Page 18

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SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Haskell

The ride in the lift was silent, but Haskell had to admit she was more than a little intimidated. After all, she was basically crammed into a box with Nemo, TB, Steel, Demon, Cherry, and Scheherazade. The latter stood in front of her, back to the door, front paws on top of Haskell’s feet, her head cocked to the side. She wasn’t sure who was the biggest threat. Somehow, she thought it might be Cherry.

Demon hustled Cherry off the carriage at the fifth floor, a whispered argument starting before the doors had even slid closed.

TB snorted with a shake of his head as the lift closed and started up again. “Those two need to figure out their shit.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Steel murmured. “Demon has to clean his shit up first. She won’t be with him unless he cleans up, and he won’t clean up because that’s how he keeps himself from her.”

Haskell looked over her shoulders at the men. “A medic who is an addict seems a bit counterintuitive.”

Steel turned his cold eyes on her.

“I see the signs. He’s a functional addict, but an addict just the same.”

Steel offered, “Sometimes people choose the lesser of two evils to cope with the things they’ve done and seen.”

Holding her ground, Haskell replied, “I’m not judging him. We all have our own ways of compensating, and we do what we need to do to survive.”

“We all have our coping mechanisms.”

She watched as Steel directed his gaze to Nemo, who was not paying any attention. When Steel’s eyes slid back to Haskell’s, she saw the message in his stare, equating Demon’s drug use with Nemo’s own personal choices for how he coped with his choices in life.

The door opened on the seventh floor, allowing Steel and TB to exit to their private apartments. Just as the doors were about to close completely, TB stuck his hand between them. His head followed as soon as it could, and he hit Nemo in the chest with a foil wrapper. “Don’t forget to wrap it up!” With a finger cocked in a gun motion, he winked, made a clicking noise with his mouth, grinned, and backed out of the doors, allowing them to close.

Nemo glanced at Haskell with a grimace, and he quickly put the packet in his pocket. “Sorry about that.”

She shrugged. “Boys,” she said, as if it explained everything.

The lift doors opened on the eighth floor, and Scheherazade scampered off to the right. Nemo nudged Haskell’s elbow, so she followed the dog.

As they exited, Nemo chuckled. “Don’t let TB hear you call him a ‘boy.’ The giant will likely go all Godzilla on you and destroy the city.”

He keyed in the code to his door, opened it, and gestured her inside. Scheherazade flew through it, bounded over the leather couch, and yipped when she went ass over head to get to her toy box. Before Haskell could even take a step in her surprise to check on the dog, Nemo’s hand was on her arm.

“She’s okay,” he said. “Still a puppy at heart. Look.”

Haskell peered over the couch back, and all she saw were a pair of eyes and two ears pointed straight up. The mouth was totally blocked by a huge stuffed manatee. Haskell broke out into a smile that lit up her entire face, with a laugh that matched it. As if her smile at the goofy image was a green light, Scheherazade gave another muffled yip and bounded back over the couch, her favorite toy in her mouth. She made a beeline for Haskell and sat it at her feet again.

“What does she want?”

“She wants to play. Be warned. She loves that damn thing, so you’ll probably be able to wring it out.” He headed into the kitchen. “You want anything to drink?”

“Some water would be good,” she admitted.

Haskell grabbed the manatee, making an immediate “Eww” noise, and tossed it across the room to please the dog but get rid of it at the same time. “Nasty,” she gagged.

“I warned you. I’ve tried buying her new ones, but she just ignores them,” he said from the depths of his refrigerator. “Catch.”

He tossed her a bottle of water, closed the refrigerator, and then opened his bottle as he leaned against the counter. She watched him down half of it in just a few swallows. “See something you like better than the water?” he teased.

“What? ”

“You haven’t opened your bottle yet. All you’ve done is stare at me.”

She shook herself, blinking her eyes several times, and looked at the water bottle in her hand. “Sorry.”

He shoved off the counter and placed his bottle on the breakfast bar as he passed it. When he arrived in front of her, he took the bottle from her, broke the seal and then tightened it, and handed it back to her. One finger touched the underside of her chin and tilted her head up so that her eyes met his. “Never be sorry for looking at me, kitty cat. I don’t mind. I find you difficult to look away from myself.”

The silence was tense.

Nemo finally broke it. “Why did you take off on me the first and second times? And don’t try that lie about you panicking again.”

“That’s your biggest issue with everything that was brought up downstairs? That’s what you want to talk about right now?”

He shrugged. “I’ll hear the rest of it later. Besides, our history is definitely not what I want laid out on the table later.”

She could feel the blood rush to her face. “So sorry to know that I might embarrass you.”

She began to step away from him, but she didn’t get more than two steps before his arms wrapped around her middle from behind, and she was hauled up against his front. “Relax,” he soothed. “That’s not what I meant. Don’t get your hackles up, kitty cat.” His chin rested on her shoulder as he hugged her close. “I just meant that I didn’t want to put you through explaining the more private details of how well we know each other. They know the basics. That’s all they need.”

She ripped herself out of his hold. He was too potent. It felt too good. He felt… safe.

Turning on him, she bit out, “That’s not much better, Nemo. ”

“Sweetheart.” He laughed, arms open, palms up. “I’m not sure what you’re so upset about. I’ve been hoping to run into you again for four fucking years. Granted, saving you from being blown sky-high wasn’t my fantasy of how it would happen, but it brought you back to me, so I’m gonna take it.”

He took a step forward, which she countered by taking a step backward. He took another step; she stepped backward again, and he frowned. It was like the antique store all over again, and she knew the exact moment he made the connection when his smile turned devilish as he continued walking toward her. No wonder. The breakfast bar ended up cutting off her escape three steps later.

Arms braced on the breakfast bar’s edge on either side of her, and his body pressed against hers, he nuzzled her under her chin. He didn’t kiss her. He didn’t lick her or bite her. He just burrowed in, the soft scruff of his short beard—something new and stupid gorgeous on him along with everything else—smoothing across her skin, and then she heard him deeply inhale. “Sugar,” he whispered as if to himself.

“Wh-what?” she stuttered.

“You always smell and taste like sugar. I’m addicted to that smell. Took me forever to find something with that same smell, something I could have on me at all times. I should own stock in bubble gum. You imprinted on me the first time we met, kitty cat.”

“Ha! That’s a joke. I heard your brother. He said, and I quote, ‘If it’s human, and it has a vagina, it’s his type.’ Imagine why I wouldn’t feel that you’re sincere with your compliments.”

Nemo backed off her, but not enough to let her escape.

“My brother is an asshole. My team are assholes as well. They think they know me, but not a single one of them has ever asked why I am the way I am. Why I chase tail on a daily basis. Sometimes multiple times.” One hand moved from the countertop to her face, laying against her cheek and jaw. “It’s you, Haskell. It’s always been you. I couldn’t forget you, so that first year, I tried to lose myself in every woman I could find just to prove that you could be replaced. You couldn’t.”

His thumb slid between her lips, and her traitorous tongue reached for it, wrapping around the invading digit, her eyes fluttering closed as she sucked on it.

“And then, by chance, we met again.” She felt his forehead touch hers with his confession. “It all came rushing back. I couldn’t have stayed away from you if I’d tried. So I let my dick take control, and I fucked you again. Not sorry in the least. I missed you. I ached for you. So, yes, I’ve fucked my way through as much of the female population as possible, hoping against hope that somewhere along the line, I’d meet a woman who could replace you in my head, but that’s the problem. Every single one of those women paled in comparison. There is no replacing you.”

She bit his thumb. Hard. A bark of pain caused him to withdraw it from her mouth.

“You need to work on your game. If you thought telling me the hundreds of women you’ve fucked mean nothing to you, I’m not going to fall for that shite.”

“Nothing to fall for, kitty cat. Just being one hundred percent honest. I can’t change who I was or what I’ve done. But now that you’re here, there won’t be anyone else because I finally understand. My heart doesn’t want anyone else.”

She ducked under his arm and fled to the center of the room. “So let me get this straight. You’ve comparison-shopped fucking me with the other half of the earth’s eligible women that you’ve fucked, and that’s supposed to show me that I’m the only woman in the world for you? That makes no sense whatsoever. ”

He turned to face her, his arms hanging loosely at his side, his posture communicating he had no fear of her getting away from him. “I’m trying to explain that there never was a comparison. I never could get you out of my system. You’re like an addiction. Even though I can function when you’re not around, you’re always there.” He turned and went down the hallway just past his kitchen. He opened a door and gestured through it. “If you want to rest before we meet up again later. Everything’s clean.”

She stood where she was, barely breathing. She refused to trust him. She’d tried to forget him over the years. Tried to see other people. Even tried to work her way to sleeping with a few. Cerberus was the closest she’d ever come to that, but he came with his own issues, and those were ones she couldn’t overlook. In the end, they were made to be close friends, so he knew all about her issues with “the guy” from her past. The only guy who’d ever broken through her defenses. The only man she’d ever wanted. The only man she could never truly have. The only man who’d made her feel like a woman to be desired, not a colleague, a tomboy, or even a precocious child.

He walked back toward her, coming within three feet but making no effort to reach out to her. It was as if he could read her mind. “The room’s never been used. You’re the only person who’s ever been in my apartment other than my teammates, and definitely the only woman. I don’t even think Flame’s been in here.”

“Flame?”

“TB’s woman. She’s a romance novelist. Of the three women here—Kubrick, Cherry, and her—she’s the one I’m closest to. We almost lost her a couple of months ago to sex traffickers.”

“You’re closest to a woman who’s seeing someone else?”

“Settle down, hissy. It’s not like that. ”

“Nemo. Look. I think I deserve to be a little hissy. I just spent six weeks moving across Africa avoiding the Kaders, and now it appears the Salieri as well. I was nearly blown up today for something that has nothing to do with me. I’ve been hustled into some weird-ass building that’s both a workplace and an apartment building to a company that employs mercenaries, and they don’t seem very prone to letting me go on my way. One of those mercenaries is a two-time mistake I’ve spent the last four years regretting. It’s a bit much, you know?”

Nemo closed the three feet between them, their bodies so close that when they breathed in sync, they brushed against each other on the exhale. “Now there’s a lie if ever I heard one.”

“What’s that?” she whispered.

“A two-time mistake you’ve spent the last four years regretting.”

“I do regret it,” she assured him.

“You regret that it’s been four years since we’ve seen each other, maybe, but you don’t regret me. Not even close.”

His mouth was on hers before she could deny him. And truth be told, he wasn’t wrong.

And then he was gone.

When she opened her eyes, he was nowhere to be seen. She whirled around to the door to the outer hall that was closing, the back end of Scheherazade and her tail wagging out of control as she followed Nemo out of the apartment. “I’ll be back at just before six p.m. Get some rest.”

The door closed, and she heard a series of beeps, signifying that the alarm had been engaged. Her shoulders slumped, and her head tipped back so she could contemplate the ceiling. Finding no answers there, she collected herself and headed down to the guest room he had opened for her. She figured she might as well get a nap as she didn’t have the strength to do anything else right now .

Before turning into the offered room, she stared hard at the closed door across from it. Given the layout of the apartment, it was likely Nemo’s bedroom. She was guessing each bedroom had its own bathroom, and a quick head-duck into the guest room showed that, yes, she did, in fact, have her own.

Her hand reached out to turn the knob of the door across the hall, her burglar’s curiosity getting the better of her. But for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to actually turn it and open the door. It felt… wrong. And that wasn’t something that rested easy within her. Being a thief meant her moral compass was askew. Between that and her last several years working with Mythos, snooping was ingrained in her as much as breathing. However, she did have lines she wouldn’t cross, and apparently, snooping through Sawyer’s things was one of them.

She let go of the knob like it burned her flesh and took a full step backward. She did not like the implications of that choice, so to avoid dealing with the sudden attack of conscience, she went into the guest room. Once the door closed behind her, she locked it and leaned against it. Shower. Bed. Deal with the rest of the nonsense later.