Reeve
A FEW DAYS HIDING out in Bax’s tiny apartment made me feel like I was back in WITSEC. I hadn’t seen anyone besides the pizza delivery guy. And I hadn’t heard from Titus except for the day after he ditched me here when he showed up with a handful of clothes he told me he borrowed from a neighbor and a pay-as-you-go cell phone that he shoved in my hand with a grunt. He told me only to use it in case of an emergency and then disappeared without another word. It was obvious everything about having to deal with me was grating on him, but I didn’t have a solution to that problem, so I simply took the phone and collapsed against the door after he stormed away, a cloud of anger and tension hanging thick in his wake.
Every night since I had taunted him into kissing me, goaded him into letting some of that rock-hard veneer he had in place slip, I felt like I was drowning in him. Admittedly my fascination with Titus King was nothing new, but now that I knew, now that I had actual experience with what it was like to be wanted by him, to be the sole focus of that inferno of hot desire, I couldn’t get around it. It chased me into sleep. It haunted me when I was awake. I tasted him. I felt him, and when I breathed in and out I could swear when my heart beat it was tapping out his name over and over again.
I should be focused on Conner. I needed to keep my eye on the prize because only the winner of this game was making it out alive. The thought of being in a crazy man’s crosshairs was petrifying. He killed a girl just because she looked like me, for God’s sake, and he hadn’t done it cleanly or mercifully. She had suffered; Titus was brutally honest when I asked about the body that had pulled him away before things had gotten out of control at the motel. She had suffered big-time and we both knew that was nothing compared to what Conner would do when he finally caught up with me.
There was a time before Titus when I would have just run. I was quick on my feet and knew how to make ends meet when I had to. There were plenty of no-name towns in Middle America where I could get lost and never be found again. But now that the surly detective was right in front of me, willing to believe that I had some kind of redeeming quality and was honestly willing to help him, I couldn’t do that.
No. It was time to stand my ground and right all my wrongs in the only way I knew how. I was a trap few men could resist, one Conner had already fallen into, and once he came for me I was going to make sure he could never fool or hurt anyone ever again. A showdown was on the horizon. In the real world good didn’t triumph over evil because evil didn’t play fair. That meant only bad had a shot at taking evil down, and I was just bad enough to get the job done. I wanted Titus to keep me alive, not so I could testify but so that I could put a bullet in Conner before he put a bullet in me or anyone else in the Point. I was going to sacrifice myself for the greater good and the only part of it that made me nervous was the fact that I was lying to the handsome detective about my true intentions. He already thought I was shady and devious; once this came to light, he was bound to think I really was nothing more than a soulless killer.
When someone pounded on the door well after the sun had gone down on the day Titus said he was coming to collect me, I automatically assumed it was going to be him. However, I had lived in the Point way too long to ever just open a door without seeing what was on the other side. When I checked the peephole it wasn’t bright blue eyes looking back at me, but instead a forest-green pair set in a face made to make women stupid with lust. It was almost like he could hear what I was thinking because before I reached for the security chain on the door, the golden god smiled at me, flashing a dimple that made my heart trip involuntarily. Race was dangerous in a totally different way from Bax, and I suddenly understood why the two of them together made an unstoppable team.
I pulled the door open and braced an arm on the jamb so that Race would get the hint that I wasn’t inviting him inside.
“Titus send you after me?” I hated the sting I felt at the thought of the dark-haired cop palming me off on someone else. I was supposed to be made of stronger stuff than that. I couldn’t afford to have my feelings hurt every time I was reminded that Titus didn’t feel about me the same way I did about him. I needed to remind myself he couldn’t feel that way. I was not a good person and Titus deserved the best.