Play Rough (Black Rose Kisses 2)

I don’t have a cover story, and there’s no point in trying to come up with one anyway. As soon as Sloan opens his laptop, he’ll see what I was looking at and be able to put two and two together.

The plan before all this happened was to be gone somewhere by the time he found out, and then for him to be taken down by the Jackals anyway, so he’d never be able to retaliate against me. But that’s all out the window now, and he’s staring a hole through me like he can find out the truth by reading it in my soul or something.

Since there’s no point in lying, I know I have to admit the truth. Better to do it quick, like ripping off a band-aid.

“I’ve been double-crossing you,” I tell him, lifting my chin to look him in the eye. “Feeding information to a contact I made in the Jackals.”

“You’ve been what?” he demands. I can see it the second his temper flares. He breathes out hard through his nose, and his eyes burn with anger. He’s pissed off, staring down at me like he doesn’t know what to say.

I’m pissed off too though, and I glare right back.

“What the fuck did you expect me to do?” I shout. “I thought you killed my fucking dad. I thought I’d stood there and watched you murder him and then act like nothing happened. You made it look that way, and you were convincing as fuck, so I acted on the information I had. If you’d just fucking told me what was going on, then I never would have thought of betraying you!”

He grabs me by the chin and pushes me until my back is flush with the wall.

“I was trying to keep you out of it,” he growls, his voice low and dangerous. “If you hadn’t put your nose in shit that doesn’t concern you, you’d have been fucking fine. Now you’ve started something you can’t undo.”

His grip isn’t gentle, and he’s right in my face, growling at me, talking to me like I’m a fucking child.

“Shit that doesn’t concern me?” I snap back. “Please tell me how my father’s life doesn’t fucking concern me!”

“It’s Black Rose business,” he spits. “Not yours.”

“You brought me into it when you fucking kidnapped me! Maybe you don’t give a shit if your dad lives or dies, but I do. I hadn’t heard from him, no one would tell me anything, and I didn’t know what else to do. And then I saw you shoot him with my own damn eyes!”

We’re practically screaming at each other now, and he still has a grip on me. His anger fills the room, and any happiness I felt just a second ago has melted away into my own fury that I’m being lectured for wanting to get back at someone who I thought murdered my only remaining family in cold blood.

“You don’t know anything,” Sloan snarls.

“Yeah, because you never tell me anything.” I grab his wrist and shove him away from me, breaking his hold and giving myself some distance.

&nbs

p; I’m so mad I’m practically seeing red, and I can taste my heartbeat in my mouth as the anger burns through me. I’m about two seconds away from fucking fighting him again, giving him another bruise to match the one blooming on his jaw.

Sloan steps back into my personal space, and I shove him back again.

“Don’t try to put this all on me,” I spit out. “If you weren’t keeping fucking secrets and sneaking around—”

“If you weren’t so damned nosy, you mean!”

“Fuck off, you asshole. You have no right—”

Footsteps thunder up the stairs, and a second later, Levi and Rory come charging in, concern on their faces. Clearly, the yelling has easily carried down the stairs for them to hear when they got home.

They stop just inside the door, freezing in place as they take in the scene in the room.

I can only imagine what a sight we make. I’m still topless, and Sloan’s glaring down at me while I yell right back in his face. My hands are balled into fists at my side, and I’m ready to deck him at any second.

Shock registers on both of their faces, and they don’t seem to know how to proceed. Then Rory grabs Sloan, pulling him away from me while Levi steps between us.

“What the hell is going on?” Levi asks, looking back and forth. His gaze skates down to my toes and then all the way back up my body. “Why are you topless?”

“She was trying to seduce me,” Sloan mutters.

I snort and roll my eyes, fury still rolling through me. “You fucking wish.”

“Not that I’m complaining about the view, Hurricane,” Rory chimes in, sounding as confused as Levi did. “But what the fuck?”