”
“I’ll wait.”
“Wait for what?” I trudged through the sand to my bag and retrieved my water, taking a long swig.
“You.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said. Go home and wait for me.” I shoved my water bottle back into my bag and grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer until he gave me his mouth for a quick kiss. “Love you. I’ll text you if I end up staying at Aubrey’s.” I turned, heading back to my board while righting the sleeves of my wet suit and worming my arms back into it.
After another hour of surfing, we headed to my Jeep, giggling, and wiped out from a full Saturday at the beach.
“Whoa … stalker much?” Missy nodded to Slade’s black Volvo parked on the other side of my Jeep.
“Something’s up. This isn’t him.” I shook my head.
“Here. We’ve got it.” Missy nodded to my board.
I propped it against the Jeep and peeled my wet suit off. Slipping on my sweatshirt, I made my way to his window.
He rolled it down. “Get in. Let one of your friends take your Jeep.”
I leaned forward, resting my arms on the door. “What aren’t you telling me?” Genuine concern delivered my words.
“Get in, Livy.”
“I’m not getting in unless you give me a reason to get in.”
He rubbed his temples then dropped his hands to the steering wheel, looking straight ahead. “I’ll give you two questions. You can ask me two things … anything … and I’ll give you an honest answer.”
Desperate Wylder. He took lives. That was his job. He lived in a haunted house. He feared nothing. So why could I feel his desperation?
“Fine. But you answer one right now.”
He turned his head toward me.
“Why are you so desperate for me to come with you right now?”
“Because I feel an intense need to protect you.”
“From what?”
“Is that your second and last question?”
Gah! I had a million questions for him. No … I didn’t want it to be my last question, yet I wanted to know why I needed his protection. “You’re scaring me.”
“Then get in the car.”
Pushing out a forceful breath, I stood straight and walked around to Missy and Kara, helping them finish securing the boards on top of the Jeep. “I need to go with Slade. Can you take my Jeep? Will you forgive me for skipping out tonight?”
“What? Are you serious?” Missy asked, hopping down from the back bumper and unzipping her wet suit.
“What’s up?” Kara added.
“It’s …” I rubbed my lips together, searching for something that made sense, knowing it was going to be a lie. I hated lying to my friends. “Slade lost a friend.”
“What? Oh my god!” Missy covered her mouth. “That’s awful.”
“Dude …” Kara’s eyes widened. “He told you he lost a friend, and you went back to surfing?”
“He didn’t tell me what happened. He just asked me to come home. I thought he was being a little possessive of my time since he wouldn’t tell me why.”
Missy brushed past me.
“Where are you going?” I followed her.
“I want to give him my condolences.”
“No—”
Too late.
She knocked on his window. He rolled it down again.
“I’m so sorry to hear about your friend.”
“Yeah,” Kara added.
I bit my lips together, eyes wide.
Slade’s gaze stayed on me for several seconds before flitting to Kara and Missy. “Thanks.”
“Let us know if you need anything. We’ll get your Jeep back to you in the morning.” Missy hugged me.
“Thanks,” I released her and hugged Kara.
Grabbing my bag, I climbed into Slade’s SUV.
“Who died?” he asked, pulling out of the lot.
“Your friend.”
“You didn’t believe I had friends.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
I would have laughed, but he was taking me away from my Saturday night plans with my friends because he feared for my safety, but I had no idea why. And maybe he knew that. Maybe he knew I wouldn’t get far enough to ask the real questions. Maybe it was all made up.
But why?
So I asked. I’d get more questions with my bartering skills. “Why do you feel an insane need to protect me? And yes, this is my second question.”
“Because I love you.”
“That’s …” I felt so damn conflicted. Those words coming out of his mouth rendered me speechless every time, but it wasn’t the real answer.
“I don’t like this game,” I murmured, staring out the side window.
