Control (Blood & Bone Enforcers MC)

“She doesn’t,” came Tarun’s irritated voice. He looked over as she came to the top of the stairs, but she barely looked at him. “She has every intention of doing the opposite.”

Noah raised his hands and slowly melted away into the shadows, as only an ex-Marine could. Dismissing him, he turned to glare at Tarun, feeling a sense of disbelief wash over him as she tried to walk past him without stopping.

Reaching out, he grabbed her arm, halting her progress and waiting on her to look at him. She never did, just stubbornly kept her gaze on the empty hallway. Fine. He didn’t need to her to look at him to be able to talk to her.

“I thought I asked you to leave, Tarun. Why are you still here?”

Her gaze shot to his then, the anger in her almost completely green gaze surprising him. “As I recall, you didn’t ask. You ordered. Again. That didn’t work out so well for you the first time, so I’m not sure why you thought it would today.”

“It’s not safe here,” he bit out, trying to rein in his temper. “I’m not sure what I need to do or say to make you understand that. It never was, but now that we know he’s perfectly willing to go after women to get what he wants, it’s even more dangerous for you.”

The door beside him cracked open and Georgie stuck her head out, flicking a disdainful look at Tarun before focusing on him. “I forgot to bring this up earlier. Since I’m staying here, I’m going to need some of my clothes. Could you send someone to my apartment to get some? Thanks, sweetie.”

Before he could tell her he wasn’t comfortable with her endearment, she pulled back inside and shut the door. The silence in the hall was deafening and he squeezed his eyes shut. Georgie had spectacular fucking timing.

Movement caught his eye as he opened them, and he glanced over to see Tarun tapping her foot rapidly. He raised his gaze, taking in her tightly crossed arms and the pissed off look on her face. Fuck.

“So I have to leave, but you invite Georgie to move in, is that it? Spin your bullshit about my safety to someone else, Carlisle.”

He winced at her use of his last name. “This is about your safety, Tarun. I asked Georgie to stay because she’s a target. This guy knows who she is and probably wouldn’t hesitate to go after her again. She’s at risk if she doesn’t stay here. You’re at risk if you do. It’s as simple as that.”

An uncertain look crossed her features, but she shook her head as she squared her shoulders. “Maybe that’s part of it, but it’s not all of it. Look, I get it. You’re worried about my safety because you don’t want to piss off my brother, and our kiss meant nothing to you. You don’t have to tell me that shit twice. But I’m staying, whether you like it or not, so you’d do best to get used to it, sweetie.”

His mouth dropped open but before he could reply, she was halfway down the hall. He didn’t know where she’d gotten those ideas, but they were all wrong. He started to follow her, but Georgie called his name and he hesitated, torn. Georgie had just been through a major trauma, and she needed someone around. He didn’t particularly want it to be him, but she was hurt because of him, so he couldn’t just walk away without answering.

Even though the need he felt to catch up to Tarun and explain to her exactly how wrong she was, was almost overwhelming.

His lion hummed with disapproval and Luke knew he didn’t agree, but it was what he had to do. The cat shook his head, telling him without words how stupid he was, and Luke had a feeling that he was right. Because not following Tarun right away was going to make it a thousand times harder to explain when he did catch up to her.

Fuck.

Tarun paced her room for a good twenty minutes, trying to talk herself into going downstairs to get breakfast. She’d already put it off by taking a longer shower than she ever had before and then walking around her room, but she was hungry, and she couldn’t keep stalling forever.

It wasn’t that she was nervous, shy, or scared. She wasn’t, at all. She just had no desire to see Luke, the two-timing snake. Oh, maybe he and Georgie weren’t together at the time he kissed Tarun, but he’d clearly been interested in the other woman, despite what Blake thought. And he had no freakin’ business kissing her while he was interested in someone else.

No, she wasn’t nervous. She was pissed the hell off and knew that if she saw Luke, she’d probably lose her shit on him. And in public, around everyone. She wanted to get better hold of her emotions before she saw him again.

I think maybe you’re judging him harshly, her tiger said, speaking inside her for the first time since she and Luke pulled up at the clubhouse the evening before.

Seriously? How can you say that? You were there for everything. You saw and heard it all. If anything, I’m being pretty calm under the circumstances.

I just think there must be more to the story. There has to be.

And what makes you think that? Seriously. Give me one reason I should give him a chance to make a fool of me again. I’ll wait. Long seconds ticked by, but her cat didn’t reply. That’s what I thought.

Her belly grumbled and she stopped pacing, squaring her shoulders. Okay. Enough. She needed to go eat, and she didn’t think waiting any longer was going to cool her ire any more. It probably wasn’t possible, so she needed to just get it over with.

Leaving the room, she then made her way down the stairs, heading into the almost deserted bar. It seemed different during the day, free of the humans who frequented it, the silence a stark contrast to the noise she’d heard in there the first two nights.

She could hear banging in the kitchen, so she knew Liam was hard at work. He must spend most of his time in there, because she’d only caught a few glimpses of him since she’d arrived.

Noah nodded to her from his seat at the bar. “You here for breakfast? Liam, make that two plates.”

A loud grunt of acknowledgement came from the kitchen and she raised an eyebrow at Noah. “Ordering for me now, are you?”

He smiled as she took the stool next to him. “He only serves one thing for breakfast for us Enforcers, but I think you’ll enjoy it. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon this morning. Still, if you want something different, he might be persuaded, since you’re technically a guest.”

Chuckling, she poured herself a glass of orange juice from the pitcher as she shook her head. “No, that sounds good. Thanks.”