“Don’t do that.”
Her eyes snapped to him at the softly uttered command. “Don’t do what?”
“Fear me.”
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because I’d never hurt you,” he said with unwavering sincerity.
How desperately she wanted to believe that, but he had never given her any reason to. “So what was it exactly?” She found herself asking, her voice level though she felt anything but. “What did you need from me to get Liam?”
“I already had it handled.”
“Before or after you came back walked into my pub?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
“Both. I had his name—or the family name—before I got here. I came to you first though. A friend told me Liam was around you, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
She looked away, feeling vulnerable. She hadn’t been okay, the farthest thing from it.
Niklaus blew out a breath, pulling the beanie free from covering his hair. “You should have told me.”
“And what would I have said? Sanitation guy, I know I haven’t seen you in years, but there’s this Irish mobster and his brother that’s extorting everyone in my neighborhood—oh, and one of them thinks that I belong to him? Would that have worked for you?”
“As I said, you—”
“How? How was I supposed to tell you anything? They could have killed you, it’s not like they’re shy about hurting someone. I’ve seen the things they’re capable of, but despite how much of an asshole you can be, I didn’t want to see you hurt because you were trying to protect me.”
There was a sudden moment where his eyes lit up with an emotion she couldn’t read at first—it took over his whole demeanor.
“Do you think I can’t protect you, Reagan?”
“What?” she asked frowning, confused his words. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s a simple question—yes or no?”
“What does it matter?”
One minute he was across the room, the next he was directly in front of her, so close that she could feel the heat rolling off him in waves.
“You feared for me. You even put yourself in between me and that fucking idiot because you were trying to protect me. My question is do you think I need you to protect me?”
She couldn’t for the life of her understand what he was getting at. “Nikl—”
“You knew,” Niklaus said, his voice gone low, sensual in a way that he probably didn’t try to do. “Some part of you, however small, knew exactly what I was. Even before. Every night you came to my room and climbed in my bed, you knew.”
Maybe on some subconscious level, she had known. She had already rejected the idea of his involvement in sanitation, even if she never admitted that fact to herself. And how could she not recall just how strong his muscles felt beneath her hands.
“But there’s only so much your strength can do,” she voiced the thought aloud. “Against a bullet? Nothing. I can’t have you dying because of me.”
It wasn’t the first time she had said similar words during this conversation, and just like before, he had a reaction to them that puzzled her.
“What would you prefer me do? Leave you to fight alone?”
“If that’s what I want, then yeah.”
He was shaking his head before she could even finish. “That’s not how this works.”
“Niklaus, you can’t just—”
“You want him gone, no? I can make that happen far quicker than you can. I’ll make it where he never sees another day if that’s what you wanted. Just say the word.”
“He’d kill Jimmy,” she said softly, her fear and trust rolled into one simple statement.
“Jimmy?”
“My brother.”
“Where is he?” Niklaus asked.
“I don’t know. He took off—which he tends to do on occasion, the reason why you never met him before. Liam is looking for him too.”
“I’ll find him first.”
She shook her head. “You can’t know that for sure. Liam has been looking since before you know about Jimmy at all.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Nik—”
He shut her up with a bruising kiss, one that took her breath away and grounded her at the same time.
His fingers slipped through the damp strands of her hair at the nape of her neck, his hold possessive and firm, keeping her exactly as he wanted. She shouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as she did, but she had always been weak when it came to him.
Where was her fight?
How long had she thought about the next time they would cross paths, and what she would say once they were face-to-face? Years had passed, and she had moved on, not with Liam, but emotionally. She had gotten over her feelings for Niklaus…or at least that was what she thought until he walked back into her life.
Now she wasn’t so sure.