Page 48 of Taming Achilles

“And who the hell are you?” I asked him outright.

“This is Jer…” I swear the second man shook his head as LeBlanc made the introductions. “Jeremiah V-v-van der Man.”

That sounded like a made up name if ever I heard one. I wanted to rip those glasses and hat off, but I had to cool it because Detective Delgado wouldn’t hesitate to put the ‘cuffs on me.

“How is Miss Fox paying for this new security?” I narrowed my eyes, remembering how she’d said she was insolvent, bordering on penniless, and how we had gotten around it.

Did she have a similar pact with this guy? If she did, he was as good as dead. I didn’t share.

“We’re doing this gratis,” LeBlanc’s eyes narrowed as if he knew what I was thinking. “She’s an old friend and we go way back. Way, way, back. So, we’re more than happy to do the right thing by her.”

That stung. It felt like a personal jab, but for that to be true, she would have had to tell them of our arrangement. She wouldn’t do that.

“We’ll just see about all that.” I stormed into her hotel room. She and Rhys, the walking shit stain, were quietly talking about hiking around the LA observatory.

“Do you know this man?” I accused, pointing to LeBlanc who walked in after me.

Her face instantly brightened, and she threw her hands out in front of her, palms down as she smiled.

“Ajax!” she said excitedly as the man took her hands in his, leaned in and kissed her on each cheek.

“Pippa Long Stockings, as I live and breathe,” said Le Blanc as he straightened, still holding her hands. If he kept that up, I’d rip them right out of their sockets. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, even if you do look like a hot mess.”

Pippa took a hand and touched her hair, smoothing it self-consciously.

“They say I have a concussion,” she lamented. “Nothing I can’t recover from.”

LeBlanc leaned down over her. I felt the need to yank him away, as if he was the threat. Until I looked up his name and ran a background check, I couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t the love-sick stalker. Everyone loved Pippa Fox. All of them were a threat.

“Full steam ahead, Pipsqueak?” I heard him say, as his partner, “Jeremiah Van der Man” skulked in the corner, his back leaning against a wall.

“Full steam ahead,” she responded.

LeBlanc nodded, then looked at me.

“It’s my understanding that she’s got some things at your place. I’ll be coming over to pick it up so that we can get her somewhere safe.”

That was the final fucking straw. I was done. With her bullshit. With the smooth talking LeBlanc, and with the pretty boy detective. I had had enough of people sniffing around Pippa’s skirts, hoping for a taste when she was mine. They just didn’t know it.

“If she wants her things, then she can get it herself,” I gritted to him. “If I see any of you outside my door, be prepared to catch a bullet.”

I turned on my heel and walked out of the room, ready to pummel my fist into anyone who so much as breathed wrong in my direction. Delgado was still halfway down the hallway. She raised a brow, having heard my little outburst.

“Metaphorically, of course,” I said, shaking my head.

Threatening to shoot people was all well and good, but it was poor form to do so in front of law enforcement. They weren’t the enemy, per se, but they certainly weren’t our friends either.

“Mm-hmm,” she said, her lips pursing.

But fuck, what was happening? I was losing control. The very thing that I craved was slipping from my fingers and it felt like someone was sawing at a part of my body without anaesthesia. Like a part of me was getting ripped off, ligament by agonising ligament. Fuck. I needed to hit something. Hurt something. I needed to break something before it broke me.

I drew my fist back and was ready to pound at the wall when Delgado’s voice interrupted my fury.

“I don’t suggest doing that,” she said, her arms crossed. For the first time, she looked amused. “Trouble in paradise?”

Her sarcasm was refreshing in its bitterness. I snorted.

“I suspect you two will work it out,” she said with a slight upturn in one corner of her mouth. “In the meantime, please meet me at the Japanese Gardens tomorrow with your expert so we can comb the scene.”

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