Seduced by a Dangerous Man (15 page)

Something was going down. I could tell from the tension in his shoulders—and oh, they were so broad that I wanted to kiss and lick them for hours.

I jumped up and followed after him. “Henry threatened to lie to the police about me,” I explained in a breathless gasp. “Well, he did lie, but I’m trying to calm things down. Please don’t start trouble.”

“I’m not starting trouble. I’m finishing it.”

He was almost all the way down the steps, and while he briefly slowed his descent to reply to me, he didn’t stop.

He continued through the living room and then it became clear he was heading down the next flight of stairs.

He intended to go outside and confront Butch.
 

“But you’re barefoot!” I said as I scrambled to slide my feet into my gym sneakers. Corbin had already gone out the front, letting in the scent of rain and wet grass. I stumbled after him into the cool drizzle, slipping and tripping over the laces.
 

He was halfway across the street, approaching Butch’s car like he planned to rip it into pieces with his bare hands.

My hands flew up to cover my mouth, then I ran after him. Butch was
enormous
, but he didn’t have Corbin’s skill set. It wasn’t hard to imagine they could both be hurt.

Corbin loves me.
And now he was about to do something so stupid…

The way the sunlight glanced off the windshield, I couldn’t see inside. It was a shame because I really wanted to witness Butch’s expression as a half-naked, barefoot and furious Corbin Lagos descended on him.

The car door flew open, and Butch leaned halfway out, clearly unsure what to do. After weeks of shadowing my every move, the last thing he could have possibly expected was for the outlaw himself to walk right up and say hello.

I stopped where I was, self-preservation telling me to stay far away from whatever was about to happen. Because of that, I wasn’t quite able to hear what the men were saying to each other.
 

Butch nervously licked his lips. He looked like he might soil himself.
 

Screw accidentally being pummeled by men tearing each other apart; I really needed to hear what they were saying. I sidled closer, taking care to keep quiet.

“I’ll be here for the next hour,” Corbin was saying. “Tell him to come right away. I’m not so good with time.”

“I’ll just call him,” Butch said, licking his lips again. His eyes darted nervously toward me. I crossed my arms.

“If I ever see you or this piece-of-shit car near Audrey again, I’m going to rip out your liver and cram it down your esophagus. Now get the fuck out of my sight.” Corbin’s words and his chillingly calm tone did not match at all, and it was frightening as hell. It made him sound insane. This was a side of him I’d never seen before. When he’d dealt with Henry in the hospital garage, he’d been in control of himself. But now he seemed like a monster that had slipped its leash.

“Get in your fucking car.” Venom infused his words. The fist holding his shirt was squeezed so tight it seemed to be made of alabaster.
 

Butch jumped into his car so quickly that the vehicle lurched under his sudden weight. He slammed the door and, comically, locked it. It made me laugh aloud.
 

Corbin turned. The dead look in his eyes made my blood run cold. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just…” From my new position, I could see that Butch was making a phone call. I inhaled sharply, and Corbin turned, saw it too. He calmly wrapped his fist in his T-shirt, then pulled back his arm. The huge muscles of his back and shoulders flexed. I gasped as he punched the glass—one quick strike and it shattered as if made of sugar.

Butch cursed, dropped the phone. He went fumbling in his glovebox, but Corbin wrenched the door open and dragged Butch out. He picked something up, then punched Butch in the face.

“Stop!” I yelled.

Of course Corbin didn’t listen to me.

Corbin only punched Butch twice, but the larger man was completely bloody. He was whining something in a high-pitched voice. I couldn’t make out the words, but Corbin suddenly let him go, stepped back.
 

Butch looked like a dog digging a hole as he cleared the driver’s seat of broken glass. Then he got in and drove away with a panicked squeal of rubber.

Corbin threw something aside, and when it hit the ground, I realized it was a huge shard of glass. He had punched Butch with glass.
 

Corbin turned.

“How is this solving problems?” I asked. “You can’t beat Henry up when he arrives.”

“I’m not going to,” Corbin said. He wiped blood off his fingers with the shirt. “Let’s go inside.”

Following a man who had just punched a car seemed like insanity, but I did it. Corbin didn’t speak, and I didn’t know what the hell to ask him. There were plenty of questions, but I was too freaked out. Instead, I took guard at the window and peered through the blinds, anxiously monitoring the street.
 

“You ok?” Corbin was coming down from the bedrooms. He had helped himself to one of Rob’s shirts. It was too small on him, and only made his muscles look even scarier.

I nodded and looked out the window again, my fists clenching the curtains much harder than necessary. Corbin scared me. It was as simple as that. I didn’t recognize this man, didn’t know how to talk to him. I didn’t know what he was capable of. He was unhinged, inaccessible to me.

I sure didn’t know how to save him from himself.

It didn’t take twenty minutes for Henry to arrive in his pickup, two more cars tailing him. Neither of them Butch, I noticed. “Henry brought backup,” I said. My mouth had gone completely dry. Even though Corbin felt weird, felt
off
, I still cared about him and didn’t want to see him playing will-they-bail-me-out-or-won’t-they with his top-secret organization. He was supposed to stay under the radar.

“Go out the back. I do it all the time—”
 

“Stay here,” Corbin said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a problem, but I don’t want you getting hurt.” He went down the steps.

What was I supposed to do with that? If I went down there, I’d get to see the triumph in Henry’s eyes as he took away the only man I’d ever loved—even if that man was a stranger to me at the moment.

I wasn’t sure I could bear that.
 

At the same time, I didn’t want to be elsewhere if it turned out Corbin needed me. Though what could I do against Henry and his… I counted… six buddies?

I decided to split the difference. I would sneak closer, and if Corbin needed me, I’d be there.

Corbin opened the door before Henry had time to knock. Henry stood there wearing his smug asshole sunglasses and a matching smile. “Corbin Lagos,” he drawled. “I would say it’s nice to see you… hell, it
is
nice to see you.”
 

Corbin said nothing.

Henry reached behind himself and produced a pair of shining silver handcuffs. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment. Hold out your wrists.”

“Under what authority?” Corbin said. The question sounded particularly loaded.
 

“I’m a recovery agent, licensed here and in thirty other states. You’re on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. That’s my authority.” If Henry’s grin had gotten any wider, it would have crowded his glasses off his face.

“Show me,” Corbin said.
 

Henry’s mouth dropped slightly open. He snapped it shut. “I don’t need to show you anything.”

“I’m in a private residence and I’m not wanted for any crimes so far as I know,” Corbin said. “You haven’t been given permission to come on these premises. If you cross this threshold, anything that happens to you as a result will be on you.”
 

Henry bristled. He shoved his sunglasses on top of his sandy brown hair, revealing angry, red-rimmed eyes. “You wanna play dumb? There’s only one way this is going to end, Lagos, but I’ll humor you.” His jaw clenched as he tugged his cell phone out of his back pocket and tapped the screen.
 

“While Heigh is doing that, why don’t you other fine gentlemen give me your names?” Corbin said.
 

The men standing behind Henry looked at each other nervously. No doubt Corbin’s confidence was making them a little uncomfortable. I had no idea what Corbin was up to, either, but it was a heck of a bluff. I almost believe he wouldn’t be on that list, though of course I knew he was.

“Kevin Mackey,” a short man with a crewcut said. I recognized him. He’d followed me every night for two weeks, the only one other than Henry who ever bothered to watch closely. I’d been glad when Butch had taken his place.
 

Two more of the men backed away from the group, no doubt sensing there might be bigger trouble afoot.
 

Henry was staring at his phone in disbelief.
 

“There a problem?” Corbin asked.
 

Henry jabbed at the screen. My heart skipped a whole bunch of beats, and I leaned closer, hoping with every fiber of my being that my impossible wish had been granted.

“Asked you a question,” Corbin repeated, louder. The men who had peeled away from the group were heading back to their cars at a determined clip, and the others were stepping back, too.

“What bullshit!” Henry raised a furious gaze toward Corbin. “You disappeared before. You’ll be back on here, you piece of scum. This isn’t over.”

“I think it is,” Corbin said. “You stay away from me and from my girlfriend. And since you like threats so much, let me say this: if she has any more problems, I will end you.”

Henry retreated two steps. I didn’t think he even realized he was doing it. “Watch your back, Lagos.”

Corbin said nothing until Henry had started to walk away. “Heigh,” he said, his voice low, quiet. Henry half turned. “You know anyone who lives at 52 Pyle Lane? In Tallahassee. You should call. Ask if the new neighbor drives a white van. Ask your mother if she offered the nice man some lemonade.”

Henry took a step back toward us. “What the fuck are you saying?” For all his bluster, his face had gone whiter than his teeth. Not an easy feat.

“I’m saying my back is covered in ways you can’t imagine. Keep away from Audrey.”
 

Henry’s eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched, but he didn’t say another word. That surprised me most of all. Who would have thought Henry cared so much about anyone but himself?

Corbin waited in the doorway until Henry got in his pickup and drove away.
 

Then he took a step outside and picked up a soggy newspaper. “You never follow orders, do you?” he said without looking at me as he closed the door.

“Orders? No, I don’t.” I straightened. “You have a lot of nerve calling me your girlfriend.”

He smiled, looking almost like the man I’d fallen in love with. “Last I checked, we were a couple. I don’t remember us breaking up, and I seem to recall you yelling my name while I fucked you not so long ago. We still have a condom left.” The smile faded, and he started up the stairs toward me. I cursed the tight shirt that showed his muscles in such detail.
 

“I’m happy to prove it wasn’t a fluke, Audrey. Make you scream even louder. Or you want me to leave?”

“Did you mean it?” I asked, moving out of his way. I couldn’t afford to let him get too close. Not when I was feeling vulnerable and he was so… different.

He nodded as if he knew exactly what I was referring to. “Yes,” he said. “I have for some time.”

Because he was being so casual, I started to wonder if we were talking about the same thing. “What you said during—”

“Yes.”
 

My cheeks warmed. “There’s no one else.”

One of Corbin’s eyebrows lifted slightly, and I saw the barest flash of amusement cross his features. “I suspected,” he said. “It’s my deepest regret that I couldn’t be here, but I had Jennifer keeping an eye on things.”

Jennifer had been my babysitter months earlier, when Corbin had checked me into a safe house. I liked her a lot, and I was a little hurt she hadn’t bothered to contact me directly.

My face flushed with embarrassment. “If you knew, why did you ask what I was doing?”

“I didn’t know for certain, and I didn’t think you were going to lie, to try to make me jealous,” he countered. Though there was something in his eyes… like he was flattered even though he knew he shouldn’t be. “Audrey, I expected you to give me a reason you didn’t show up. You know, like an adult.”

“Says the guy who broke into the house.”

“Rob let me in, but, in the spirit of honesty, I’ll admit that I would have helped myself if he hadn’t been here.”

I felt myself blushing deeper. “Anyway, I told you I didn’t see your note!”

He held up his hands. “I understand that now. Let’s not go in circles over this.”

I pushed my finger in his face. He stared down at me. All his anger from before was gone. “You’re unbelievable,” I said. It was clear I didn’t mean it as a compliment. Corbin got me off a few times, he got rid of Butch and Henry… I was grateful as hell, but Corbin seemed too confident about us. It was… mildly irritating.

Despite that, I felt my anxiety about him lessening. It had been awkward at first, even after the sex, but the way he acted… referring to us as a couple, telling me he loved me… he wanted this.
 

But as much as I wanted to forgive him for the lack of communication so that we could move on, the pain was still too raw.

“If you had someone watching me, why didn’t you send word? You’re the one always going on about honesty.”

He opened his mouth, then sighed. “You’re right. We need to talk.”

“So let’s talk.”

He shook his head. “Not here. Upstairs. This is serious, and I don’t want it to blow up in our faces.”

Nothing ominous about that. I let him go up without me while I poured two glasses of water. Whatever was coming, I was pretty sure I could handle it. Unless he was going to tell me he had another woman stashed somewhere. Anything short of that, I could deal with. I hoped.