Jesus Christ.
I couldn’t even come up with a legitimate reason why I’d gone that direction with Rio. There she was, next to me…damn near beneath me…and every switch in my system had flipped. All I could imagine, all I could crave, was making her mine in every carnal way. Dominating her. The instinct took over, as natural as blinking my eyes or scratching an itch.
Scratching a fucking itch?
Another cliché, but worse. Because it was a load of bullshit. Every. Damn. Syllable.
After everything Rio had been through in the past few months—goddammit, the last few days—there was no excuse for pushing her to the point of a panic attack. None.
I’d probably spend the rest of the trip beating myself up for it. And beating off, because there was no way in hell she’d let me near after breaking her trust in that monumental way. She shouldn’t.
Oddly, my cell phone ringing broke me out of my self-loathing. Because I assumed we were far from cell service in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the sound surprised me.
What wasn’t surprising? The number of the caller on the small display. Well, this punishment couldn’t get any worse than what I was currently putting myself through.
“Hey, Bas. How’s it going, man?” I answered as nonchalantly as possible. Never mind that I just skipped town two days ago after breaking his sister-in-law out of the mental health facility his soon-to-be wife had her committed to.
Yep. Just another day in the Shark universe.
“Not like you to ditch work, Grant,” my best friend said with an eerie calmness to his voice.
“Didn’t you get the voice mail I left you?” I asked, nodding at my casual tone.
“Oh yeah, I got it.” There was a heavy pause before he spoke again. “See, here’s the thing, though, my friend. We are still friends, Grant, aren’t we?”
“Of course we are. Why would you even ask me a question like that?”
Crap. My tone wasn’t so casual anymore. Because the thing was…I already knew the answer to my own question. And was pretty damn sure Bas did too.
“Well, I’m having a hard time separating the truth from the deception at the moment. Seemingly at every turn.”
Damn it. Despite the steady underline of his tone, there was no mistaking the bolder strokes of his remark. The determination—and the accusation. With the same collection of words, he was both pissing me off and making me edgy.
Maybe it was time for me to peel my own gloves off.
I elevated my volume a couple of notches while demanding, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Stop,” Bas bit back. “Just stop and cut the shit, Twombley. The damage is already done. Although usually when I find out that a person has lied to me, that’s it, you know? I cut him off at the knees. Done.”
I drew sharp, incensed air through my nose. “I’m familiar with your standard flow, man.” Along with just about every figurative body he’d ever buried on his rise to corporate success. But clearly, His Majesty Shark didn’t care to remember that right now.
“Good,” he spat. “Because you’ll also remember that I don’t have room for backstabbers in my life. But when that cut has come from my best friend? No—worse than that—my brother? Well, I don’t even know what to do with this information. Not yet, anyway.”
“Okay, seriously, man. I’m going to ask you one last time; what the fuck are you talking about?” I huffed in response to his derogatory grunt. “Honestly? You sound like a paranoid prick right now. I haven’t lied to you—”
“Ah-ah,” he tutted as if chastising a child.
My anger rose another notch as a result of his condescending admonishment. But he didn’t even notice the spike in my breathing over the phone. He couldn’t see me clenching my free hand into a fist, ready to deck him in his smug face. No, he just continued with his sage advice.
“You may want to think about that claim before making it so emphatically. I warned everyone I’d get to the bottom of what really happened at the Edge job site the night Sean Gibson died. No one fucks me over and gets away with it.” His voice grew quiet and full of pain. “I just never thought it would be you, man.”
All the shitty events of that night came rushing back to me—in horrifying detail. Racing to the scene to find Rio about to torch the place. Watching her have some sort of psychotic breakdown. Then tackling her to the ground just before she did catastrophic damage to Sebastian’s burgeoning building. Finally, trying to clean up the mess she made and enlisting Elijah’s help to do so…
Shit. Elijah.
I needed to call and warn him before Bas figured out he had any part in this ruse, too. Because like the hunter he was, once Sebastian Shark picked up the scent of blood in the water, he wouldn’t stop circling until all the bodies involved were devoured.
“Bas, listen. I can explain. There’s so much about that night—”
Click.
A few seconds passed before I was blasted with a dial tone from the other end of the call. The asshole had actually hung up on me!
I sat for long minutes after that, motionless and speechless. Completely lost and beyond confused about what to do with the situation.
My cell seemed to triple in weight as I felt the impact of my best friend’s accusation. I didn’t want to call him back and grovel for his forgiveness, because frankly, I wasn’t sorry. If the exact same thing happened in the next five minutes, I’d likely handle it the same way.
My feelings hadn’t changed for Rio since that night. Well, I might have become more ensnared by her complicated, challenging mind. And I might have become more captivated and enchanted by her beauty. I couldn’t even allow myself to think about her enticing and alluring sex appeal, or I’d end up in the bathroom with my dick in my fist.
When my cell phone rang again, interrupting my colliding thoughts, I nearly dropped the device in surprise. This time I answered without looking at the caller identification, thankful Bas pulled his head out of his ass and realized he was acting like a child when hanging up on me. I really didn’t need more complications in my life right now.
“Dude, I can’t believe you hung up on me. Shit.” I chuckled. “Seriously, when’s the last time you pulled that shit? When we were ten?”
“Grant?” A female’s questioning voice filled my ear instead. “Hey, it’s Abbigail.”
Okay…so not who I was expecting, and I was instantly beating myself up for not looking at the device before answering. I definitely did not want to talk to this woman right now.
“How can I help you, Abbi?” I winced at the abrupt shift of my voice, but no way could I muster affection for the person responsible for what I saw Rio having to endure just one day before. Granted, it wasn’t the facility specifically. It was imprisoning her in the first place. That was the last thing she needed. Anyone who knew her would know that. I still couldn’t understand how Abbigail thought it was the right thing to do.
Regardless of my attitude, her inquisition started straight away. “I’m assuming you know where Rio is? Or you’re with her currently?” She only paused long enough to inhale and then continued with her questions. “The facility that I checked her into for psychiatric evaluation and care said she was carried out by a very tall, blond, model-looking man. I’m guessing that was you?”