“Yes, he’s excellent at using his resources.” Dante wasn’t giving up. “Now he’s going to use the good doctor to save himself. Rebecca Walsh was in on it. That’s why she’s hidden the box. We’ve looked for it everywhere. In her home and her office. She’s protected it because she’s going to use it. She’s not some innocent. She’s a bitch like her mentor, and Owen is going to ride her all the way home.”
He wasn’t sure what happened next. He saw red, a violent mist that shut out everything else. He went over to the table and had his hands around Dante’s throat in a heartbeat. It felt good. His throat was warm and muscular, but Owen had righteous anger on his side. He slammed Dante to the floor and held the man down as he started to choke the life out of him.
Yes, he was seeing red at the moment, but he wanted to see blue. He wanted that fucker’s face to turn blue.
Someone was yelling, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Dante’s mouth couldn’t spout shite about Becca again. He didn’t care what anyone said about him. He’d earned their scorn, their mistrust, but she hadn’t.
“Owen! Stop it,” Robert was saying.
“Owen, I need you to calm down.” Ariel knelt down beside him. Her voice was soothing. “You don’t want to kill Dante. Not really. I know who you are, Owen Shaw.”
No one knew who he was. He didn’t fucking know. He wanted to be the man Becca thought he was, the one she could count on.
Dante’s eyes had started to bulge and the fight he’d shown was slowing down, but Ezra had an arm around Owen’s neck. He managed to snap his head back, making hard contact with his boss’s chin and causing him to curse and let go. Pain flared but Owen didn’t let up.
“Owen, please,” Ariel implored. “If you do this, you can’t go back to her. If you do this, Ezra has to turn you over. Becca will be alone. She won’t have you to protect her.”
Those words seeped into his brain. They worked some kind of magic on his hands as he fell back, letting Dante go.
Dante coughed, but was on his feet in a heartbeat, trying to come after him.
Robert caught the other man. “No fucking way. You are going home. Now. I’ll have Tucker stop by your place to check on you.”
Dante looked savage as he stepped back. “Don’t bother. I can take care of myself. It’s obvious whose side you’re on, Robert.”
Ezra sighed as he got to his feet. “There are no sides, but it’s obvious we need to have some serious talks. Come on. I’ll take you back to your place. And Owen, you can’t tell Rebecca Walsh what we found out today. I want a couple of days for Phoebe to figure out what’s happening before you tell Walsh what we know. And that’s an order. I expect you to follow it.”
He shot Robert a look that plainly told him to take care of it from this end.
Owen didn’t know that he wanted to be taken care of, but Ariel had been right about one thing.
Becca needed him. He might have to protect her from his own team.
Except they weren’t his team.
“Owen, do you want to talk about it?” Ariel got to the floor, sitting down beside him.
“Man, you have to know we don’t think that of you,” Robert said.
Did he? Hell, if he was in their position, he might think it, too.
He forced himself to get up. “No, I’m fine. I’m going home. I have to take a shower. I have to pick up Becca soon.”
He walked away without looking back.
Chapter Thirteen
Something was wrong with Owen, and she couldn’t put her finger on it. He’d been perfectly sweet. He’d been waiting for her at the time they’d agreed on. He’d taken her to dinner and asked about her day, listening patiently as she likely went way too much into how plaque was formed in the brain. Way too much.
It had been an exciting day and it had taken her too long to figure out that his smile didn’t come close to reaching his eyes.
Now they were ensconced in her apartment and she wondered how to tell him she planned on going to the meeting Friday afternoon. She was wondering if she should tell him at all since there was something in his eyes that told her he’d had a rough day.
Maybe it was time to play the submissive. Wasn’t it her job to soothe him? He protected her. She soothed and calmed him. That was the exchange they’d agreed on, and he’d definitely done his job. She wasn’t sure she’d been doing hers. She’d been far too into the sex and pleasure and affection to remember he needed things too.
He locked the door behind him. “I think I might head to my place for the night, love. I’ve got a headache and I worry I’ll keep you awake.”
Yes, something had definitely gone wrong with his day. “Or you could sit down and let me take care of you. After all, I am a doctor. Can you describe it to me? The headache, that is?”
A faint smile crossed his face. “He’s six foot, dark hair, bloodshot eyes. He’s an asshole of the highest order and I have to work with him.”
Oh yes, she could handle this. “I know a couple of those myself. Owen, please stay with me. I don’t mind if you toss and turn. I can handle it. Sit down.”
His eyes caught hers and she realized she’d made a mistake. If he’d had issues with someone at work, it might have made him feel small, and now she was ordering him around. That wasn’t how to handle a man like Owen.
“Please.” That was a better plan.
His gaze softened but he didn’t move toward the couch. “I’m on the edge tonight, Becca. I don’t want to go into it, but work was hard today. I think I could push you tonight if you let me. I don’t want to scare you.”
She moved into his space. “I’m not scared of you at all.”
His eyes seemed grave as he stared down at her. “Maybe you should be.”
She shook her head and put her arms around him, resting her ear on his chest. “No. I do not want to be afraid of you. Not for a second.” She was quiet for a moment because his arms had wrapped around her and he seemed to relax. It was peaceful to breathe him in and listen to the steady beat of his heart. “I wanted to be here all day.”
“I thought you had a good day.” One of those big hands of his moved over her back.
“I did.” The results of the latest test had been spectacular. But she’d still thought about him. He was a distraction, but one she wasn’t willing to let go of. She’d worked all this time thinking of nothing but her research. Maybe Owen was her shot at having something outside of work. She knew it was too early to start thinking like that, but she’d been super careful when it had come to her ex-husband. Careful hadn’t worked. She was following her instincts this time. “But the whole time I was waiting for six o’clock.”
Now that hand came up and cupped the nape of her neck, cradling her to him, and she knew she had him. He wouldn’t be going anywhere tonight. “You have no idea how much I felt the same today.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” He rarely talked about himself. He would let her go on and on, but he tended to turn the conversation when it was about him.
He was silent for a moment. “I screwed up a job a couple of years back. I screwed up badly and it put two of my teammates in danger. They came out of it all right, but it’s when I got injured and had that bad reaction to the drugs they had to give me.”
She went very still because she’d learned this was not something he talked about. He was touchy about the scars on his body. She could have told him they did nothing to detract from how gorgeous he was, but he obviously hadn’t wanted to hear it.
“The reaction was bad,” he continued. “It went far beyond what you see on my skin. It made me weak for a long time. My boss…well, I think he felt so bad about what happened that he couldn’t fire me even though he should have.”
“I can’t imagine you would do anything that would require you being fired.”
“Then you, love, don’t have a good imagination,” he replied quietly. “I assure you, I deserved it and more. But I’ve tried to redeem myself. I was reminded today of everything I did wrong and that some people don’t believe I can change. I also might have tried to kill someone.”
She brought her head up, or rather tried to, but he gently held her down. “What?”
“Hush. I didn’t do it. I was reminded that I have things I care about now,” he replied. “Besides, he deserved it. Sorry. My work isn’t like yours. We’re a bunch of barbarians at heart. It’s all right.”