Page 63 of Break for Me

I was just his job.

He was just another asshole.

Deep, uncomfortable silence settled around us in that hotel suite while we both cleaned the chaos that we’d left behind the night before. I changed into my own clothes while he was in the bathroom, and I stood at the edge of the bed where I’d placed my backpack. I held his black shirt up to my face and breathed in deeply. I almost laughed that his cinnamon smell was nearly replaced by the smell of sex, but whether that was actually the shirt or just the entire room, I wasn’t sure. It took another half a second of running my fingers over the fabric to decide that I was keeping his shirt and I stuffed it into my backpack. Jersey was frozen mid-movement of fastening the buttons on the sleeves of the dark purple shirt that he was wearing today when I looked back up from my backpack. His eyes shifted from where I’d just pushed his other shirt deep down into my own belongings up to my face. I held his stare, practically daring him to ask what I was doing. He didn’t want to hear the answer anymore than I wanted to give it, though. Instead, he sighed and finished buttoning his sleeves before he added the gray jacket. I slung my backpack on my shoulder and went to the door to wait there for him. He took the second lock from the frame and packed it away before he turned back and held his hand out for my backpack.

“I’ve got it,” I said and walked around him to just open the door myself. He breathed in deeply like even that annoyed him, but he followed without a word. Once we were in the elevator, he reached into his jacket for the little ear piece. He waited until we were in the hotel lobby before he called Memphis.

“We’ll leave out the back this time, take another route to that parking garage to go in through a different entrance. He’s dangerous and I have no doubt that he’ll be armed. He’s here to kill her so he won’t have a problem with taking a shot at me either.”

Leave it to him to sound cool as cucumber while he discussed someone attempting to murder both of us as we walked through this city. He paused at the back exit of the hotel and looked at me another time.

“What happens when the shooting starts?” I asked.

“I guess you’d better hope like hell that I know what I’m doing.”

“Comforting,” I said.

It was the most unpleasant, tense walk of my life. If he’d been close enough last night and been sure that I was who he thought I was, Bryson wouldn’t have hesitated to kill me right then. Jersey’s presence wouldn’t save me from him. He would’ve only given it a second thought last night because it was dark and I was with someone else, so there was a chance he’d mistaken someone else for me and he just didn’t want to kill the wrong person. If he saw us in the light of day, he’d know. Bryce was mean for the sake of being fucking mean. He’d been that way for as long as I’d known him. His lifelong goal seemed to only be proving that he could be the biggest asshole in any room just because he felt nothing. It made him an absolutely terrifying man to have as an enemy.

We at least made it to the parking garage without any issues, but Jersey paused just outside the door to look all the way around us.

“You will stay right beside me while we’re in here,” he said. I nodded at him and took another step toward the door but he grabbed my arm. His other hand came up to hold my chin between his thumb and his index finger.

“If he’s in here, do exactly what I tell you, exactly when I tell you,” he said. “Tell me you understand.”

Rather than just responding to him like a regular human, when his thumb moved across my bottom lip, I opened my mouth and bit him. Something about the way that he’d behaved this morning after the way that he’d treated me last night left me wanting to do everything in my power to complicate his world in even the most mundane and menial ways. Much to my surprise, rather than ripping his hand away, he put his other hand on the back of my neck to pull me into him the rest of the way until I was staring straight up at him to be able to see his face.

“Tell me that you understand, Fancy Face.”

“I hear you,” I said, because I was still wholly unable to just tell him the actual words that he wanted me to repeat.

Immature? Absolutely.

Still completely worth it to frustrate him as much as possible with what little time I had left with him? Also, absolutely.

forty-six

JERSEY

One moody woman biting me and another moody woman barking orders directly into my ear.

Sounded about right.

If I was going to be killed in this line of work, it was probably going to be today because spending my last moments alive being hounded by two different girls who somehow possessed the same level of sass seemed fitting.

“Hold the door open, but stay right here,” I said and positioned Trista right at the doorframe. She nodded. I pulled my gun from its holster to flip the safety off and held it just inside my jacket while she pushed the door open slowly. There was a steady stream of vehicles driving through the garage and several people walking to and from the elevator in the far corner. The stairs were closer to this end of the building though. I didn’t see anyone who resembled the stepbrother from where I was. I reached back for Trista’s hand and waited for another car to get closer. I pulled her inside with me and forced her into a speed-walk toward the stairs to try to use the moving car as a bit of cover in case the stepbrother was hiding on this level somewhere. She squeaked when I jerked her body back away from the door to the stairs after she tried to go in first.

“The fuck is wrong with you? Get back. Wait until I say,” I whisper-shouted at her.

“Fuck you,” she hissed right back.

Why my brain decided to imagine spanking her for the first time just then was beyond my understanding, and certainly less than helpful for this moment.

There wasn’t anybody waiting immediately within eyesight inside the stairwell so I pulled her in there behind me. We made our way up each flight slowly without coming across anyone else between the first level and the one where Seph was parked. I paused before even having her attempt to open that door.

“Are you taking your chances with me?” I asked her. “Or with him?”

“Can I take my chances on myself and walk back down these stairs alone?”

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