I was so exasperated at Luke knowing everything, I rolled my eyes to the ceiling and then said something stupid. There was no excuse for it. I should have protected the information with everything I had, taken it to my grave, kept it buried and never let it out, even under torture.
In my defense, I wasn’t myself. Too much had happened to me with Dom, with Ren, with Noah even with fucking Riley and, most especially, with Luke.
That was why I didn’t stop myself before saying, “I can’t believe while I was downstairs with Noah and he was demonstrating why he’s the ultimate jerk, you were searching my house.”
The air in the room instantly went thick with tension, my eyes flew from the ceiling to lock on Luke’s and I realized my mortal mistake when I saw his face had gone stony. Scary stony. Fury-unleashed stony.
Gonzo stony.
“What did you just say?” he asked through his teeth.
“Nothing,” I replied quickly.
“You didn’t say nothin’, you said somethin’.”
“No, I meant –”
He advanced. I retreated.
My back hit the door and he came up close. “He was in your house while I was in your house?”
Like I did the night before, hoping it would work again, I put my hands to his neck to try to get through to him, calm him.
“Luke, please, listen to me –”
“He touched you then, didn’t he?”
My eyes grew wide that he guessed this (how could he guess this?) and, unfortunately, my eyes told the truth for me.
It was then Luke went gonzo. No neck touch, soft voice and pleading were going to help, no way.
He turned from me and, with a vicious blow and a ferocious growl, he punched the wall, his hand going clean through, drywall dust poofing out. I stared in horror as he pulled his hand out of the wall and then punched it again, leaving another hole.
He wasn’t quite through. After Wall Punch Two, he turned, walked to a locker and punched that. His fist against the steel made a huge noise and my horrified stare turned part terrified, part amazed when the steel buckled and the sides of the door bowed out. He hit it again then again and I charged him.
“Luke!” I shouted, throwing my arms around him to stop him from hurting himself. If he kept doing that he was going to crush his hand. “Stop it! Please, stop!”
His arm sliced around my waist lifting me clean off my feet, up through the air. He took three long strides and I landed on my ass on the counter of the kitchenette. He closed in, coming between my legs, his hands, one of them bloody, moving to either side of my face. He held on and stared at me, his face hard and angry and my heart was beating like a jackhammer.
It was then the door opened. I looked over his shoulder and Lee, Vance and Mace were there making the room seem even smaller.
“What the fuck is goin’ on?” Lee asked.
Luke turned halfway to them, his eyes to the floor, he didn’t look at them. I noticed a muscle in his jaw was jumping and I took this as a good sign that he was trying to regain control. He took a hand away from my face, sliced it in a sweep, palm down and low, indicating nonverbally (and likely incorrectly) that he had himself in check.
“Tell me this shit didn’t just get worse,” Lee said.
“This shit just got worse,” Luke answered, his voice an angry growl. “Give us a minute.”
I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, Lee, Vance and Mace had backed out and Lee was closing the door.
“Luke, listen to me,” I begged.
He twisted back to face me and I caught my breath because his gonzo actions hadn’t even touched his level of fury. He was still pushing the very top edge of the red zone.
“Talk to me,” he clipped and it wasn’t a request.
“Maybe –”
“Ava, do not keep any more of this shit from me. Tell me what the fuck happened, right, fucking, now.”
My body went stiff. “Luke, you seem to keep forgetting, it happened to me. It didn’t happen to you, it happened to me and I should –”
He framed my face with his hands again and got close. “It happened to you, babe, but at the same time, it happened to us.”
I pushed at his shoulders and yelled, “How dare you!”