Page 115 of Possession

I pull a hand through my hair and glance at my watch.

Shit.

She swipes her face with the back of her hand. “Swear to God, Boz, I will scream this hotel down and you won’t be able to stop me. Either tell me the truth or deal with the attention I’m sure you don’t want, seeing as you’re not who you say you are.”

“About that…” I start.

Her eyes widen. “About what?”

“I might’ve told you two lies. My name isn’t Boz.”

Her face falls before her eyes shut. “Holy shit.”

“And it’s not Brian either. Going by Brian was … symbolic,” I add. I don’t say anything else and wait for her to look at me. I’ve come this far with her. She needs to know everything. If she’s the person I think she is, only the truth will win her over. “But my brother’s name was Brian.”

Her frown deepens. “What does your brother have to do with anything? And what do you meanwas?”

“He died years ago—killed in the line of duty.”

That softens her frown, but only by a touch.

As much as I don’t want to get into this right now, I spit it out. “It wasn’t by some freak accident or a stray bullet. He was targeted, Landyn. Ambushed and taken. He was missing for a week. When his body was found, he’d been tortured. It was so bad the autopsy report was a fucking novel.”

Her eyes well all over again as her fury melts away.

But mine is back, and it’s bleeding from me with every word I spew.

This time it’s her turn to take a step toward me but she stops mid-step when I keep talking, describing the nightmare that put me on a path that brought me right here.

“All evidence pointed to the Marino Cartel, but they didn’t have anything solid. His body was dumped at the border near Tijuana. The feds were brought in to investigate, but there’s not much they can do outside the U.S.”

I watch the woman who turned my life right-side up in an upside-down world take in everything I say. I can’t blame her for being confused or angry. I certainly can’t blame her if she wants nothing to do with me after this.

But she says nothing.

Not one fucking thing.

And I’m running out of time, so I keep talking. “I was a different person when it happened. Just out of college and starting my life. I was a peon on Wall Street, working sixty hours a week trying to prove myself. This,” I hold my arms out, “was never my plan.”

“Then why are you here?” she whispers.

“Our dad died when I was twelve. Brian was eighteen. Young enough that he didn’t need to step into any role, but he did. He was more than a brother. I always idolized him, but he was the man I needed in my life at the time. He stepped up when he didn’t have to. He didn’t go away to college the way he planned to. We grew up in Queens. He stayed local when he could have gone anywhere, and he did it for me. He finally moved to the West Coast when I went to college. His dream was to leave, but he waited until I was out of high school. He was selfless and loved his family to a fault, but he always wanted to be a cop. When we found out how he died, that simmered under my skin until it got so hot, I knew I had to do something about it. I’m bilingual, so when I applied to the DEA, I was a shoo-in. I never thought I’d end up here, but when the opportunity presented itself, I had to take it.”

She gives her head a little shake and starts to say something, but I keep going.

“I never thought this would happen. This.” I stop to motion between her and me. “Has been the distraction I did not need. But every single thing I’ve done since I laid eyes on you has been to keep you safe. In the beginning, it was an act to make sure everyone else knew to keep their hands off you.”

“An act,” she whispers.

“Yes,” I confirm. “It was. But not anymore. You got under my skin, and what was fake turned very fucking real, Landyn. I’ve pushed you away because there was no way I was going to fuck you when you thought I was someone else, even though I know I could’ve.”

She blinks in slow motion before crossing her arms. “That’s presumptuous.”

I close the distance between us, cup her cheek in my hand, and tilt her face to mine. “I know it’s true and so do you. The sexual tension between us is so thick and heavy, I’m surprised it hasn’t combusted in our faces. You don’t know how hard it’s been for me to push you away, or focus on my job, when all I want is you.”

She leans her cheek into my hand, and I realize I was about her age when Brian was killed. At too young of an age, we were both thrown into a world neither of us wanted or planned for—all because of the Marinos.

I’m ready to wipe them from the face of the earth forever.

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