Page 35 of Blood in the Water
As we walked out the door, I glanced back to see Fallon sitting on the desk with all three men crowding around her. The door slammed shut just as she pulled one to her lips.
I cleared my throat and shook the image from my head, already feeling much lighter than I had when we’d arrived at this bar. Finally, I had a step forward. We would take out a contract with the Shadows, get revenge on Max, and put my father’s empire back where it belonged: with me.
13
LEONA
Three days later, we were still waiting to hear from Fallon’s contact in the Shadows.
The meeting with that woman had done a number on Cas. And on me. He’d tried to explain their relationship, but every word out of his mouth had annoyed me, so finally, I waved him off and told him I didn’t want to hear it. His past lovers had nothing to do with me. There was no reason for me to care. What mattered now was that we were safe and moving forward.
All we had to do was hear back from the Shadow, get the money we needed, and kill Max. Easy.
But the longer we waited around the Irish safe house, the more I wanted to tear my hair out.
I wanted to hire the Shadows already. I wanted to make the bastard pay. I wanted to make everyone see that he wouldn’t get away with the pain he caused me. But I had to wait untiltheyreached out tous. Ugh.
“Cas, we need some groceries,” I said with a sigh as I slammed the refrigerator door shut. I’d spent my days oscillating between pacing about the room, stress eating, and watching mindless cable TV channels. All the while, my brain never stopped moving. I never stopped thinking about how I would getenough money to pay the Shadows. The pain in my heart still existed, though each day, it got buried deeper and deeper. But the sooner I could take care of Max, the sooner I could move on.
“I’ll go get some in the morning,” he called from the bathroom down the hall, where he was changing the bandages on his chest. A sharp grunt of pain echoed down the house, and I rolled my eyes.
“Why don’t you ever want me to help with that?” I grumbled as I stomped down the hallway and yanked the door to the bathroom open.
His eyes flew up and locked with mine. I gulped as I took in the sight of a bare-chested Caspian wrapped in only a towel. His chest might have been pretty torn up by the bullet wounds, but his six-pack was definitely still intact, and so were those carved muscles that disappeared beneath the towel wrapped around his waist. His broad expanse of a chest took up the entire scope of my vision while I drank in the look of him. My eyes tracked a water droplet as it dripped down his peck, and I had to physically stop myself from reaching out my fingertips to brush against the hardness of his skin.
“Excuse me,” he said dryly. “I’d charge you money for this peep show if I thought you could afford it.”
My mouth snapped shut while my cheeks flared with heat. I grabbed the bandages from his hand while avoiding his gaze. This wasnotthe first time I’d seen Cas without a shirt, especially over the last few days he was healing in the hospital, but something about the water and the towel and the movement and steam from the hot shower made my head spin. I wanted to run my hands over him, partly to convince myself that he was still alive but also because I just wanted tofeel. To see what it would be like to touch him like that. To erase whoever else had touched him before and just leave me.
Fallon was getting into my head.
Cas had girlfriends. How had I never known? Had I just assumed my two best friends only ever thought about me? What was Cas evenlikeas a boyfriend?
I blinked and shook my head. Nope. I didn’t need to think about any of that stuff.
“Well, then, just put it on my tab,” I retorted, my breath quickening as I wrapped the bandages underneath his arm and around his back where he had difficulty reaching. Faded scars covered his back, some that crisscrossed over top of one another and a few that looked like remnants of severe injuries. Touch light as a feather, I ran my finger down a particularly nasty, though faded, one. He shivered under my touch.
“What are you doing?” he asked, voice hoarse.
I touched another, running the pad of my thumb over more of his skin. I didn’t want to stop—couldn’tstop. He was a work of art standing right in front of me. His muscles tensed under the movement of my fingers, but he stayed as still as a statue, letting me explore the feel of his skin. In the mirror’s reflection, I caught his deep, intense gaze. His lips parted slightly, and his eyes flicked down to mine.
I swallowed and stepped back. What the hell was I doing? I needed to change the subject immediately. “Did you hear me earlier? I’m hungry, and we have no food.”
“Yeah, I said I’d get some in the morning.” He cleared his throat and arched his back to view the bandages. My eyes trailed over the movement of his abs. “Looks good. Thanks.”
I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away. “Let’s go tonight? We have nothing to make, and I don’t want to ask the Irish for any more favors.”
He hesitated, thenoalready forming on his lips.
“Come on,” I practically whined. “We’re in Irish territory. It’s right down the street. We’ll be fine.”
He picked up the shirt folded on top of the sink and pulled it over his head, contemplating. “I’ll take you to the corner store if you swear you will listen to every single word I say. Don’t fight me on anything, and let me keep you safe.”
I nodded. “We’ll be back here, safe and sound, within ten minutes. I can handle ten minutes of listening to you.” I stepped out of the bathroom so he could grab a pair of pants.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Ten minutes later, we were checking out with a handful of junk food, snacks, instant ramen, and convenience store microwaveable burritos. Cas hadn’t stopped watching our backs, to the point where the cashier noticed and sped up the checkout process so we could leave.
