Red Consumed

by Allyson Lindt

  Parker trailed his fingers through her hair. “Watching the two of you together is as incredible as being a part of it. Different, but just as amazing.”

  “What he said.” Wyatt’s lips vibrated against the back of her neck. “Is this what you had in mind?”

  She’d wanted new. Rough. Incredible. How much dirtier would he get next time, if she let him? “It’s so much better.”

  “Good.”

  WYATT SAT ON THE BED with Fiona and Parker, TV playing in the background. They weren’t paying attention. They’d gotten dressed again, but part of Wyatt wished they hadn’t.

  He couldn’t shake the looming fear that he had something incredible here and it was about to be ripped away.

  Parker was catching Wyatt up on the competition. “They kicked Ms. Passion out, so the good news is, no elimination round this month.” His laugh was forced. The competition wasn’t a priority.

  The way Fiona perched on the mattress, it looked like she might bolt any minute. So much for sex being a good stress outlet. “We got out before the press hounds uncovered our old room number. Another lesson learned from the Tim incident. No one knows where we’re staying. For now.”

  Wyatt wasn’t using his name on the registration either. Charles had secured the room under a satellite company his law firm used for cases like this, when clients needed to keep a low profile. Not that Wyatt could afford the firm’s services much longer. His savings would deplete fast, especially now that he didn’t have a paycheck coming in.

  “What about you?” Parker asked.

  “Where to start?” Wyatt let out a long breath. “The morality and public persona clause in my contract means I lost my job. I took out a hefty lien against my condo to pay my bond. And I’m not allowed to leave the state before my arraignment.” He also had to check in with an agent every four hours, to verify he was still here. “So nothing too damning.” He tried to keep his tone light.

  Fiona frowned.

  “I’ve been through worse.” He didn’t have as much to lose last time. He refused to let any of this get to him, though. Wyatt wouldn’t let this break him.

  “Did they tell you why they think it’s you?” Even when her face was painted with concern, Fiona was impossible to take his eyes off.

  He didn’t like that either. He was spinning out of control with her. His sex life was the one place he should still have final say, and every step of the way, Fiona made him fumble. It was easy to pretend otherwise before, but now he couldn’t ignore the way all these pieces snapped together in a broken puzzle. Whoever was behind the bombings, Wyatt, Fiona, and Parker wouldn’t be involved if their lives hadn’t intersected.

  Wyatt repeated the details Landry gave him at the time of his arrest.

  Parker’s brows nearly reached his hairline. “So they think you mailed a bunch of bombs because you were following Fiona? How does that make sense?”

  “I wish I knew. The evidence gets more damning, though. They found remnants of the supplies used to make the local devices. A specific type of wire that not many people sell. It was tucked inside the trash that came out of the hotel that day. Along with print-outs on company letterhead, that say how to make the bomb.”

  Fiona snorted. “They don’t think very highly of your ability to cover your tracks if they think you left that all in such obvious places.”

  The comment almost drew a smile. He wanted to joke back about being a much more discreet bomber, but the jest fell flat before it finished forming.

  “But you didn’t do it.” There was no doubt in Parker’s voice. “You’ve got alibis. Travel schedules. All sorts of information to the contrary.”

  Wyatt tried to hide his wince. “Sort of.”

  “What does sort of...? Oh.” Fiona’s expression shifted to understanding. “The photos of me.”

  “Fuck.” Parker sighed.

  Exactly. Wyatt couldn’t prove where he was half the time, because it was with Fiona and Parker.

  “So I’ll tell them where you were.” Fiona sounded like the answer was simple.

  Wyatt knew better. “No.”

  Parker pushed away from the wall. “You’re going to pick now to care about her job? Lousy time to learn to be a good guy.”

  “Big surprise—I agree with Parker. This is a shitty time to decide to be valiant,” Fiona said. “If I’m supposed to be tied to your motivation, then remove that question from the equation.”

  Wyatt didn’t have the words to explain this—another feeling he hated. When he interfered before, he’d convinced himself Fiona and Parker would come out on top with the whole Grammie’s thing. And they had. It was still a mistake, and this time he couldn’t pretend it would do Fiona any good to step forward. “I’ll get out of this without you risking your career. How fast do you think the shipping company will drop your contract if they find out about”—us sounded presumptuous, as if the three of them were an us—“the fucking around and how long it’s been going on?”

  Fiona pursed her lips until they nearly vanished in the thin line, and a low growl escaped her throat. “But you didn’t do this. You’re not Tim. Or Devin.”

  “Devin?” Parker’s expression shifted to curiosity.

  Wyatt was going to miss the detours these conversations took. “The ex I told you about.”

  “The reason you went to jail?” Parker asked. “Attractive. Soft-spoken. Flighty? Comes across as a lot more bashful than he really is?”

  That was a strangely accurate description. “Yes...”

  “I met him in New Orleans. The day of the first bombing, he was in the same bar as me. He told me he worked with you and was a secret, from afar, admirer.”

  Wyatt’s chest squeezed tight.

  Parker kept talking. “He was extra interested in whether or not I knew you and getting me to confess you were sexy.”

  “Fuck.” Wyatt didn’t know what to do with the information. Another unknown to add to a rapidly growing list he wanted to tear to shreds and incinerate.

  “Was this him?” Fiona asked.

  Wyatt shook his head. “The bombs? Not his style, but who the fuck knows? I need to make some phone calls.” This was all wrong. Twisted and broken and unraveling.

  Fiona stood and squeezed his hand. “We’ll go. I’ll call Landry and tell him you were with us and we knew it.”

  “No.” Wyatt pulled from her touch and fought the urge to clench his hands into fists.

  Fiona raised her brows. “Excuse me? I wasn’t asking your permission.”

  He couldn’t let her do this. He would clear his name without muddying hers. Without damaging her career. “I don’t want your help.” He hid a cringe at the way the words tasted.

  “Because you’re a big manly man who can take on the world by himself?” Stress leaked into her voice.

  “Sure. Why not?” Because this was one thing he could control. He’d let life spiral out of hand everywhere. It was time to start reining things in.

  Fiona’s scowl etched deep lines in her forehead. “This is my choice.”

  It should be, but he was going to take it from her. Unlike every other time, he was going to be honest with himself about the reasons. “Why? To bring us closer together? To prove your love?” He didn’t know why he used that word, but it worked. He was moving into full-blown asshole mode, if that was what it took to make her back down.

  “You’re getting a bit ahead of yourself. Or full of yourself. Or something.” Parker faltered.

  “Am I?” Wyatt pressed forward. “You’re both here, aren’t you? Dropped everything when I called today. Couldn’t wait to think of an excuse to tell me yes to coming along on these trips.”

  “Stop.” Fiona spoke through clenched teeth.

  Not until he made his point. He’d let his dick lead the way every step when it came to Fiona—wiping out reason, telling him there was more there than really was. “You wanted me to be honest.”

  “And you’re not.”

  “Just because you don’t want
to hear it doesn’t mean it’s untrue.” He was about to push her away for good. The gnawing inside hated his decision. He needed to stop listening to his gut and heart. His head kept him in the game. And today, it would do the same for her.

  “No,” Fiona said. “This is lying through your teeth when you don’t need to.”

  He hated how close she was to creeping inside his thoughts. “This is me, telling you there’s no future in what we’re doing. Arrest or not. Once your implementation was over, we were going our separate ways. You’re a fuck—you and your pretty boyfriend. It was fun, but it was getting old.” Wyatt was surprised he didn’t gag on the denial.

  “Watch it,” Parker warned.

  Fiona stepped back, toward the door. “You’re full of shit.”

  Fuck, he hated the hurt in her eyes. That was part of his problem, though. He read so much into her expressions. Wanted a relationship that wasn’t meant to be. “Almost always. After all, I fooled you. This is best for everyone. Don’t go to Landry. Don’t throw your company away for a couple of nights of kinky sex.”

  She opened her mouth. “I’m not—”

  “You are. You know I’m right.” He hadn’t even convinced himself. How was he supposed to make her believe it? Because he had to. “In fact, let’s make this straightforward and end things now. I’ll be in court for several weeks”—years—“anyway. You’re not going to stick around town for that long. Now’s the perfect time for you to go live life. I don’t want to play this game anymore.”

  “You’re not serious.” It was difficult to tell if Fiona was on the edge of tears or rage. Both, if she felt half of what Wyatt did.

  Parker grasped her arm. “He’s serious.”

  “Glad one of you gets it.” Wyatt summoned everything he had to keep his voice hard. “Get the fuck out.”

  Fiona jerked from Parker’s grasp and stalked up to Wyatt. She held his gaze, her jaw set in a hard line. She jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “Do you think I’m dumb?” The vehemence in her voice caught him off-guard.

  “No.”

  “Insincere? Unobservant?”

  Definitely not. “Your point?”

  “Then maybe you feel like I’m inattentive. That I wasn’t an active participant in pretty much any conversation we’ve ever had, from the first time we met?”

  Wyatt needed her out of his head. Both the thought of her and the way she honed in on what he held back. “I was selling you a product—me. Telling you what you needed to hear, in order for me to get what I wanted.”

  “You didn’t mean a single word of it.” A storm of fury sparked in her eyes.

  He meant every word of it. “Not one.”

  “Every time you picked my company over sex. When you said you wanted me to know the real you.”

  “You were a challenge. A tough one. But—achievement unlocked. I need a new game.” He had to hurt her, to keep her from coming back.

  “Really.” Her voice was flat.

  He wouldn’t crack. Wouldn’t think about the fact that this was the most difficult lie he’d ever told. “Really.”

  Fiona stared him down. Her nostrils flared, and a flush spread across her cheeks and down her neck.

  He refused to flinch.

  “Fine. Fuck you. We’ll do it your way.” She spun on her toe and walked from the room.

  Parker looked at Wyatt with pity. “Good luck with your life,” he said, sounding like he didn’t mean a word of it.

  Wyatt sank into the desk chair and dropped his face into his hands. Hardest sale he’d ever made, and possibly the one he’d regret longer than any other, but it was over. He’d done what he needed to, pushed them away, and he could get back to things the way they were supposed to be.

  He needed clearing his name to be this simple. And possibly hurt less. Because the way his heart was shredded, it wouldn’t withstand another round of pain.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  WYATT NEEDED SOMETHING to focus on besides what he’d just done. If he examined things too closely, none of his actions made sense.

  Of course they do. He’d let his life spiral out of control since he met Fiona and Parker. He should have realized his world was out of control without tragedy striking. There were so many points along the way where it should’ve been obvious. With Ginny. When he pulled strings to trick Fiona into seeing him, all but begging her to come up to his office so he could apologize.

  He wasn’t that man. He didn’t lose his shit for anyone.

  There was something to distract him, though. He could thank Parker for that.

  Wyatt grabbed his phone and called Devin.

  “Hey, handsome.” Devin’s smooth greeting was like salt in open wounds.

  Wyatt didn’t have to pretend here. There was no reason to wear a mask. “Why were you in New Orleans?”

  “What makes you think I was?”

  “A friend told me.”

  Devin clucked. “A friend. Sexy guy with a camera, who radiates charisma? He’s so not your type. He told me he didn’t know you.”

  Wyatt wasn’t playing games. “Why were you in New Orleans?”

  “For business, just like you.”

  “That’s convenient.” Wyatt let his sneer slide into his tone.

  “No more convenient than you being there and in Atlanta and in Philadelphia—should I go on?—at the same time as Fiona Walters.”

  Wyatt drove a fist toward the desk, stopping short of striking the surface. He needed his rage to stay cold. If he couldn’t get a direct answer to one question, he’d move to the next. “Are you behind these bombings?”

  Devin’s gasp was the embodiment of scandalized. “I could never. Why would you think such horrible things about me?”

  “Experience?”

  “You see, this is why we didn’t work out. You think so poorly of me.”

  Wyatt tried to push down the fury that boiled inside, but he was losing the fight. “We didn’t work out, because you stalked and assaulted several women.”

  “I didn’t do anything you haven’t.”

  The comment should have rolled off Wyatt, but it wormed under his skin instead. “Why. Were you. In New Orleans?”

  “I’m trying to get you fired.” It sounded like the most honest thing Devin had said to him... possibly ever. “Turns out, you took care of that yourself. Blowing up packages? That’s beneath you.”

  “You think I did this?”

  “They arrested you.”

  Wyatt was surprised he had the restraint to not throw his phone across the room. “I was set up.”

  “Hmm... That excuse worked for you last time. You think it’ll pan out again?” Devin asked. “I have to run. Ciao, lover.”

  Wyatt tossed his phone at the bed, before he could fling it at the nearest wall. He shouldn’t let the conversation get to him. Instead, he should be on the phone with Charles and ask what it would take to get Landry to look at Devin as a suspect.

  Out of the entire conversation, the parts focused on Fiona stuck in his head. I didn’t do anything you haven’t. The taunt was in Devin’s voice.

  It wasn’t true, on the surface, but Wyatt had sure as fuck blurred some of the lines of consent by withholding information.

  It didn’t matter. Fiona had been shown the reality now, and she was gone. It was better for everyone this way.

  Wyatt needed to put her out of his mind and call his lawyer.

  FIONA DESPERATELY WANTED to learn whatever trick Wyatt was using to slather on the I don’t give a fuck, because her insides felt like they’d been cut to ribbons. She was grateful to Parker, who let her squeeze the life from his hand as they walked back to their room. They’d move to a different motel tomorrow. Probably one out of state. There was no reason to stay here.

  It was a dumb idea to take Wyatt’s call, to begin with. Stupid to stay in the same place. Again.

  Parker unlocked the door and let them in. Part of her wanted him to say something. To give her a chance to lash out.

 
; But she wouldn’t. Not at Parker. He was her pillar, anchoring her in the storm of bad, wrong, boneheaded decisions.

  “Hey.” He placed a finger under her chin and raised her head, so he could look her in the eye. He brushed his lips over hers, and warmth mingled with the internal wounds. It didn’t heal anything, but it lessened the sting. “No regrets.”

  She laughed in spite of herself, and a few tears broke free and slid down her cheeks. “I don’t... I can’t...” Her thoughts were so jumbled, she couldn’t put them into words.

  Parker slid his hand to the back of her neck and kissed her on the forehead, before pressing his head to hers. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  “How?” She sure as hell didn’t.

  “I know you. So much better than I thought possible, after the last couple of months. And I’m grateful for that.” He trailed his fingers down her arm, to grasp her hand and tug her to sit next to him on the bed. “You’ve got this mental war going on. The half of you wondering how you could have missed all the signs, not once but twice. How could you have kept falling down that hole with Wyatt, given your past with him? And the other half of you insists you weren’t wrong this time.”

  That sounded about right. She leaned into Parker and pulled his arm around her waist. “Either way, he lied again. Whether it was his words today or those leading up to it. How do you still love me?” She nearly choked on the question.

  “Because I do.”

  It should have been the perfect answer, but it made her feel worse. “I’ve spent the entire length of our romantic relationship bouncing back and forth over how I feel about another man. And you’ve stood by me.”

  “And you’d do the same for me.” Parker spoke with conviction.

  Would she? “I would. As long as we were still together at the end of the day.” They’d danced around the subject before, even said some of the same words, but today they sank in with a solidness she couldn’t deny.

  “Also, the asshole is lying about how he feels.” Parker kissed the top of her head. “Not that it’s your right or mine to change his words if he’s set on sticking to them.”