"Fuck," he cursed, backing away from me in shock. "I shouldn't have done that. What you said… shit. Let's just take a beat, okay?" "If I say no, will you punch me again?" I asked, holding onto my jaw, hoping for enough guilt to make sure he wanted to leave. I knew I wasn't leaving that room while he was still in it. He backed away some more and then turned around, heading for the door. So much for him being exactly where he needed to be. "No one comes in and no one goes out. Check in on him every five minutes until I get back. Do not underestimate him, Tanya," Jeff said to the older FBI agent by the door before he took off. I gave the women a dazzling smile to test the waters. One of the agents was Tanya, the woman I had pissed off in the interrogation room after the raid. She seemed to remember as she wasn't smiling back. The other, much younger redhead however, that I could work with. I winked at her and she instantly beamed back at me. "What's your name, sweetheart?" I asked,
"Okay, no more questions. Actually one more after I tell you to stop fucking touching me. Why are we in the same stall?" Kenny asked, slapping my hands away from his body."Some of us are trying to take a dump. Get a room upstairs," the guy in the stall next door said."There's literally a fire alarm going off, you dipshit. Get the fuck out," Kenny screamed back, banging on the wall."Okay, that's fair. No more touching. And all the other stalls are full. We lived together for years. I've seen it all, Ken. Get over yourself," I said, pulling my shirt over my head. "I guess we're trading clothes? Let's just hurry, okay?""Two FBI agents are never going to buy that I'm you. I only work out when you force me to. We have completely different body types as is apparent from the way I'm drowning in your suit. You're also noticeably more attractive than me. If we were in Teen Wolf, I
I sat myself down on a pew in the middle of the church. By now Don Angelo knew about the FBI auditing grandpa's company. The company in question was the closest Don Angelo ever got to going straight, when it was left to him in his father's will. My father wasn't a sentimental man, but it being the last thing his father gave to him made it special. So much so that he even kept it legit for a few years after it was bequeathed to him. Just like everything he touched though, it eventually became just another front for illegal activity. Still, to this day, it carries a special place in his stone cold heart. After a move like giving that to the FBI, he was going to find me no matter where I went. So I opted to make things easier on us both and put myself out in the open so he could find me easily. "Cute little trick, sending the feds to my doorstep," said Don Angelo, sitting down next to me ten whole minutes after I had put myself out there. That was him saying he already knew I was goi
It was a power play. His way of showing me he was on my side. He was trying to get into my head. Acting like nothing had changed and it was still me and him against the world. Can't let him in."I'm sorry," said Joey, glaring daggers up at me."Leave. I want to catch up with my erede," said Don Angelo, dismissing Joey with the wave of a hand.There's nothing quite like the illusion of a father's love. Being made to feel important, before the other shoe dropped. It was fucking with my head. I had crossed so many lines, betrayal after betrayal and he was still calling me his heir. It scared the shit out of me. Little tremors went through my hands and I grabbed a hold of one with the other."So, how's life? Do I need to save the date for graduation yet or are you still exploring? Did you enjoy seeing Jenny and your mother again? That is why you chose New York in the first place, isn't
"I'm calling about the hit I put out on Jenny," he said and my head whipped over to him in shock. "Job's off. Repeat, don't kill my daughter," said Don Angelo, his cold eyes staring dead into my soul.My hands shook uncontrollably in my lap and I knew I was pale in the face.What the fuck was all that drama if he was just going to have her killed? And why did he decide against it? Was he bluffing about putting a hit out on her to scare me? Or was it a double bluff and he meant for me to know that he was going to kill her and there was nothing I could do about it? Fuck, he was in my head."Relax, erede. She'll live. Just like the deer you refused to kill on our first hunting trip. Remember?" he said, patting my hands with one of his.When I was unable to pull the trigger, he acted like it was no big deal. Only to take me home and make me watch while he beat the living cra
I followed his gaze to where Scott stood, talking to Jenny. For the next few seconds, I stopped being able to hear and my vision became blurry. Then Scott looked my way and I became fixated on his brown eyes. Everything else just fell away.Fuck that handsome face, those dimples and the silver tongue that had probably convinced Jenny to let you in the door, Scott Brady.When I came to and broke eye contact, wanting to respond to Don Angelo, the father daughter dance was already being announced and he was going out to meet Jenny. Scott's gaze found mine across the room again and he broke out into a smile that made me weak in the knees. I wanted to end him for showing up here, but damn if it wasn't good to see him.We did a little dance of him trying to get to me and me avoiding him like the plague. The last thing I needed was to be seen with him. I tried texting his dad again.
Scottie, you should have let me protect you, just this once. What the fuck would I do if he hurt you? Or worse, if he made me do it while he watched?As if reading my mind, Don Angelo seared images of how it would play out into my mind, saying, "Every time you even think of reassembling the dead man's switch, I want you to picture him on his knees. A gun in your hand, while I make you decide who gets to put a bullet in his brain, you or me. Not his knee caps or his elbows or his ankles like you prefer. His fucking brain. You will live the rest of your life knowing that you have defied me for the last time, all this was for nothing and you can't have Scott.""How do I know you won't just kill him anyway even if I come back to you?" I asked, defeat settling over me like I knew it would all along.
With Don Angelo getting lost in the crowd, unable to help myself, I gingerly took steps to cross the room to go to Scott. He beamed at me reassuringly and my heart hurt. Was this how it would end? We deserved so much more. As the woman he loved, he deserved all that I was. Am. Will become. Everything that would always be his no matter where I was.&nbs
That last part was such a her thing to say. Was that really what she thought? It would explain how I apparently caught her off guard. "Please, for the love of God, let me sleep and shower first. There are dark circles under my eyes. And my make up—" What the fuck was she talking about? She was fucking flawless. Perfect in all her imperfections. "Shut up. I won the bet about Kenny and Marlene," I said, laying the phone down on the ground and starting the five minute timer. "So now Scott says shut up. You've said more than enough in the last few hours. Now just listen." She clasped her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth nervously, her eyes dropping to the timer. Words failed me. I had a whole speech and everything. Even if I didn't, I was me. I always knew what to say, except right that second I was tongue tied. "That photo's taunting me," I said, spitting out the thought in my he
By this point, she had me watching her from behind a lens. Flashes of the thousands of times she had me taking her photo went through my mind. Watching her was my favorite thing to do until she started letting me touch her. I loved every last one of them. Studied the thousands of photos frequently, especially this past week, like some junkie trying to get a fix. The sweet ones where she looked like an angel. The dirty ones where she looked like the perfect whore. The goofy ones that I made sure I was a part of. The everyday ones where she had a pencil in her hair while she read or picked something out at the grocery store. Every last photo I took of her and every memory attached to it flooded my brain. "Fucking stunning every time," I said, trying to calm my raging heart as the sun began to rise, the silhouette of her before it. Slightly trembling fingers took several photos, as the excitement of holding a camera surg
"Can't we do this another time? Surises come along every day and it's been such a long night," Stacy moped. Not this sunrise. Not this moment I wanted to give her. It was all she could do to hold onto the tripod towards the end, so I let her get on my back and gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way up my mountain. "You knew this was coming. I warned you I'd be making you miserable by bringing you out here before the crack of dawn while we were in Fiji. Sacrifices have to be made to please your future husband, Stace," I said, enjoying the feel of her body pressed up against my back. The morning was chilly, contrasting with her body heat. Or was I sweating? Maybe she was right and this just wasn't our moment. It would come once though. The sunrise of our one year anniversary. I had this picture of how it was going to go down in my head and I just wasn't ready to give it up. "On our anniversary? We just spent two ho
"Is the world's greatest commitment phobe still proposing today after this shit storm?" Kenny asked me as I watched Stacy sit across from Jeff to read through her immunity deal. "You just get the champagne ready. Be on standby, Ken. Call in sick. You'll get the call soon," I said, sharing an excited smile with him before I opened the door to Jeff's office to sit down next to Stacy. "You can have your lawyer look it over before you sign. Take your time," said Jeff, waiting patiently on her. "She's her own lawyer. She's like two classes away from being one?" I boasted as I watched her brilliant mind go to work while she read. "Three," she corrected me, eyes still darting over the words on the page. "Besides, we trust you. Don't we, Scott?" That's what she said, but she carried on combing the document. In about two minutes, she'd have tons of questions for him. "Yes, we do," I said to my fath
"I will never let anyone hurt him, Ken. On my life, I will always keep him safe," she professed one more time. "I know you will, Stace. For the record, you were always my favorite best friend," he said, cautiously wrapping his arms around her as he started sobbing. "Same Ken," she said, returning his embrace readily, rubbing his back. Eyes still on me, she stuck her tongue out at me, making me chuckle as I got up to join them. "Un-fucking-believable. What am I, chopped liver?" I said, watching Kenny pull back as I shot him a nasty look. "You're okay. Tolerable. Second best. I keep you around because of her," he said, wiping away his tears with the back of his sleeves. "I can't believe you fucking told her you were proposing. What the fuck is wrong with you? How will you survive marriage?" His stupid remark had us chuckling between the three of us. We all wrapped an arm around the other an
There was that promise of forever she said I couldn't have until I asked her to marry me. It was as good as a yes to my proposal. My heart was doing flip flops in my chest. I knew it was for their benefit, maybe even just because she was nervous about talking to them instead of me, but her words were aimed directly at me. Sweeping me right off my feet. Claiming every bit of me as hers. Allowing me to let go of the tiny part of me that wondered if she really could have killed me in those woods. It wasn't just luck or the words I said to her that made her want to save me. I was happy if I gave her the strength to do what she needed to do, but I firmly believed she would have gotten there anyway. She had been doing it for eight years. From the moment we met, she had been protecting me. Even when she pushed me away. She chose me for eight years. Came back again and again, no matter how many times Don Angelo called her home, to make me fall dee
He pulled out a chair for himself, then one for me, urging me to sit next to him. With a resigned sigh, I sat down two chairs away from Kenny, as close to Stacy as I could. I gave Willow and my mom a pleading look so they would follow suite across the table. Stacy took her seat and folded her hands in front of her. Folding her hands was her tell for when she was nervous. They all looked away uncomfortably. No anger. No malice. Just sadness and fear. It was all I could do to stay seated. Not grab Stacy's hand and storm out. She asked me to let her do this though. All I could do was sit back and watch helplessly. "Marlene, you're right. We should have reached out and talked to you all about what happened. It sucked that she was the only one of you to come by and ask us what happened though. Instead of going off the news and wherever else you got your information from. Still, I'm sorry we didn't reach out either. We were trying to figure things out betwe
"No, you're not leaving," said Marlene, grabbing Kenny's arms and turning him towards Stacy and I. "Your best friends are getting engaged today. You've been brooding about this whole situation for over a week and I'm sick of it. Deal with your shit, Kenny," said Marlene, her arms folded and chin jutted out. Go Marlene. Marriage looked good on her. She surprised me more and more all the time. "Does everyone know I'm proposing today?" I asked, focusing on the wrong thing entirely. It got my nervous, half asleep girlfriend to smile though. I'd take that. "You weren't exactly trying very hard to hide it," said Stacy, momentarily caught up in my eyes. I wished I could have her look like that for the rest of the day. A light blush tainted her cheeks and her smile was enough to bring armies to their knees. The way she looked at me made me feel like we were the only two people alive. As much as I appreciated wha
"Soooo… Do you think there's more?" he asked in his most innocent voice. "I'll kill you if you try and find out today," I said, equally as breathless and sweaty as him. It took me a moment to realize I just threatened him without flinching or apologizing. I forced myself to let it go and enjoy the afterglow of the best sex of my life. The heat and sweat coming off our bodies should have been enough to get me off him, but it wasn't. Despite my threat to get off him, his arms wrapped around me gently. "No promises. I love you," he said, completely at ease as he started stroking my hair. "I expect to be told about all future… Locations and phrases." "I love you too. That's no fun. I'm not doing that," I said, out right refusing his request. "Is that right? We'll see," he said cheekily, kissing my temple. "Let me take you to lunch. I want you to enjoy your first day of freedom."