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MAEL

Her room was dark and quiet when I entered late at night.

My entire body ached.

Fuck, that had been a close call.

Had I been even a little distracted, that fucker would have succeeded in jumping me. But now, I had a body currently rotting in the trunk of my car to deal with and a whole lot of questions with no answers.

Briggs’s security was tight.

Tighter than usual. And we didn’t have any contact unless it was through a burner phone no one could tap.

He didn’t just want me to kill Lia’s father.

He wanted me to retrieve something first.

A little black book. I wasn’t in the business of retrieving anything, but Briggs was… special.

Our history went beyond anything he could imagine, and I was curious what was so important about this little black book that he didn’t want Luckas Whitlock dead until the book was in his hands.

And where the hell did Lia play into this?

She was obviously close to Briggs if she decided to go to him rather than her father after suspecting a stalker.

My sweet, little innocent Lia.

Briggs wouldn’t have found anything on me. And he would have wanted to put her mind at ease that there was no stalker as soon as possible, considering the fucker had put a tail on my girl as well.

Now just why was he going to such lengths over her?

Was he, like me, obsessed with Lia?

The idea wasn’t far-fetched. There was just something about Lia that brought out the worst in men. But there was a part of me that thought there might be something more to that as well.

What was it?

I walked through the quiet apartment, taking care not to disturb anything.

Her phone call with Briggs seemed to have helped put her mind at ease somewhat, allowing her to sleep.

I smiled at the sight of her, the light from the city just enough for me to make out the outline of her features.

I ran my fingers over the side of her face, watching her nose wiggle a little from the contact, but she didn’t wake.

She was a heavy sleeper.

Shoving off my sweater, I climbed into bed with her under the covers and pulled her close to me, reveling in the warmth of her soft, pliant body against mine.

I kept my arms wrapped around her, ignoring the ache I felt all over, and watched her sleep.

I stayed like that until the first hint of dawn broke through. Then, just as quietly as I had come into her apartment, I left it, taking care to lock the door behind me. I wasn’t scared that some other fucker might come into her apartment and harm her. The security system I had installed would notify me the moment someone came inside her place, along with all the hidden cameras I had around.

No, my girl was completely safe inside.

It was everyone else who got in my path who wasn’t safe.

I made my way over to my car. The body inside hadn’t left my mind. I waited until I got inside before I put in the call to Theo.

He answered on the first ring despite the early morning, like I knew he would, considering he barely slept.

“Yeah?” he answered, his voice clear.

“I need your help,” I said.

* * *

It was several hours later when I watched the last of the body burn to nothing but ashes.

The human body could take a few hours to burn, and I had been here, watching it happen.

Not that I didn’t trust Theo.

Out of everyone in the world, he was the only one I trusted. Perhaps someday, I could add Lia to the list, but right now, I was still nothing more than a stranger to her. Something that was going to change very soon.

“Rough night?” Theo asked, coming up to me with two cups of coffee and handing one to me. I held it up to him in thanks before I took a sip. This was my third cup of the day.

“You could say that.”

“Did you meet with Briggs?” Theo asked. He was probably more eager than I was about this one. I didn’t blame him.

“Not yet. He wants to keep everything anonymous.”

Theo cracked a small smile at that. “Stupid fucker. How anonymous could he get, considering we’ve been watching him for years?”

I didn’t answer him, just took another sip, my eyes on the flames as my mind battled with the memories from the past.

Playing with fire was dangerous.

Mostly because of how uncontrollable it was.

Fire was destructive and hot and had wreaked enough damage in my life to leave scars behind. Something Theo knew all about. Something I knew all about.

My hand automatically moved over to rub against my side, where the small script of numbers had been tattooed on my skin when I was nothing more than a defenseless nine-year-old boy. Theo had been even younger. I couldn’t protect us then, but things were different now. It took a while— years— to find the answers we were looking for, but now that we had them, I wasn’t going to let past grievances go.

Fuck being a bigger person.

I took in Theo’s side profile. He had always been the silent type. While I raged on at the world for all the injustice we faced, expressing myself in a very physical way, Theo seemed to take it all in, pushing it deep down in the depth of darkness, where he put all the shitty and depraved things we’d been through, never to be revisited.

It wasn’t a mere coincidence that we ended up in the same foster home after losing our moms the same way.

It also wasn’t a mere coincidence that we shared the same bastard father. That we had his dirty blood running through our veins. Perhaps that was why we were so fucked-up.

I would have felt bad for bringing Lia into this fucked-up world of ours had she not already been so deeply entrenched in it. Even if she didn’t know it yet.

I tightened my grip around the paper cup as I watched the last of the remains burn away.

“You take care of this?” I asked.

Theo nodded. “Yeah. Go do what you gotta do. Let me know if you need backup.”

I grunted my response. This wasn’t the time to go on the offense. Right now, I needed to gather as much information as I could to take down an entire organization.

* * *

I stood in the dark woods, taking in the sight of my girl standing in the middle and looking up at the moon.

What the hell was she doing?

She nearly caught me here the other night. Had she walked a little further into the woods, she might have found me. So if she knew I was out here watching her, why was she standing in the thick of it alone after the coffee shop had closed up and no one was around?

Was my girl trying to be brave or just being stupid and reckless with her safety?

My fists clenched tightly at the thought.

Had there been anyone else but me out here, she could have been hurt, and no one would be around to hear her scream.

I shook my head.

What was I going to do with her?

“Am I alone?” she asked. The tone of her voice told me she knew the answer already.

She wasn’t alone. Could she feel my eyes on her? Feel the draw between us, as if there was an invisible string attached to each of our chests, slowly pulling us into each other? Or was it only me? Or was I just being romantic?

She let out a small sigh, fog billowing in front of her face from the cold.

She shook her head and went back to her car, probably driving home. I stayed where I was for a minute before I headed out, following her.

It didn’t take me long to find her car on the road, and not long after that to realize she wasn’t heading home but somewhere else.

“Where are you going?” I muttered to myself when she took a left. I knew she wasn’t aware that I was following behind her, considering her driving pattern didn’t change, and I always put at least one car between us, so it wasn’t like she was trying to shake me off.

Even if that was the case, I already knew where she lived, so that would be a moot point.

She turned right into a small bar not far from where she lived.

Not going to see the bartender “friend” of hers tonight?

Much to my satisfaction, she hadn’t seen the fucker Brody since the night she got wasted at his bar and came home to… me .

Fuck, but I could still remember, clear as day, the taste of her on my tongue.

How fucking addicting.

I watched as she found a parking spot and pulled into it.

I parked my car just across from her, pulling backward into the spot that gave me a full view of her car with the engine still on.

What was going on inside that head of hers?

From the weeks of watching her, I got the impression that she wasn’t as happy as she let on. But what could be bothering her?

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and, not for the first time, wished I had the ability to read her mind. How was I supposed to drive away all her demons if I didn’t know what they were?

It wouldn’t be long before I made my claim on her known—to her and the rest of the world—but until then, I was nothing more than a stranger with no privy to her thoughts and feelings, and something about that just fucking killed me.

I wanted to know her inside and out.

If I was going to lose my very sanity to her, it seemed her giving me everything inside her for me to own would be a fair price.

Her car shut off then and she got out, her gaze on the doors of the bar as she walked toward it. I waited until she was inside before I shut off my own car engine and followed her.

It didn't take long for me to locate my girl in the small, dingy bar filled with smoke.

She was sitting by the bar top in the corner, and the fucking vultures had already taken notice. The biggest offense came from the hideous fucker with a receding hairline, sleazy smile, and bloodshot eyes.

He was watching my girl like he wanted to devour her.

Wrong fucking move.

I came up to him from behind just as he was about to make his way over to her, my grip on his shoulder.

He let out a pained grunt when I pulled him roughly against me.

“What the fuck?—”

His words were cut off as soon as he got a good look at me.

I smiled menacingly at the fucker. “You’re thinking about approaching that girl over there, aren’t you?”

He shook his head so fast, it looked like it might just snap off his neck.

That could easily be arranged.

“No, man, of course not.”

My smile widened as I patted his cheek. He flinched.

“Good. And why don’t you do me a favor and make sure no other fucker approaches her for the rest of the night. Got me?”

He gulped and nodded.

“Good boy,” I said, letting him go and walking over to the bar top on the other side from where Lia sat.

The bartender came over to me right away.

“What are ya having?”

“Scotch on the rocks,” I said to the man before turning my attention back to Lia.

She had noticed me, her gaze aimed directly at me, and her cheeks flushed red.

How fucking precious.