Sweetest Taboo (SIN 3)

At least he hoped to hell it wasn't.

Bill shrugged. "All I did was show your doorman the badge. He didn't ask questions, just let me up. Talk to him if you have a problem."

"My problem is with you," Dallas said. "Now get the fuck away from our front door."

"I need to talk to you." He turned to Jane. "To you both."

"Not a good time, counselor. Now I'm going to ask you politely again, and then I'm going to get testy. You don't want to see me when I'm testy, so I suggest you get out of my way. She needs to sit down."

"Where the hell have you been? It's the crack of dawn, Dallas. You two decide to just pop out to watch the sunrise? Grab a really fresh bagel?"

"Bill, please." Jane's voice was so thin that Dallas could barely hear it. Bill did, though. That much was obvious by the way his combative expression faded to sympathy.

"Oh, shit. Jane, I'm sorry." He stepped aside, and Dallas inserted his key in the lock, then held the door open for Jane. "Wait," Bill called. "Please. I talked to Lisa. She told me about the attack. That's the only reason I showed the badge. I just needed--I just needed to know she was okay. You were okay," he added when Jane turned to look at him.

"I--" she began, but Dallas cut her off.

"Go inside, baby. Let me talk to Bill for a second." When she hesitated, he cupped the back of her head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Sweetheart, please. I'll be right behind you."

He hated seeing the fear that flooded her eyes, and Dallas wished that he could reassure her. But they both knew the stakes. Knew who Bill was and what he might figure out. Right then, though, Dallas had to gamble that Bill was still clueless about Deliverance.

For a moment, he thought she was going to argue, but she acquiesced, and with one final glance toward Bill, she went inside.

Bill took a step, as if he intended to follow, and Dallas neatly parried. "Not happening."

"Dallas, I just--"

"What? Want to see her? You saw her. Christ, Bill, she was attacked and beaten and dumped at the curb like garbage. She's hanging on by a thread." She was doing a hell of a lot better than that, but Jane's emotional state was no longer Bill's business.

Bill's eyes dipped down to Dallas's crotch. "Is that what she was hanging on to?"

"Do not go there," Dallas said. "You think this is a joke? All for the publicity? This is our life, hers and mine, and you have fucked with it royally."

"Now, wait a minute. I--"

"No. You wait a minute. What the hell were you doing, telling her that the FBI and WORR were looking to arrest Colin for my kidnapping? And then telling her that he's disappeared? Did you think that would be easy on her? Did you think that she could just deal with it, because what's one more thing piled on top of all the rest?"

He was playing a dangerous game, and he knew it. As far as bad ideas went, pissing off the man who was trying both to prosecute your kidnapping without your consent and track you down because, unbeknownst to him, you happened to have abducted his prime suspect...well, that was just wrong in about a dozen different ways. But somehow, Dallas couldn't make himself shut up. His emotions were so damn pent up after days of holding them in, that now that the surface had cracked, everything was spewing out. Even things against his better judgment.

"You know what, Sykes," Bill countered, real irritation flashing across his face as he stepped closer to Dallas. "I'll own that--sure. I made it harder on her. I guess I thought she needed to know the truth about what was going on. But you still haven't answered my question. If she's so fragile, where the hell have you two been? You just decide to go for an early morning stroll?"

Fuck.

"Where we go and what we do isn't any business of yours anymore, Bill," Dallas said, as calmly as he could manage.

"I guess not," Bill said coldly. "I'm just her ex-husband. You're her brother. It's not like I could legally marry her. Sleep with her without risking a felony charge. Oh, wait," he said, cocking his head like he'd just remembered something. "I could do all that. You're the one who can't ever really have her."

Ice shot through Dallas's veins, and the only reason--the only reason--Bill wasn't facedown, unconscious on the floor that very second was that Jane was mere feet away behind that door, and she'd dealt with enough already.

From his sharp intake of breath and the quick step backward, it was clear that Bill knew he was lucky to be standing.

"I think you need to leave now, Bill."

"Shit, Dallas," Bill said, his entire body seeming to deflate. "I just want a few minutes."

"Bill," Dallas repeated, "it's time for you to leave."

As soon as I'm inside the apartment, I close the door behind me and force myself not to shake. Bill shouldn't scare me--he shouldn't. I know the man. Once upon a time, I even loved him, or at least I thought I did.