Page 17 of Silent Threat
Cole didn’t look sold on the concept. Which just showed how little he knew.
“The women in my family,” she told him, “have a long history of ending up with the wrong men. My grandmother married a coldhearted jerk who drove her to an early grave. My mother chose a series of men who were increasingly large disasters.”
“And you?”
The first man Annie had ever lived with was Xane Ebner in Philly; he was a mellow guy who used to sing in an Earth, Wind & Fire–type band called Green Leaf. They’d met at a concert the band gave to benefit the environment. Xane had been her soul mate for nearly a full year before he’d decided to morph into a self-proclaimed rock-and-roll god who’d gotten into drugs, other women,andher bank account. Last she’d heard of him, he was flirting with pop.Gotta go where the money is, babe.
Annie had moved back to Broslin and run into Joey.
When Joey had asked her out, she’d said yes, without first figuring out what kind of man he’d grown into. She didn’t realize until too late that the adult Joey wasn’t anything like the kind and funny kid-Joey she remembered.
His life had gone off track when he’d been studying for a pharmacy degree, and his cousin, Big Jim, had talked him into mishandling some drugs. That had ended Joey’s career before it could begin. He’d slipped into a series of part-time jobs and more shenanigans with Big Jim. Joey wasn’t stupid; he was just entirely without motivation.
But both Xane’s and Joey’s bad-boy quotient paled next to Cole Makani Hunter’s. The man lived and breathed danger. Cole might not be criminally inclined—that Annie knew of—but if she were smart, she would buy him a T-shirt that saidWRONGMANand make him wear it to their sessions.
“I don’t think my love life is a proper topic in a session,” she said when she realized that Cole was still waiting for her answer to his question.
“What were you doing at the gas station earlier?” she asked him to change the subject.
“Walked down for some cigarettes.”
“You shouldn’t smoke.”
“I don’t. Thinking about starting.”
She fixed him with her stern-therapist look. “I find out you do, and I’ll writeself-destructive tendenciesin your file.”
His face remained expressionless. “Now you’re scaring me.”
“You’ll be scared when they disable the lock on your door and you get hourly checkups.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “What do you get for blackmail and intimidation?”
She tried not to smile at his wry, understated humor or acknowledge that she liked it. “I’m just worried about you.”
“I don’t have self-destructive tendencies.”
“You punched a brick wall so hard you almost broke your hand.” She let that sink in. “Want to tell me what that was about?”
She was surprised when, after giving her a moment of consideration, he actually did.
“Car almost ran me over. Didn’t hear it coming. Then the guy behind the wheel yelled something at me, but he was half-turned so I couldn’t read his lips. I didn’t know whether to yell back,Don’t worry about it, orFuck you too.” He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “So you can stop worrying about the self-destructive thing. Chances are, something I can’t hear coming is going to destroy me. If this place doesn’t drive me crazy first.”
Her heart twisted. But she couldn’t drop the subject. She was one of his therapists. “I bet those tattoos hurt. Some of them look new. Are you punishing yourself with pain? Maybe because you feel like your body is failing you?”
“No.” He didn’t hide his exasperation. “Everybody has tattoos.”
“Not everybody.”
He looked her over leisurely, with an insolent expression she now knew meant he was going on the offensive.
He didn’t disappoint. “You want me to take your word for that? How about you prove it?”
Sheknewhe was trying to rattle her, but his dark gaze still got to her and sent a faint tingle up her spine. Of course it did. Because he was easily the most inappropriate guy for her in a hundred-mile radius.
Good thing Annie was breaking with her genetic destiny. She wasn’t even going to think about being attracted to Cole Makani Hunter. She was not going to be another misguided Murray woman in a long line of misguided Murray women.
You make a mistake once, it’s a mistake. You make a mistake twice, you’re a slow learner. You make a mistake three times, and it’s a habit. Maybe it’s who you are.
