Page 70 of Night Shift

“Payback?” Sam’s eyes flashed with indignation. “You think this is about payback? No, Atticus, this is about me asserting my independence!”

“Independence, huh?” I scoffed. Frustration coursed through me, and I began to pace around the living room like a caged animal, every step a futile attempt to quell my temper.

“Damn right,” she retorted, her voice trembling ever so slightly. “I’m not your little plaything, and I will not sit here and let you dictate my life.”

“Nobody said you were,” I said, returning to stand in front of her. She was seething at me now, her lips pressed into a tight line and her cheeks flushed. Despite myself, I found it hard not to admire her fiery spirit. “But this is my home, Sam. I have a right to set boundaries.”

“Get out of my face, Atticus,” she hissed, and I knew I had pushed her too far. She turned and started to walk away.

Before she had made it more than a few steps, I moved in front of her, blocking her path to the hallway that led to the staircase. Then I slowly edged forward, crowding her until she started stepping back. Soon her back bumped against the wall, and she jumped, startled to find herself caged between the hard surface at her back and the hard-faced man standing in front of her.

“Why do you care who I fucked in MY house? You haven’t given two shits about me since you bolted from my cabin, reminding me multiple times that night was purely an experiment, nothing more. ‘It will be as if it never happened, remember?’” I said, mimicking her earlier words. “No strings, no feelings, right? Then to smear my nose in your brush-off, you told my brother right in front of my face that our time together was a mistake, right before you batted your adoring eyelashes at him and called him your knight in shining armor. Then, also right in front of my face, you agreed to go to the gala with him. So what in the god-honest-fucking truth did you expect me to think?”

“I figured if that night meant anything to you, you’d at least text or call me, that I would see you at work and we’d banter and tease like before, that you would pursue me if you were interested, but nooo. Talk about nothing… I was completely invisible to you. I didn’t lay eyes on you until Conan carried me into the emergency department after I was attacked. And you could barely stand to look at me.” She rolled her eyes, swallowed hard, and poked an accusing finger directly into my chest.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” I warned through gritted teeth. Widening her eyes, she jabbed her finger into my chest again.

“How do you think I felt, finding out in front of all my friends at Friendsgiving that you were taking the fabulous Dr. Vanessa Sinclair to the gala?” She jabbed her finger in my chest a third time. “I hadn’t even planned on going until I saw your reaction to Conan taking care of me in the emergency department,” she said, followed by another poke.

“Enough!” I roared, the last of my self-control slipping away. I had to find a way to rein it in before I went ham on her ass. This wasn’t the time or place for me to unleash the darker side of my desires. Her repeated jabs had ignited a fire within me, pushing me closer to the edge. With the tension building, her actions stirred up something wicked inside me. And the angrier I became, the more agitated she seemed to get. The hostility between us was only growing. Samantha was testing my limits, forcing me to spiral into a malevolent place.

“Fuck you, Atticus! All of your assumptions about me are ridiculous! Why don’t you get your fucking facts straight? You’re the one who treated me like you didn’t even know me after that night in the cabin. You looked down your nose at me at the gala like I was some street urchin!”

“Jesus fucking Christ, that’s bullshit, and you know it. I did exactly as you asked and kept your secrets. And don’t you worry; I wouldn’t want anyone to know, so stop acting like a fucking child.”

Without warning, she hauled back to slap me across the face.

I caught her by the wrist and slammed it against the wall behind her. Samantha gasped, her eyes wide, her pupils blown.

“Raise your hand to me again, Samantha, and I’ll show you how it feels to get smacked.”

She heaved a gulp of air. “I might be naive, I might be hunted, I might even have panic attacks that claw their way up my throat, but one thing I’m not…is someone’s dirty little secret.”

The raw emotion in her voice stunned me. I let go of her arm, cocking my head to the side in an attempt to figure out what could possibly be going on in that big brain of hers. All her accusations about me had been wrong. Hundreds of women, humph! I’d just assumed she didn’t want to be with me and moved on.

Before I could process what was happening, she lunged forward and smacked the shit out of me, leaving a hot, throbbing handprint on the side of my jaw.

The pain sent a shockwave through me, igniting something wild and animalistic inside. My eyes locked onto hers, and I registered the moment she realized there was a darker side to me. The fear in her eyes gave me a sadistic thrill.

“Are you done?” I growled.

“Maybe I am,” she scoffed, her chest heaving. “But now you know how it feels to be slapped in the face with the truth.”

“Truth?” I snarled. “You don’t know anything about the truth, Samantha. You have no idea what I’ve been through or how far I can take things.”

“Then show me!” she challenged, her eyes flashing with defiance and something else—a hint of delight? Was she getting off on this shit?

“Be careful what you wish for,” I warned, my voice barely more than a whisper. It was clear our anger, pain, and desire were threatening to consume us both.

My hand shot out, grasping her throat. I shoved her against the wall, and her skull hit it with a thud.

“Did you fuck my brother?!”

Her eyes were giant and blinking rapidly. She shook her head, barely able to move within my hold.

“Realize now there’s a darker side to me?” I growled, my voice dripping with menace. Sam merely stared at me, her eyes glassy, her chest heaving as she fought for breath. My heart hammered in my chest, adrenaline pumping through my veins as we stood there, locked in a battle of wills.

And then I snapped.

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