Jacked (41 page)

I heard her footsteps crossing his hardwood floor. “I miss you, Adam. So much.”

“No, Nikki. No. This is not gonna happen. You’re wasting your time so just stop.”

“You think you’ll find another woman who will stand by you like I did? Brush your ego like I did?”

“Brush my ego?”

“Yeah,
you
know,” she kidded, placating him, “playing your stupid kinky games with your rope and shit?”

“You’re unbelievable. You call what you did to me
standing by me
? You fucked me over in every possible way
every
chance you had. I came home from work and found my entire fucking house emptied out!”

“You told me you wanted me out, so I left,” Nikki retorted like an insolent child.

“
You
, not all my stuff. You. Took. Everything. Even the food out of the fucking refrigerator!”

“You knew I had no money when you kicked me out.”

“And that justified… You know what, it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m done with this.”

“Hey, I had just as much of a hard time dealing with things as you did. But did you give
me
your understanding and forgiveness? No, you didn’t. I did what you wanted me to, Adam!”

“You don’t get it. I’m a cop and on top of everything else, on top of everything you pulled, you brought drugs into my house.”

“It was one time!”

“Bullshit. Do not stand here and lie to my face. Instead of looking for another job you spent your days getting high. You knew after Tommy’s death that I was under investigation and
still
you brought that shit into my house. Christ. I’m glad you went to that butcher. Fucking relieved. Showed me your true colors and saved me a lifetime of misery.”

“Oh, but getting drunk and strapping a gun on your hip is okay?”

“Was it even mine?”

“You know the answer to that,” she groaned.

“Do I? Never once did I stray on you. Never once. Can you look me in the eyes and say the same?”

The silence stretched.

“Just what I thought,” Adam snapped. “Listen, I’m not playing this game with you anymore. I haven’t touched a drop in months, so that too is behind me. You made your decisions. I’ve made mine. You need to move on.”

His voice was low, tight. Definitely trying to send a message.

I heard her sniff. “What about the wedding?”

My heart clenched just hearing that word.
Oh my God.
Were they engaged to be married
?

“What about it?”

“I thought you would call me. You told Jesse to mark down two people.”

“I have a date.”

“Oh really? You’re taking a stranger to Ellie’s wedding?”

Her contempt was more than apparent.

“All of our friends will be there, Adam. What am I supposed to do? Not show up?”

“Christ. They’re not your friends.”

“Ellie is, and she invited
me
to her wedding.”

“Good for you.”

“Can’t we just try again? Please? We
both
made mistakes. I promise things will be different.”

Adam snorted.

“You need me, Adam. Cancel your date. Let me show you how much you still want me. I bet your cock misses me.”

Her pleading with him was wearing down my resolve. Hearing that he had a date planned with someone else made my throat burn. I wondered if he even knew I was standing here listening.

My car keys were in his bedroom. My coat and car were in the opposite direction. My right foot was on one step, my left foot on another. I didn’t know which way to go.

“You’re delusional,” Adam said, huffing. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

“Why? Is someone upstairs?” Nikki asked, her voice seeming to get closer. “Do you have someone up there?”

I darted into the first bedroom on the tips of my toes and shrank into the wall, unable to keep the floor from creaking under my wake.

I heard the front door open. “It’s time for you to leave.”

“Whose car is out there?”

“Nikki, leave.”

“Not until you tell me whose fucking car is out there!”

“It’s none of your business. Leave,” he ordered.

“You have some whore in my bedroom?”

“That’s it.” Something banged into the wall.

“Ow! Let go of my arm. Adam, let go. You’re hurting me,” she shrieked. “Come down here! Show your face, whore. I want to see what you look like.”

“I asked you nicely, now I’m showing you out.” They both cursed and then something crashed and shattered to the floor. “Nikki! Jesus Christ!”

“Come down here, you skanky bitch! Show your face! He’ll
never
love you. You hear me, bitch? Never. I’ll fucking kill you.”

My heart was racing, knowing they were having a physical scuffle. She was cursing at him something fierce until the front door slammed. Both of them were still arguing, though their voices were muffled and distant outside.

I scrambled back to his bedroom and paced. Then I sat on his bed and waited, unsure of where to go from here. I wanted to leave. A big part of me wanted to stay. My heart wanted to fall in love with the man who I woke up with a few hours ago and who made me eggs and bacon and kissed me sweetly and made love to me so many times I’d lost count.

His ex-girlfriend, however, was too much drama for me.

She was the
scary sort of drama
kind of girl.

The front door open and closed again. Adam’s feet pounded up the steps and then his bedroom door opened wide. He stopped in front of me and dropped to one knee.

“Erin.” His hands landed on my knees. “Doc, look at me.”

Too much drama.

His eyes were solemn and crinkled with concern. “Sorry you had to hear all of that. You okay?”

I wasn’t sure how I was feeling actually so I just said, “I’m fine.”

He chuckled. “I told you once before that if you ever tell me you’re fine I get to call you on it. Talk to me. You have questions, I can tell. I can see it.”

“You still love her?”

His head started shaking immediately. “No, I do not.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“She cleaned out your house?”

Adam nodded. “She took everything, even the butter and fucking ketchup. Told you the bed was new.”

How a woman could do that to someone was almost too much to comprehend.

“Except she left her tampons behind.”

His eyes closed for a moment. “All that shit is going in the garbage. I swear. I don’t want any of it touching you.” His head tilted. “If I let go of your knees, are you going to run?”

I couldn’t tell if he was serious or if he was joking, until it registered how truly scared he looked.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for you.”

“It wasn’t.”

I leaned back when he tried to kiss me.

His broad shoulders slumped. “Doc…”

I held up my index finger. “I like you—a lot. I do. But I’ve got a lot going on in my life right now and I can’t afford to be derailed by crazy drama and a broken heart. If you’re seeing other people, you have to tell me right now.”

Adam’s face twisted up. “What?”

I hated being taken for a fool. “I heard everything. Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I was worried when you strapped a gun to the back of your pants.”

“Is that why there’s a hammer on the floor here?”

I nodded.

He took a deep breath, picked it up, and then tossed it gently aside. I wanted to follow the hammer out into the hallway, hating confrontations of any kind.

I tried to calm myself, glancing at the wrinkled sheets.

Adam laughed to himself. “Amazing. The woman I
don’t
want to be with is banging my door down while the one woman I
do
want is always ready to run away. That’s why I’m holding your legs, in case you’re wondering.”

I couldn’t help but smile at him.

“I’m only seeing one woman,” he said, swaying me with his killer smile, “and she’s right in front of me.”

It was nice to be able to almost breathe again… Still, words were just words. “You told your ex that you had a date planned. I don’t want to get tangled up if you’re dating other women, Adam. Seriously. I’m not interested in standing in a line or getting jerked around.”

Adam glanced up at me, squinting one eye. “One of the guys in my unit is getting married in two weeks. I’m hoping you’ll be able to go with me. I was going to ask you about it today over breakfast, but we were interrupted.”

My spirit instantly warmed.

“No one else, Erin,” he stated, his voice deep and raspy but unmistakably stern. “We do this, it’s just you and me seeing where this goes. I don’t share and I don’t roam. We clear?”

I put my hand over his, taking in the severity of his tone, my mind veering off his serious expression to unwanted visions of Randy and his excess roaming. No matter how attractive Adam was on the outside, he needed to deliver a lot more than a few well-intended words and outstanding orgasms to get my whole heart. Until then, I was keeping myself well guarded.

“We clear?” he asked again.

“We’re clear.”

“Good. Then we can get back to eating breakfast.”

I nodded though I wasn’t hungry anymore.

He didn’t move. “You gonna kiss me now, or do we still need to talk shit out?”

The fact that he was determined to clear the air made me more confident. I hated stupid misunderstandings. Still, I didn’t want his incredible kissing abilities to distract me. “I can see why she is so desperate to get you back.”

“That’s never gonna happen.”

I believed him. “Regardless, I can see why.”

Adam stood. “Well, that’s good, I guess, but it doesn’t change anything.”

I stared down at his bare feet. Even his darn toes were appealing.

“You went outside barefoot?”

He put his hands on his hips. “I wanted to make sure she left without doing anything stupid.”

I looked up at him. “Stupid?”

“She knows that the silver SHO in my driveway belongs to the girl I’m seeing. From now on your car goes in the garage when you’re here. I’ll move my bike so you have room to pull in.”

My skin started to prickle again. “Is that why you have a gun in the back of your pants?”

Adam drew in a deep breath. “I trust very few people, Erin. I’ve also pissed off more people than I care to count. Some people don’t take too kindly to you putting them in jail.” His fingers brushed over my chin. “I will always be able to protect myself and the people I care about, even if that means I have to take out people I used to care about in the process. Know this. I never answer my door unarmed. Whenever I leave the house, I’m armed. There are guns hidden on every floor of this house. It’s just the way things are.”

“Are you that worried?” I asked gently.

He shook his head. “Not worried. Prepared.”

I watched him open up his nightstand drawer and pull out another black gun. He took the bullets out and handed it to me. I felt like he was handing me death.

Adam frowned. “You afraid?”

Afraid was mild to what I was feeling.

“It’s unloaded. Take it. See?” He pulled the top back and showed me an empty cavity. “Chamber is empty.”

It still looked dangerous.

“You ever fire a gun before?”

I shook my head so hard I was afraid I might shoot myself accidentally just by holding it in my palm. “I’ve pulled plenty of slugs out of people though.”

He stared down at me for the longest time while I fought my budding anxiety. “You want to learn?”

Did I? I’d thought about shooting plenty of people over the course of my life but that was always in the
hypothetical daydream sense
, not the actual
pull the trigger
sense.

Adam set the gun down on his nightstand and then took me by the hands, pulling me up. He worked his arms around me. “I think step one in learning to trust me starts now.” He tipped my chin up and gave me a very sweet kiss.

I spent the next half hour musing about him being mostly naked while watching him buzz around his house packing for our next adventure.

“BREATHE OUT,” ADAM
whispered into my ear. “Then squeeze.”

It was difficult to ignore his instructions; they affected my entire body, setting every one of my nerves on a heightened level of awareness.

His arms were supporting mine, holding them up to help me aim while giving me his patience and expertise. I’d listened carefully when he had demonstrated how I should stand, how I shouldn’t fear the cold steal gripped in my hands. I knew my fears were unfounded, based solely on seeing the aftermath of what a bullet could do to the human body. Still, I needed to do this.

Every move Adam made was executed with commanding precision, adding a new level of sex appeal that I hadn’t been quite aware of before. How he was completely at ease with a lethal weapon in his hand, making him appear even more foreboding, was also a sight to be appreciated.

His hips shift as he widened my stance; the hard wall of his chest pressed into my back and braced me as I tried not to outwardly tremble.

It was important to Adam to make me feel safe and “empowered” as he emphatically stated in his truck on the way here, and seeing this additional glimpse at how enthralled he was bringing me to the indoor range where he trained was infectious.