“About time to come out, don’t you think?”
I had no idea how long I’d been in here. Nor did I care. I wanted to stay in the tub. Didn’t want that ripped away from me too. “I’m fine.”
“I didn’t ask if you were fine or not.”
I twitched in aggravation, lifted my head out of the water. “Leave me alone, okay?”
A pause. “For five more minutes. I’ll be back.”
“Don’t bother,” I said. Two minutes or five minutes, I’d have the same answer for him. I squeezed my eyes shut and slipped fully under the surface, and came up only when my lungs started to ache. All of my senses returned to normal except for the other which remained nonexistent.
Pellini’s heavy knock rattled the door again. I had a feeling he’d given me more than five minutes, but it was still less than “as many minutes as I damn well wanted.”
“Come on out,” he ordered.
“Leave me alone,” I ordered right back.
“I’m not going to do that.”
I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes. I knew he was worried I’d do Something Stupid, especially since I sounded nothing like my usual perky self. But it’s my house. My bathtub. My time. My skin that’s wrinkled like a Shar-Pei. And I’m fine.
All I wanted was to be left alone in my own fucking bathtub. How goddamn hard was that to comprehend? And who the hell did he think he was, anyway? My dad? Fuck that shit. I hadn’t been able to fight back against Katashi and McDunn, but I could hold my ground against Pellini and this particular invasion. “Five more minutes,” I lied.
He blew out a breath. “No more minutes. Get the fuck out of the tub.”
“Go. Away.”
“I’m counting to three, then I’m coming in for you,” he said in an uncompromising tone. “Your choice whether to grab a towel or not. One . . . Two . . .”
“Leave me the fuck alone!” I yelled. Tears of frustration stung my eyes. Where were Bryce and Jill for all of this? Were they hanging back and watching Pellini be a jerk-ass control-freak buttinsky?
Apparently so, since the next sound to reach my ears was the click of the lock in the doorknob. Son of a bitch. Other than the door to the basement, all the locks inside the house were the cheap-ass kind with a center hole requiring only a nail or wire to unlock.
“Three.” He entered and closed the door behind him, a flicker of triumph in his eyes.
Dismay washed over me. Not only was I stark naked, but no one had cared enough to rush to my defense while he invaded my space. With a sob-cry of rage I hurled a bottle of shampoo at him, but he ducked and deflected it with his forearm.
“Get out of the tub, Kara,” he said with infuriating calm.
I no longer cared that I was naked. Hell, he’d already seen my everything after I died and came back to Earth in the PD squad room. “Why can’t you leave me alone?” I demanded, voice cracking.
“Because I’m an asshole,” he said. “Get out of the tub.” He picked up a towel then had to duck again as I slung a bottle of conditioner at him.
I seized the body wash and cocked my arm back. A lot of different people had been living in this house, and there were at least a dozen bottles of hygiene products within my reach. I could keep this up all night, and would, if it meant winning this battle.
Pellini regarded me with narrowed eyes and pursed mouth. My arm trembled as I held eighteen fluid ounces of Silky Peach Blossom Skin-Nourishing Body Wash, but if I lowered it at this point in the standoff, it would be admitting defeat. I watched the thoughts tick through his head, and I wondered if he’d resort to dragging me bodily from the tub. I couldn’t even hope for Eilahn to save me if he did. As drained as she’d been, it would be several hours before she budged from the nexus.
The shaking of my arm increased due to my own exhaustion combined with the hot water and lack of food. But before I could chuck the bottle at Pellini to avoid holding it any longer, he shrugged and began to unbutton his shirt.
“All right,” he said. “If you won’t come out, I’ll have to come in.”
I sputtered in shock and let the body wash drop into the tub. “No! Fucking hell, are you nuts?”
He stripped off his shirt and dropped it, then untucked the less than fresh white t-shirt beneath. Not that I had any room to judge freshness or lack thereof considering how gross I’d been before my bath. “Get out of the tub and stop me,” he challenged as he wrestled the t-shirt off.
Did he really think I would cave that easily? I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him in defiance. No way would he drop trou in front of me. He was bluffing. I was certain of it.
He unclipped his holstered gun from his waistband and set it on the counter, then reached under his belly for his belt buckle. I tensed but managed to hold back an outright flinch. He was