She sniffles, a sob escaping, while she shrugs her shoulders. “Would have solved your problems though, right? McCall can’t be mad if I pissed someone off enough to take me out for you.”
My throat bobs, listening to her accuse me of wanting her dead. Yes, I want to destroy her, to break her, to make her entirely dependent on me, her life hanging by threads from my fingertips, but I don’t want her dead. Just mine. Mine to control, to set up and watch her fall.
“You’re not useful if you’re dead,” I remind her.
Her chest heaves as if my words were silver bullets, knocking the wind out of her. I feel a flash of regret in my heart while I watch her struggle. My eyes stay locked on her, waiting for her to bite back, to fight me, anything. Instead, her gaze lowers to the ground, and her shoulders bow as if she’s protecting herself.
“Story of my life,” she murmurs, before turning and walking away toward her room.
Something inside me snaps. Scarlet thinking I could be anything like her father makes me angrier than anything she’s done. That man destroyed her, used her, and pushed her so far, her soul had splintered into a million pieces. She’s lived in fear for herself and her loved ones for over a decade because of that man. We are not the same. I stalk after her, my shoes echoing on the marble floor. Right as she goes to close her door, my hand slams against it, forcing it back open.
“Trent!” she gasps my name, right before my hand snaps out, curling around her neck and pushing her into the wall.
I glance down and see my SCAR tattooed fingers against her sun-kissed skin, an image that will forever be burned behind my eyes, and I squeeze. Her deep brown eyes, shimmering with tears, widen. Her puffy lips part, and her hands reach up to circle my wrist. She’s so vulnerable in this moment. I lean in, and run the bridge of my nose against hers. “I. Am. Not. Him.” Our gazes clash before my lips collide with hers. I use my free hand to brace against the wall by her head, while my body pushes hers further into the wall. The back of her head makes a satisfying thud, causing her mouth to part farther. My tongue invades her mouth, taking her air, and making a meal out of her. She tastes like champagne and sweetness. Her hands move from my wrist to my jacket, pulling me closer, while her body writhes against mine. I could fuck her right now against the wall and she would let me. My body grows hard against hers. It wouldn’t take much to hike up her dress and impale her onto me. The fact that I want to even while I hate her, is what allows me to tear my body away from her grip, putting some distance between us.
Scarlet’s arms cross protectively around herself and she won’t meet my eyes. Her bottom lip stays trapped between her teeth and a pink flush is working its way across her chest. It’s familiar. Before I can read too much into it or even process the line I just crossed, I’m stalking away from her. I need to get out of this house. I need space to clear my head before I make a mistake I can’t take back. My hand scrubs down my face and comes back with red lipstick smeared in my palm. My dick twitches, wanting to go back, and sink inside her while I strangle her for ruining everything. She made me love her knowing she would hurt me. Even though I know the story now of why, I can’t forgive her for not trusting me. I would have done anything to help her. Hell, I would have helped her think of something, anything, to give her father to get him off her back until I could get her away. She chose to leave me in the dark. What we had, what I thought we had, didn’t matter to her.
I found the closest bar and drowned myself in Jack that night before stumbling my way back to the house and passing out on my own bed. Kissing Scarlet Reyes led to a four-day bender, locked in my room, ignoring the world. Apparently she was ignoring me too. This morning, however, Jay had enough of our shit and called a meeting. With the throbbing in my temples only getting worse, I somehow managed to make it to the office. When I walk in, Scarlet’s eyes widen before she rolls them, scoffing.
“Jesus,” Jay’s eyes fixate on me, “You smell like a bottle of whiskey. The fuck, Nichols?”
I let my head lull toward Scarlet, taking in her red suit and the black lace underneath, my eyes eating her up. “Lapse in judgment,” I respond, before bringing my attention back to Jay.
His head hangs down, before snapping back up. “I don’t even care at this point. We need to make our next move. The information we’ve been able to gather from the past few weeks has been sufficient enough to give us a better idea of where we’re at on the playing field. Now we head back to Vegas.”
“Julio is still waiting on me to bring back a solid plan for moving his drugs into my hotel. Once we get to Vegas, I will set up a meeting with him to discuss the plan, so we can find out where and how to stop the transaction, the minute they cross into the US,” Scarlet details her portion of what she has planned.
Jay nods, taking notes, while I sit here fuming. Once again, it feels as if they’re more on the same page and I’m missing the vital keynotes. If he’s going to expect me to keep putting my life on the line then I need to know everything. Despite where my head was four days ago, I still don’t completely trust her.
“We need to get this on our side and fast,” Jay speaks under his breath, his eyes studying the various maps, “if this goes over the border, we’re fucked.”
“That’s probably what she wants,” I drawl, my eyes sliding over to Scarlet who’s already eyeing me with contempt. “What? We get made and I’m sure you’ll have another excuse all ready to go as to why the feds are tailing you. I know your evil mind can be creative when it needs to be.”
My words hit a nerve, and Scarlet stands from her chair, gathering her purse on her shoulder. “Call me when we’re ready to head out. I’ll set up the meeting with Julio for three days from now.” Her heels click against the floor as she makes her way out of the building.
Jay is silent for a long time, both of us lost in our own thoughts. “You just had to go there, didn’t you?” he finally says and I shrug, tired of defending myself. I know firsthand how this can all go down and he’s so set on believing her and trusting her.
“It was a plausible guess as to what could happen. We can’t follow if this makes it over the border. Just because you’re so dead set on believing everything she says doesn’t mean I am,” I reply, standing from my own chair.
Jay’s gaze rakes over me, inspecting me. “She gave us the other person responsible for Blake.”
“I also watched her blow a guy’s brains out with no remorse,” I remind him. Sure, the guy deserved to die anyways but still. There was no hesitation. Scarlet went in with the intention to kill.
Jay’s fingers brush over his lips, like he’s contemplating something. “I gave you four weeks to be in each other’s space, in that time, did you not talk at all about the past?”
“The fuck? What were you expecting? That we would sit around braiding each other’s hair, remembering the good ol’ days. I showed up to work and so did she.”
Jay’s eyes close, and he rubs his temples with his fingers. When he looks at me again, he looks like my father does when he gets angry. “You still don’t know everything. Go find her.”
I scoff. “I know all I need to. If this backfires, do not come to me about how bad you feel. I warned you, man.”