Make Her Mine

“If it was just me, you’d have nothing to worry about,” I hiss through clenched teeth. “I care about Skye. More than you probably do, considering the run around you’ve given her.”

He opens his mouth like he’s about to contradict me, but I bowl right over him.

“I want to protect her. Understand me? I might work for Rich, but I’m not like his other thugs. They’re scoping out your sister’s house, by the way. Watching her.” Once again, I think of Man Bun posted outside her building and red dances in front of my vision. “I just spotted one of them lurking out front half an hour ago.”

“Why should I believe you?” he mutters.

This little shit. “Because you know I’m telling the truth.” I meet his gaze, and I’m sure he can see it in mine. The weak spot I’ve developed. The sincerity of my feelings for Skye. “She cannot get hurt in this, Ian. I don’t give a shit about you, but she doesn’t deserve this.”

He clenches his fists. “Fair enough. We’re agreed there.”

The elevator dings at the top floor, and we disembark, crossing an empty office floor to a staircase marked Emergency Exit Only. “The fact that Rich’s got multiple guys tailing her is bad,” I explain. “When it was just me, I could control the situation. Now? I don’t know. Either Rich doesn’t trust me, which is entirely possible, or he’s doubling down because he plans to do something sooner than later. Last time I talked to him, he was pretty pissed about having to wait five days for the drop.”

Ian shakes his head. “I can’t swing it any sooner. Believe me, I’ve tried. It has to be Saturday, not before.”

“Why?” I taunt. “Got to win your gambling money back before then?”

He shoots me a venomous look. “I just can’t, okay? What are our other options?”

“Watch her,” I say simply. “Tail her. Every minute of every day, if you can swing it. God knows you spend enough time moping around on your computer. Do you even have a day job or did you lie to her about the shipping gig too?”

He snorts. “You’re one to talk. What’s your day job, intimidations? Or do you specialize in anything else? Threats? Seducing women?”

“I’m a man of many, many talents,” I respond and his nostrils flare. Let him suck on that one. Let him imagine all the things I did to his sister, all the ways I claimed her. She is mine, after all, whether he likes it or not. What Skye and I have can’t be torn apart. After all this is done, after I’ve made sure she’s safe, I’ll win her back.

That, or die trying.

Ian seems to decide this argument is one he doesn’t want to pursue. He steps away from me, hands tugging at his jacket sleeves. “She’s not even speaking to me right now. She’s angry about this whole situation.”

“Do you blame her?”

His frown deepens. “Not at all. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to tail her like that. To be with her all the time. She won’t let me.”

“Then convince her. Make her, if you have to. Understand me? Rich is not someone you want to fuck around with.” My jaw tightens as I scan the rooftop once more. Three exits, two buildings near enough for sighters, if Rich wants them on this drop. Or worse, snipers, if he wants to go that far. I’m not sure exactly how much this Ian kid has pissed him off.

Whatever else he might be, Ian at least appears to be reasonably afraid of Rich’s people. His hands shake at his sides, though he thinks I won’t notice the way he has them clenched in tight fists. He nods, once, though. “I understand.”

I leave him to it because I’ve got work to do.

20

Skye

The last few days have passed in a haze. I go to work. I come home. I sit on the couch and stare blankly at my television screen, unable to comprehend the stupid sitcoms and reality shows that flash before my eyes. Eventually those eyes start to droop with sleep, and I curl up alone in my empty bed, staring at the wall until sheer exhaustion finally allows me to collapse into the sweet erase of sleep.

My stupid memories don’t help. They keep replaying, a constant loop of pain in my head.

“You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met.”

“I want to devour you.”

His words are a constant refrain in my head, and I can’t stop searching them for the broken thread, the clue that should have let me in on the fact that he was lying the whole time. What should I have doubted? What should I have ignored? Should I have disbelieved him the second he said he wanted me that much?

“You own me too.”

I let him have everything, every ounce I had to give, and he made me believe he felt the same way. He made me think I had his heart, the way he’d stolen mine. I know it was fast—ridiculously fast—and I know we were only just getting started, but the whole thing had felt right. Inevitable. Stone made me feel in a way no man I’ve ever been with before has. It was like coming home, or finding my path after a lifetime lost.

At the diner, I go through the motions. Serve my tables, smile robotically at all my regulars. Mr. Tim, the eighty-year-old who lives down the block from Monroe’s, asked me yesterday morning if I was all right, if something had happened to my family. Yeah, I wanted to say. My brother fucked up our lives permanently by gambling, and there’s no other family left to warn me away from ruining my own life too.