Page 16 of Risky Behavior: Submitting to the Ruthless Guard
She didn’t bother looking back at me after spitting out her comment, but instead started back to the house.
“Talia, wait.”
“No.”
“I want to talk to you, but not in there.”
“Leave me alone, Leo. You came here to do a job for Miles Carter. It’s obvious that’s where your priorities lie and that’s fine. Just leave me out of the bullshit.”
“Talia, please.” I reached for her arm and turned her to face me. “Give me a minute before you run off thinking the worst.”
With her arms crossed and her gaze on the ground, she didn’t bother responding. I went to put my arm around her and guide her back to the tree line, but she shrugged me off, so I just made my way back to where we had come from. There were still two men out back watching our every move. The trees didn’t provide us with complete privacy, but the brush would muffle some of our conversation. I had just hoped it was enough not to get my ass handed to me. I could feel Talia following me, as the tension radiated off her.
“I am not here for Miles Carter. I thought I made that clear to you.”
“I don’t give a fuck who you are here for anymore. Beckett, Miles, Raven, none of it matters, Leo. My only goal is to stay alive for the next five years and if you can make that happen, then I will deal with you. But I won’t deal with the look of judgment and disgust you just gave me. Believe me, I know how fucking disgusting my situation is. I am the one living in it. Not you, me. I can’t change my decision to do this with Raven, but I can survive. I may not have the same fight in me I used to, but I can fix all that shit when this is over. If you want to help keep me above ground, then fine, but other than that, leave me alone.”
My Little Bird was flapping around again, but for the first time I couldn’t laugh, I couldn’t even smile. She was hurt and broken and I just added to all the shit in her life.
“I am here for you.”
“Bullshit.”
“I already told you once I don’t bother with lies. It’s a waste of time in my world. Beckett may have asked me to come here, but I stayed because of you. My job was to show up and get Raven the information she needed, so she didn’t worry about you. I am not leaving because you need me.”
“I don’t fucking need you.”
“I’m sure you want to believe that, especially right now because you are pissed at me, but if you stop for a minute and think you will realize the only way out of this is with Miles Carter dead, and between the drugs he has you on and the small army of idiots he has surrounding him, I’m your best hope.”
Talia’s arms came up, and she shoved me as her face scrunched up and she bellowed a scream of frustration. I looked over her head toward the guards and pulled her to me as one was reaching for his holster. “You need to calm down or you are going to get us both shot at.”
Her body against mine felt like molten lava was boiling under my skin. Rage and arousal were closer than most would admit. When you live a life like I had, then you notice the symptoms of heightened emotions. Most people didn’t swing as high and low as my brother and I did, but it was something we learned to live with and something each of us enjoyed in our own way.
“It wasn’t judgment and disgust you saw on my face. I didn’t walk away from you because of that. I turned away so you wouldn’t see the killer inside of me. It’s one thing to know I have killed people and I will do it again. It’s another to see the rage that has always been so hard to control. I won’t just kill him, Talia. I will destroy him for what he did to you.”
The tension slowly released from her body as I held her to me and spoke. Words never meant much to me because I always looked for the action behind them. That’s where Talia and I differed. She analyzed every word I said in ways I would never understand. I had seen it ever since I arrived. She thought before she spoke, which was something I valued in the people around me. The only times that filter was gone was when she was mad or frustrated like she had been with me only minutes ago. I held on to her, not wanting the moment to end. When her arms came up around me and she pulled me to her tighter than before, I took in her scent before placing a kiss on the top of her head.
“I will get you out of this, I promise.”
We walked back to the house in silence. I felt eyes on us every step of the way. Most of the security team was now on my payroll, but the men closest to Carter weren’t. It was too risky trying to infiltrate people close to him. The women were my only other chance to gain information, but if the next few weeks went on like this morning had, there wasn’t much I needed to worry about. That fool was an open book, as far as I could tell. We had to get through this weekend, and by then I should have the information I needed.
Talia crawled into bed when we got back to her room, and I sat down to open my computer as my phone rang.
“Hello.”
“You have a collect call from a prisoner at the New York City Department of Corrections. Press one to accept this call from...”
Fuck.
Avoiding the Real World
Talia
Leohadbeenonedge for the rest of the week. Something was going on with his brother, but he didn’t share much and I didn’t pry. I was becoming too reliant on him and needed some space to get my head right before tonight. Now I was standing in a room full of overstuffed strangers with Miles’s hands all over me and I wanted to crawl out of my skin and run. I had been a mess since I woke up that morning and everything had gotten worse, not better. I was so over-touched, over-stimulated and over Miles that it took everything in me not to scream and kick him in the balls again.
“Madam Lowdry, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”
I watched as the overstuffed asshole at my side reached his arm out and kissed the hand of the elderly woman in front of us.