“No dice, Reject. If I let you die, I’ll get a real shitty Christmas bonus.”
“I don’t want you to fucking save me.” I kicked the back of his knee. Success! He stumbled forward, only a little, which was more than I’d ever managed with him.
“If you don’t stop struggling, I’m going to throw you over my shoulder.” He turned around, tongue edging the seam of his top lip. Anytime his tongue pushed his upper lip it meant Theo was frustrated.
So what did I do?
“Fuck you.” This time I really did spit in his face.
The moment was heated. Pressurized. A second teetering like a penny on its side as I waited for him to react, our stares locked and unblinking. Theo slid his tongue between his teeth.
Why was there a small part of me that wanted him mad?
Mean.
Punishing.
With one, heated exhale, he wiped my spit from his cheek, and I was in the air, his strong arms locking my ass in place. I slammed my fists into his back, even though it was useless.
A few feet away from where we’d just been a fight had broken out, but that’s not what had my heart hammering, the blood in my veins turning to ice.
No… no, no, no. It had been weeks since he’d bothered me. Weeks. I was starting to believe he was leaving me alone. He was gone.
Anyone might believe it was a coincidence, but not me. I learned to take coincidences as deliberate. Resting inside the melted black ice cream Theo had dropped to the ground was a single gold rose.
A message from my stalker.
Six
THEO
Abigail slammed her fists against my back, but they may as well have been raindrops. Once we got to the safe house, I dropped her to the sea-warped wood, and she immediately jumped back. With both hands she wiped hair out of her face, finishing with a searing glare.
Fuck, she was cute. Her pale cheeks red with anger, nostrils flared. I liked her mad.
Too much.
The perfect size for me as well. Small, but never someone to overlook, despite what she might think. The thought pierced me like a bullet, fast and without any way to defend against it.
“Theo!” she yelled, waving a hand over my face, and I realized she’d been talking. “What are you doing?”
“The fuck does it look like, Abs?” I shoved her aside, checking the lock on the door behind her, giving the place another once-over.
Abigail’s only memories of me were as a teenager. She had n
o knowledge of the man I’d become. I’d been trained. I knew what I was doing. This was one of the many safe houses scouted and assigned in the city of Crowne Point. It wasn’t designed to be lived in, merely a place to stay until a threat passed. Right on the beach, small and inconspicuous.
Abigail might even think I was a bodyguard in title only, that I was here only to mess with her.
I should be.
I should be here just to fuck with her. Shouldn’t give a shit that there weren’t enough exits in this supposed safe house. Shouldn’t care that a glass window was bullshit. They should be tempered.
After checking the window, I went back to Abby.
“A Crowne Industries protest turned violent. We’re staying put until further notice.”
Her brows furrowed. “And that’s definitely all it was?”