Desperate to Touch

His gaze doesn’t leave mine. Instead he stares back with a friendly look, although the intensity is at odds with the darkness in his eyes. “Don’t get pissed. Since when are you this sensitive?”

“Sensitive?” I dare to bite back in what’s nearly a snarl. “She’s mine. And she doesn’t concern you. I told you that. You don’t need to look into her background.”

“The fuck I don’t.” He puts on a façade that this is a relaxed conversation, but the tension grows around us by the half second. “Everything you do concerns me. Concerns all of us. You bring her in, whether you see it like that or not, and she’s around us. She has access to the same information we do, how we act, where we are. I know her name, her résumé and credentials. I need to know more. We need to know more.”

“Like what?” I question. “What do you need to know?”

“What does she want with you? And what do you want with her?” His questions are blunt and I break the hard stare between us to look back at the darkening sky behind us.

I answer him and my voice is low, barely speaking, “I don’t know. I have no fucking clue and that’s the truth.”

“I’m going to need you to be careful with her.”

“Why’s that?” I say and turn back around to face him. Who the fuck is he to tell me what to do with her? “Is she a threat?” The menacing tone is more than apparent in my question.

“She’s Bethany’s friend.” All emotion is restrained in Jase’s voice. His answer is simply matter of fact. It takes me a long moment to realize what he’s getting at.

He adds, “I don’t need you interfering, messing with Bethany’s head or getting to her.”

Jase is my boss. He’s powerful in ways I gave up any interest of being. So I glare back at him, listening to the thud in my chest and for the first time it feels the same as the first time I was arrested. With nothing else to do but wait, I slammed my fists over and over against the cinder block walls of the cell. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Licking my lower lip, I let my response linger on the tip of my tongue. Tasting it, debating it before finally looking Jase in the eyes to say, “She’s always been mine and that’s the only answer you need.”

Taking a step back, I pivot on my back heel and turn my back to him. The soles of my polished oxfords groan as I turn on the waxed floors of the high-end bar. The bar I helped build. Carefully and quietly guiding Jase. I’ve done more than enough for them. They will not interfere. Or I’ll make them regret it.

“At least you can admit that,” Jase calls from behind and I pause. “You think it will stay that way?”

His question is met with a rise of anger. “What do you want from me?” I practically sneer the question as I whip around to face him and close the distance in an instant.

“To know what you’re going to do. That’s what I want, Seth.”

“Leave her alone. She’s mine and I’ll take care of her how I want to.”

Jase’s clean-shaven jaw flexes at my defiance. With his dark jeans and light gray Henley he doesn’t look like the man I know him to be. He’s far too charming in his appearance. Far too laid back. Everything he does is intentional. Showing up to a meeting like this today, I knew he’d dispense bad news. It’s all in delivery, in appearances. “Maybe I haven’t been clear enough,” I speak plainly, calmly, so that nothing can be misinterpreted. “I have no intention of sharing information about her. She’s mine and she’ll remain separate from the business. There are no exceptions.”

“We have Marcus and Walsh both breathing down our necks. The batch of sweets that was stolen, our man murdered and even though we framed it like we planned it that way, we still don’t know who did it.” Jase pauses, his eyes searching my own.

“We’ve got problems, Seth. We can’t find the stolen product. There’s too much shit going on and too many unanswered questions. I don’t like it.” I nod, hearing the sincerity and concern. The bar is silent as the tension wanes. “I don’t like you giving me even more questions and not answering them.” He slips his hands into his pockets and I take a half step back. “She is an unknown variable. A distraction when you should be focused.”

“I still have it for her,” I admit to him.

“Have it?”

“Whatever it is that you get with a girl,” I say.

Jase only nods, his dark eyes assessing. Wondering if I’m telling the truth. I’m wondering too. I know I’ll tell him whatever he wants to hear so he’ll back off.