Chapter 11 Anna
ANNA
I watched as Brutus looked around my room. It wasn’t much, but it was mine. His eyes canvassed the room, and I recognized the look. He was studying, like my brother always did.
Military men always looked at things like they were studying and readying themselves for war.
He stopped in front of a picture. “Where did you get this?”
I smiled as I walked over and stood next to him. “I took it.”
I felt his gaze snap down to the top of my head. “You do photography?”
I just shrugged. “It’s a hobby of mine, yeah.”
He turned and pointed to the picture hanging over the bed. “And that one?”
I turned with him. “Yep, I took that one, too. I think it warped a little bit, though, being blown up so big like that.”
“Hmm,” he hummed as he began moving around my room again.
I watched him like a hawk as I worried my lower lip with my teeth behind his back.
He was about to put two and two together.
“This is cute,” he said with a grin as he grabbed Twinkle Toes.
“Hey!” I said as I rushed over and ripped my childhood stuffed animal out of his grasp. I clutched the ratty bunny with the floppy ears to my chest. “No touching him. He’s mine.”
Brutus crooked an eyebrow. “He’s yours?”
I nodded and clutched him close to me. “He’s special.”
His eyes cased down my body. “Twinkle Toes, huh?”
I nodded as I wrapped my arms around the stuffed animal that was practically falling apart. “My parents got him for me when I was first born.”
His gaze ran down my body. “You didn’t have these things at Doc’s place.”
Fuck. “So?”
“Soooo,” he said as he took a step toward me and used his finger to bounce one of the bunny’s ears. “How did they get here if you didn’t bring them from Doc’s?”
I placed Twinkle Toes back onto my bed and tucked him in with the little blanket that I had bought him a very, very long time ago.
“King went and got some of my—”
“Don’t lie to me,” he said, lowering his voice. “I always know when people are lying to me.”
“Oh, come on, Bee,” I said as I stepped out from underneath his intimidating shadow. “It’s just a couple of pictures and—”
“You already had a room picked out when we got here,” he said.
Suddenly, I regretted letting him into my room. “It’s just—”
“And you didn’t take the grand tour, like the other girls, when we first got here,” he said.
“Brutus, it’s one of King’s—”
He growled. “Don’t. Lie. To me. You gave the tour, Anna. Is this your home?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
“Say it, Anna,” he said as he stepped toward me again, crowding me against the wall.
He crooked his finger beneath my chin, and suddenly, I found myself staring up into those stoic brown eyes that rang loud and clear with…
Worry?
“Bee, what’s wrong?” I asked softly.
“Is this your home, Anna?” he asked. “Have we invaded your space?”
I shook my head softly. “It’s not an invasion. I told King that—”
“Goddamn it, Anna,” he growled as he stepped away.
The heat of his finger slipped away from my skin, but the underside of my chin still burned.
“Bee, why is this such a big deal?” I asked with a shrug. “I wanted to help. Most of the crew’s safehouses—”
“We are in your home, Anna!” he boomed as he whipped around. “Do you not understand the target that makes you!?”
My eyes widened as his voice practically rattled the fucking window of my room. I mean, sure, I’d heard him use that voice before. But never toward me.
“We never should have come here,” he grumbled as he pinched his nose.
A knock came at my door. “Anna?”
Fuck, it was Jasmine. “Yeah?”
She hesitated. “Everything okay in there?”
Goddamn it, she’d go tell every fucking woman now that this was my place. “Yeah, yeah. Everything is fine.”
“Go away, Jasmine,” Brutus barked.
I pointed at him. “Hey! You don’t get to talk to people like that in my fucking home.”
Jasmine scampered away on a giggle, and I groaned as I placed my face in my hands. How did this get out of control so quickly?
“I still don’t see what the big deal is—oh!”
Brutus grabbed my arm and pinned me to the wall, staring down at me with fire in those brown eyes of his. “How long have you lived here?”
I opened my mouth and closed it a couple of times. My god, the man was massive. And warm.
I had a suspicious thought of throwing myself at him and burying my face in that chest of his. I knew he had chest hair underneath there. I wanted to nuzzle into it.
“Pretty much since losing Mom and Dad,” I said softly. “I used my inheritance to buy and fix up this place.”
He shook his head softly. “You’re out in the middle of nowhere, Anna. We’ve got an entire sex trafficking ring breathing down our back, and you risk your entire home to house us? Why? Why put everything of yours at an unnecessary risk?”
I just shook my head. “I just wanted to help. Why is that so bad?”
He locked his hand around my other arm and held me tightly against the wall. His touch seared itself into my skin, his heat rushing through my veins.
I wanted to get his handprints tattooed around my upper arms now, like tribal paint.
“Please don’t be mad,” I whispered before I could catch the words.
The words seemed to disarm him, though the stoicism in his face didn’t relent. “Why do you live all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?”
I just shrugged softly, though his tight grip prevented some of the movement. “I like the quiet and seclusion of it all.”
He shook me softly. “Why do you keep lying to me?”
“Why is this so important to you?”
“Because I want to know why you’ve put yourself at an unnecessary risk.”
“I thought you wanted to know why I lived all the way out here.”
He growled. “Stop playing games with me.”
I smiled up at him. “What? I like games. I think they’re fun.”
He growled as he shoved me, not hard, and then turned his back.
He marched to the other side of my room, sliding his hands through his hair in a way that flexed his arms. I couldn’t help but watch the muscles bulge against the fabric of the typical black shirt he always wore.
The veins in his arms told me enough about his disposition.
This really did bother him.
“I struggled after our parent’s deaths,” I said softly.
He slowly turned to face me, pinning me against the wall with his stare. “Tell me more.”
I swallowed hard. “There’s nothing to tell.
I was done with the world after we lost our parents.
I didn’t want anything to do with it, or the emptiness I felt after not having them around.
King already had his crew. I barely had friends in high school, and fuck college because I hated all that studying and testing bullshit. ”
His shoulders sank a bit. “Yeah, I get that feeling.”
I tilted my head. “Your parents are dead?”
He pointed at his face. “Orphan. Parents didn’t want me.”
“Oh, Bee,” I whispered softly.
There was a fleeting moment where a memory crossed his face, and I wanted to ask him about it. It seemed to consume him for a millisecond, but just as quickly as he came, it passed. He locked his eyes with me again just as I stepped away from the wall.
But apparently, he wasn’t having any of that shit.
“No,” he said as he pointed at me and marched back in my direction.
He backed me right into the wall, his finger pressing against my chest, right where my heart was. “Okay, so we’re not moving from the wall. Got it.”
He bent down, resting his forearm above my head on the wall until I tilted my head back and found myself face to face with The Iron Battalion’s bodyguard behemoth.
Jesus Christ, he was a mountain of a man.
“I’m not leaving this room until you tell me why you didn’t tell anyone that this was your house,” he said, his voice low and hot against my face. “Because I have a hard time understanding why the brother who’s so goddamn protective of you would let you put yourself out as a target like this.”
“What target are you talking about?” I asked, getting a bit miffed. “I don’t understand the big deal. I wanted to help, I convinced my brother to let me help, the crew thought this place was a good—”
“Fuck his crew,” he snarled. “This puts you at the gravest of disadvantages. Your brother isn’t that stupid. This is unsafe for you and the place that you call home, and you know it.”
My eyes widened a bit. “You really don’t like this at all.”
His nose twitched. “I really, really don’t.”
And I couldn’t help but giggle softly.
Because the nose twitch looked just like something I used to dream up for Twinkle Toes.