by Susan Stoker
“But you want to.” It wasn’t a question.
“No, I don’t.” The look of skepticism was easy to read on Sadie’s face. “Look, he’s just here because he feels guilty or something. And he might be assigned to look after me until Jeremiah and Jonathan are found.”
Sadie shook her head. “I’m sure he does feel some guilt, and he should. He was a dick. But, Milena, he doesn’t have to protect you. The Feds can assign someone else to you. There are thousands of law enforcement officers in this city. Any one of them can protect you.”
Milena blocked out the common sense her friend was using. “He’s arrogant to the nth degree. He strode into the house and practically told me I was his…like a caveman or something. He thinks that throwing money at me and putting me on his insurance will fix everything.”
Sadie shifted until she was lying on her side and her head was propped up by a hand. She was about as different from Milena as she could get. Her dark auburn hair fell messily around her shoulders and her green eyes were piercing in their intensity. She was almost five inches taller than Milena, and slender in a way Milena would never be.
“Let me tell you something about dominant men…once they decide they want something, they’re gonna get it one way or another.”
Milena shook her head. “That’s not how things work.”
“It is,” Sadie insisted. “Let me guess, he told you he left for your own good, right?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Men like TJ have crazy high standards for themselves. It’s ridiculous, really. They think they have to be perfect. I’m guessing he was really good at what he did in the Army…” Sadie’s voice trailed off, as if she was asking a question without coming out and actually voicing it.
Milena nodded. “Yeah, I got that impression. He was a sniper.”
“Oh Christ,” Sadie murmured, and turned to flop onto her back. “Yeah, so he was probably very good at his job. He got hurt and was sent home…to him, I’m sure that felt like a massive failure. He was frustrated he wasn’t over there still fighting, and then he was chaptered out of the service altogether. When he had healed enough, he lived with you, right?”
“He didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Milena told her friend defensively.
“Don’t you get it?” Sadie asked. “There he was, still healing, no home, no job, he probably felt like he’d let his friends and country down. He was lost. I’m frankly surprised he stayed as long as he did.”
Milena couldn’t help but flinch. That hurt.
“Oh sweetie,” Sadie said, and leaned over and put her hand on Milena’s knee. “I didn’t mean that in a bad way. What I meant was that he had to have loved you to have stayed for as long as he did. He left because he didn’t feel like he was man enough for you. He was trying to be noble. Men like him don’t like to feel vulnerable. At all.”
“I didn’t judge him, Sadie. Not for one second. I would’ve been there by his side as he worked through whatever he had to, but he didn’t give me the chance.”
Sadie turned back over and stared at the ceiling once more. “You have to be sneaky with men like him,” she informed her friend. “They need your support, but you have to do it in such a way that they don’t really realize what you’re doing. He’s got a group of close friends, right?”
“I have no idea.”
“He does,” Sadie said with conviction. “His tribe. And I’ll bet those friends have women of their own. You need to get to know them. Get close to them. They’ll be your source of support when it comes to your man because TJ isn’t going to come home and tell you when he’s had a bad day. You’ll be able to sense it, but he won’t tell you why. And that’s okay, but you can talk to the other women to help yourself deal with how he is. You can set up guys’ nights out. Let him blow off some steam. Cook him dinner. Initiate sex. Let him take you how he wants and needs. That’s how you help a man like TJ.”
“How do you know all this? You’re single!”
Sadie smiled up at the ceiling. “I’m a good observer. My aunt married a man just like TJ. Well, maybe not just like him, but close enough. You know I was the administrative assistant for McKay-Taggart. Everyone who works there is just like your man. Alpha, obsessive, insanely jealous, and when they fall for someone, they fall hard. And it might look like the men are in charge, but ultimately, it’s the women who hold most of the power. I’ve seen my uncle leave in the middle of an important meeting because my aunt called and needed something. He’s big, and sometimes scary, but my aunt and his kids mean the world to him.”
Milena sighed. She wanted to believe her friend, but it was so hard. “He let me down, Sadie. Big time. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to trust him again.”
“You will,” Sadie said with conviction.
On behalf of 1001 Dark Nights,
Liz Berry and M.J. Rose would like to thank ~
Steve Berry
Doug Scofield
Kim Guidroz
Jillian Stein
InkSlinger PR
Dan Slater
Asha Hossain
Chris Graham
Fedora Chen
Kasi Alexander
Jessica Johns
Dylan Stockton
Richard Blake
BookTrib After Dark
and Simon Lipskar
Table of Contents
Book Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
