Page 28 of Dash

I liked her spirit. She’d always been a tough cookie. That hadn’t changed. On the other hand, fury sparkled in Thena’s eyes, and I had no doubt it was directed at me. The attack had been brief and contained. We’d ID’d the tango right away, and yet I felt Thena’s distrust aimed at me and the spectrum of failure clinging to me like a familiar ghost.

“You’ve got every right to be mad at me.” I dug my fist in my thigh, massaging the spasm contracting the unruly muscle, fighting off the pain. I loathed myself for allowing the attack to happen. Just like on the day that Nix died, my confidence took yet another hit. Was I losing my edge? Was I too wounded and damaged to do my job? Was I healthy and smart enough to keep Thena safe?

I forced myself to say the words. “I’m sorry about this.”

“Why are you sorry about this?” Thena arched her eyebrows at me.

“We’re here to protect you.”

“Oh shit, grow an emotional radar, Dagger.” She rolled her eyes. “Do you think the attack is why I’m mad at you?”

I glanced at her profile. “Why else?”

“Oh, I got reasons, and I mean to tell you about them.” She glared at me. “But I can guarantee the attack is not one of them. I believe you did protect me. The fuckers couldn’t get to me, so they tried their scare tactics. Your men are hunting for them as we speak and I’m alive, am I not?”

“Yeah.” She was right. I knew from experience that to win the war we might have to lose some battles, and still, staring ahead at her extensive shoe collection, I assumed the guilt andthe blame. “We need to get out of New York.”

“That’s exactly what they want, me, running scared,” she snapped. “I won’t do it.”

“Thena—”

“Don’t you dare ‘Thena’ me,” she bit out, her face flushed. “I. Will. Not. Run. Period.”

I studied the woman sitting beside me, wearing no makeup and a pair of flower-printed, short pajamas. Her jaw remained at a clench, and yet the bags under her eyes had disappeared. Since I’d cooked her breakfast myself and retrieved her tray after she ate, I knew she’d eaten a healthy meal. Before she left the hospital, I’d chosen a food market at random and bought supplies, also at random, to thwart any potential threats to her life.

Her hair was still a little damp from the shower she’d recently taken. Imagining her naked in the shower proved to be a tactical mistake of enormous proportions and a hard punishment for my dick, but I suppressed my horny and focused on the task at hand. While she’d been in the hospital, we’d achieved the truce I’d proposed, but now, the set of her face revealed our cease-fire was over and her glower announced she was ready to do battle.

“You’re angry at me,” I said. “Admit it.”

“Hell, yeah, I’m angry at you,” she spat. “It has nothing to do with the attack and everything to do with this.”

She slammed her tablet against my chest.

“What the hell?” I caught the tablet then rubbed the spot where it’d hit my sternum. “What’s this about?”

“You,” she growled like a ferocious tigress. “You broke your promise to me. You betrayed me all over again.”

I shook my head, trying to figure this one out. “How?”

She nudged her chin toward the tablet in my hand. “It’s all there.”

I shifted my gaze from the enraged woman to the newspaper article beaming on the screen. Keeping my guard up, I skimmed through the headline.

Richard Astor’s Legal Heir Takes Over the Astor Group’s Leadership

So far, so good. The body of the article contained the analysis of a brief interview I’d given the day before yesterday. As far as I could tell from the first few lines, the piece in the nation’s premier business paper had worked as I intended it.

“I don’t know why you’re so mad about this,” I ventured.

“You said that it wasn’t your intention to take over from me,” she shot back. “You promised me you wouldn’t make any changes. But you have, and then you announced it to the world without telling me.”

“Hey, hang on. I didn’t make any big changes to the Astor Group. That was my promise to you, and I kept it. As to the announcement, it was necessary.”

“Yeah, to humiliate me.”

I stared at her, incredulous. “How the fuck do you figure I did that?”

“Fifth paragraph.” She crossed her arms and pressed her lips together.

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