“Oh, I thought I would just get ready here. I have to be at work in a half hour, so I thought I would shower here and then leave. You don’t mind, right?”
Of course I minded. I didn’t want her hanging around here, thinking that she was welcome here. But I also couldn’t just kick her out when I knew it would make her late for work. I wasn’t a total asshole. But could I just leave her here in my suite? That was weird. I glanced at my watch and sighed. I had to get to the training center. I didn’t have time to sit around here and wait for her.
“Alright, well, just don’t….” I glanced around and decided there was no point in telling her not to snoop through my shit. That would probably make her want to do it even more. I shook my head and walked out of the room. When I saw Storm in the hallway, I ran up behind him and tackled him to the floor. He spun, flinging me into the wall, but I bounced up and landed two punches to his face before he kicked out, catching me in the stomach and sending me back into the wall.
“What the fuck, man?”
“What the fuck? I’m still pissed about last night. Why the hell would you let her into my place? Especially after the security issues with Becky. Why would you take that chance?”
“What, because you think she’s a spy or something?”
“She could be,” I shot back. “You don’t know, because you don’t know anything about her.”
“Really? You think she’s a spy, sent here to fuck you into submission and steal all our secrets?”
“She could be,” I said defensively. “It doesn’t matter. Either way, it’s just not cool.”
“Relax, would you? I had Rob run a background check on her first. It’s not like I’m a complete idiot.”
“Well, I’m so glad that you knew I wasn’t sleeping with a psychopath. Oh, wait, I am!”
“Hey, I didn’t tell you to fuck her.”
“No, you just let her into my suite in the middle of the fucking night. I could be lying in bed with a slit throat right now, and you wouldn’t even know it.”
“We’d know when you didn’t show up for work. I promise,” he said in mock sincerity, “I would feel bad if she killed you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“But on the other hand, I’d be really fucking glad that you were dead. I can’t have someone on my team that lets a little woman like that take him out. That would be fucking pathetic.”
“I was asleep,” I stressed.
“Yeah, and you would still let her fuck you into submission. You know, for some reason, this chick really has her claws in you. I mean, at first, I just thought it was fucking hilarious. I liked to see you panic and get all worked up over her being around you. And I knew it would be hilarious when she woke you up last night, but now I’m seeing how truly fucked you are.”
“That’s because she won’t leave me alone!”
“No, that’s because you like her. I know you don’t want to admit it yet, but it’s clear as day to me that you have it bad for this woman.”
“I do not.”
He snorted. “Sure, you don’t have it bad, but this woman is tearing you up inside and you can’t tell her to fuck off. You keep fucking her, and from the sound of it, you’re thoroughly enjoying it. So, the real problem isn’t that you have a clinger chasing you down. The problem is that you like her and you can’t admit it to yourself.”
He walked away and I stood there stunned. Was he right? Did I like her? Was I just denying it to myself because I didn’t want to like her? Fuck, this woman had me so tangled up.
My phone rang and I looked at the screen, my stomach immediately plummeting. I didn’t want to answer, but fuck, I couldn’t just ignore her.
“Hey, Donna.”
Delaney’s mother made a point of calling me several times a week. I had ignored her last call, but I couldn’t keep putting her off. I didn’t know how to tell her that I didn’t want to talk to her. It seemed to be a continuing issue that applied to all women. I really needed to get that under control.
“Tony, did you hear about the trial?” she asked, her voice laced with worry.
“I did, but don’t worry. This guy is going down.”
“How can you be sure? They let people off all the time that should be in prison.”
“Donna, you need to calm down. There’s no point in panicking. The prosecution is building a solid case. They’re not going to let this guy walk.”
I heard a sharp inhale and knew the tears were coming. I wished that I had something more reassuring to tell her, but the truth was, aside from telling her I wanted to kill the fucker and constantly dreamed about it, I wasn’t sure what I could say to her.
“I just miss her so much,” she cried. “She was so young. She didn’t deserve that.”
“I know,” I said quietly.
“I just wish that I could talk to her again. If I had known that I wouldn’t speak to her again-”
I didn’t hear the rest of what she said. I tuned it out and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the cries of the devastated woman on the other end. It fucking tore my heart to shreds to listen to her cry. I needed to get off the phone with her. The guilt was so fucking overwhelming. And every time I thought I was getting close to moving on, I got a call from her and it sent me spiraling back to that night.
I was a fool to even entertain the thought that I might like Molly. I had already let down one woman. I didn’t need the fate of someone else hanging over my head.
“Donna, just try to relax,” I interrupted. “It’s going to be okay. And I promise to call you if I hear anything.”
“Thank you, Tony. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
I clenched my jaw and nodded to no one. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
I hung up and stalked off to the training center. I needed to beat the shit out of something.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Molly
“I know, I know!” I said as I ran into The Pub and stashed my stuff behind the bar. Gus glared at me, but when I gave him a peck on the cheek, I saw the smile that he was trying to hold back.
“You know, we serve food and drinks here. That requires waitresses that need to be here to do their jobs.”
“I know, and I’m sorry that I’m late, but I was with Tony.”
“That’s not an excuse,” he growled, but there was no heat behind it.
“It sort of is. I mean, it definitely is. The definition of an excuse is that you’re defending your actions. That’s exactly what I was doing.”
“That doesn’t mean that your excuse works for me.”
“Hey,” I said, slapping my hand on my hip. “You’re the one that wanted me to get out and date more with a sane man that was good for me. This man is good for me.”
“I just didn’t realize he was going to be using up so much of your time,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“I swear, he will not take up any more of my time today.” I crossed my heart to show him how serious I was, but his eyes flicked to the door and went wide, and I knew I was going to have to break that promise. I spun around as Jenny ran to the bar with a big grin on her face.
“No,” Gus said, pointing his finger as Jenny.
“Just a few minutes,” she promised.
“You swore,” he said to me.
“I know, and I swear, this will only take a minute.”
“Molly, we have customers!”
I turned to the half-packed bar and shouted out for them all. “Hey, guys! I’m gonna talk to Jenny for just a minute, but then I’ll be back to take your orders!”
“Put in my usual while you’re back there,” Bruce shouted. I gave him a thumbs up as Jenny dragged me to the back.
“Carlos,” Jenny snapped. “Make Bruce’s usual and one for me.”
“I’ll make yours when you stop stealing the orders I make.”
“I’ll stop stealing them when you anticipate my arrival and have one waiting for me.”
“And how would I know when you’re
coming?” he asked.
“Because you stalk me on Facebook,” she grinned.
“Hey, can we get back to the point of this visit?” I cut in, knowing that Gus would only allow me so much leeway before he kicked my ass to the curb. Well, he would take me back. That man was such a teddy bear.
“Okay, so how did the whole Fifty Shades go?”
“Well, I think it went pretty well. I mean, I kind of had to force him into doing that stuff. Is that normal?”
Carlos snorted, shaking his head as he flipped another burger.
“What do you mean you had to force him?” Jenny asked, ignoring Carlos.
“Well, I had to give him orders, like spank my pussy.”
“Sweetie, you do realize that you weren’t supposed to be Christian, right?”
“Well, I had to coax him into it. I don’t know anything about this stuff, and a crash course on BDSM is not exactly helpful!”
“You weren’t supposed to dive into the world of BDSM in one night! You were supposed to learn how to be seductive and give in to what he wanted.”
“Well, you didn’t tell me that! I thought I was supposed to go full throttle. Oh my God! The things I said to him.” I covered my face with my hands and cringed as some of the things that came out of my mouth ran through my head. “Do you think he’s gonna run?”
“Well, did he kick you out in the middle of the night last night?”
“Well, he tried, but I thought that was part of the game or something!” I said in panic.
“Look,” she said, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me to look at her. “It’s fine. I’m sure it’s fine. If he didn’t force you out, then he obviously really likes you. You just have to make sure that you’re really there now. Don’t back down and give him space to think about anything. If you do that, he’s going to start going over in his head all the shit that maybe seemed wrong about this. You need to go to him now.”
“Now?”
“Right fucking now.”
“But I can’t! I’m working!”
“Do you want to lose your job or the love of your life?”
Well, when she put it like that….I nodded and allowed her to pull me through the door to the front of the bar. Gus started shaking his head immediately when he saw me creep toward the counter and reach underneath.
“No,” he growled. “You are not leaving.”
“I have to. It’s a matter of life and death.”
“You bet your ass it is. If you leave, you will most definitely be dead.”
“Gus,” I pouted, knowing he couldn’t resist. “You know I wouldn’t do this to you unless it was absolutely necessary.”
“Where are you going?” Bruce shouted across the room.
“I have to go see my boyfriend and make sure he knows how much I love him.”
Bruce nodded. “Did you put in my food?”
“Of course.”
“I say let her go,” Bruce said.
“Easy for you to say,” another person chimed in. “You already got your food.”
“You know the order is gonna be wrong anyway,” Bruce snapped.
“Hey,” I said indignantly. “I always bring you the right order.”
Bruce shook his head and chuckled. “Sweetie, I’ve been ordering a burger with no cheese for the last year, and every time, you bring me a cheeseburger. I just stopped telling you after the first six months.”
“Well…who doesn’t like cheese?” I said indignantly.
“I’m lactose intolerant.”
“Oh.”
“Alright, well, besides the fact that Molly always brings you the wrong food, she’s always cheerful, so points for that,” Jenny said happily. “We’ll see you all later!”
“Molly!” Gus shouted.
I turned and blew him a kiss. “I promise this won’t happen again,” I shouted.
I saw him shake his head, but he was grinning.
“Okay, so he’s at work, right?”
“He is, but he’s got some kind of battle going on today,” I said, getting into her car.
“Okay, a battle. We can work with that. You said you met his boss, so we need to find him and I’m sure he’ll be able to help us out.”
“How can you be so sure about that? I’m disrupting his work.”
“Because he’s already helped you out. This guy is on your side. We need to convince him that it’s imperative that you see Tony. I know he’ll help us out. Just think positive thoughts.”
“Right, positive thoughts.”
I took a deep breath and prayed for the rest of the drive that she was right. If she was, then I would come out on top. If she was wrong, I would end up looking like a crazy person that wouldn’t let my boyfriend do his job. We pulled in and Sebastian was waiting for us, like he had been a lot lately. I jumped out of the car and ran toward him.
“I need your help.”
“Okay, what’s the problem?” he asked calmly.
“Okay, I kind of did something that Tony may or may not have liked, and it may have pushed him away or freaked him out or something. I’m not really sure, but I thought I knew what I was doing and then it turned out that I was wrong and-”
“Molly, I don’t have a freaking clue what you’re talking about.”
“See, I read in this Fifty Shades book something about domination and I thought that I was supposed to be this like really vocal person and shout out the things that I want, but somebody,” I said, glaring at Jenny, “didn’t tell me that I was supposed to be quiet and let him do the work.”
Sebastian burst out laughing, pressing his hands to his eyes. “Oh my God. This makes so much sense now.”
“What makes sense?” I asked in confusion.
“I mean, I thought my guys were losing it, but I get it. It makes so much sense.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry about it. What do you need?”
“I need to see him and make him understand what’s going on. Otherwise he’s going to start thinking and stuff, and that’s not going to end well for me.”
“They’re kind of in the middle of a battle right now.”
“I know, but is there any way you could get me out there? I could just stand off to the side and explain things to him.”
“While he’s firing a weapon,” Sebastian said slowly.
“Well, I mean, it’s not my best option, but I really, really need to talk to him.”
Sebastian looked at me for a moment before a grin split his lips. “How do you feel about being a hostage?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Axel and Tony
Axel
“Alright, here’s the plan, guys. We’re not here to kick their asses. This is strategic warfare. I can guarantee that these guys are gonna use everything in their arsenals against us, so we’ll have to be quicker and play smarter.”
Angel snorted beside me. “Believe me, after fighting Ice in the ring, I can guarantee that we’ll have no problem outmaneuvering these guys. Ice is slow and he thinks too much.”
I shook my head. This guy just didn’t get it. Angel was used to fighting guys that were simply fighting for their lives. But what he didn’t understand was that the men of Reed Security had already fought those battles. Each time they trained, it wasn’t about being the fastest. It was about learning their opponents weaknesses and using it against them. That was exactly what they had been doing during the first part of training.
“Yeah,” Scrabble chuckled. “That guy Rocco is fucking slow.”
“Rocco is recovering from being impaled by a spike just a few months ago. He was taking it easy on you and himself.”
“He was?” Scrabble asked.
I laughed humorlessly. These guys didn’t see it yet, but they would. “Whatever you think you know about these guys, forget it. I can guarantee that the guys you see in a few minutes are gonna totally fuck with your minds.”
“I think you’re blinded by your loyalty to them,” Ghost s
aid. “You’re remembering the guys that you grew up with, but they’re older. I’m telling you, there’s no way that we don’t take these guys out. We have constant training on our side. Even with them having one extra guy, there’s still no way they take us.”
We were setting up for a fight against dad’s team, Storm’s team, and Irish’s team. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that this was going to be an easy fight. This was Reed Security we were talking about. And even if they weren’t trained by Knight, I would still be second-guessing every fucking move they made, because they were always strategizing.
“That cocky attitude is gonna get you taken out in the first five minutes. I’m warning you, don’t go off half-cocked because you think they’re a bunch of old men. They won’t hesitate to use anything to get their intended targets. Besides, we’re on their land. They already have the advantage because they know the terrain.”
“Hey,” dad shouted at me from across the training center. “You ready?”
I walked over to him with my buddies behind me. They were standing all badass, like no one could touch them. I only gave us a fifty-fifty chance of walking out of here the victors.
“Yeah, we’re ready. Although, I still think you should give us one of your guys to make the teams even. We only have eight to your nine players.”
Dad grinned at me. “You know, I was thinking the same thing. But I don’t think you need one of our guys. You need someone scrappy, someone that doesn’t work with you, but knows how we think. So, I’ve invited James to play along with us today.”
“Who the fuck is James?” Tiny asked.
I grinned as James, Ryan and Lola’s kid, walked out of the locker room with a huge grin on his face. “Hey, man.” I walked over to him and shook his hand. He was still the same guy I knew from when we were kids. He had put some muscle on him, but he looked the same.
“Hey, I heard you were coming for some paintball fun, so when Chris called, I was all over it. I actually just played with them the other day.”
“Yeah? How’d you do?”
He grinned and gave a slight shrug. “Can’t complain.”
“Hey, let me introduce you to the guys.”
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