Twenty-Five
25
Salem
Present Day
Nothing about what I had just told them sounded convincing. I was trembling, sweating, and felt like I was going to puke, but I had lied about the man Lick had shot. I’d said every word I’d been told to say.
When I had walked into the room, the investigator had been drinking coffee and eating a slice of Nina’s caramel cake. He and Liam were laughing about something. The other officer there didn’t speak to me at all. He was more interested in the model motorcycle Liam had parked outside. Apparently, it was rare and in mint condition.
The entire thing was one big farce, and although I knew that, I still wanted to blurt out the truth, then sprint from the room.
I didn’t realize the investigator who had asked me the questions had followed me to the door until he reached around me to open it for me. Startled, I gasped, and he chuckled.
“Sorry about that,” he told me. “I was trying to be a gentleman, and I only made you more rattled.”
I did my best to smile at him. “Oh, thank you. I just didn’t hear you,” I explained as my voice wavered.
He leaned in just an inch closer to me. “You did good. Relax,” he reassured me as he opened the door.
I could smell his cologne; he was so close to me, and I wished he would step back. The sick stomach I had from the entire experience required fresh air, not that overpowering scent.
When the door was completely open, I started to hurry into the hall, but the sight of Rome leaning against the opposite wall caused me to pause. His green eyes went from me to the officer behind me. There was the slightest twitch of his jaw as he turned his gaze back to me.
“You look like you could use some sunshine and space,” he told me as he took three long strides in my direction. His large body towered over me, and he placed his hand on my lower back. “Let’s go.”
I said nothing, but I began walking when he gently nudged me forward. The area where his hand touched me felt as if it were sizzling with electricity. Removing his hand or at least stepping away from his touch would be the smart thing to do, but it seemed, even as an adult who knew better, I just couldn’t do the smart thing when Rome was involved.
He dropped his hand when we reached the stairs and made a gesture for me to go first. Neither of us spoke as we went down the stairs, me in front of him.
I needed fresh air. That was the only reason I was going with him. Or at least, that was what I told myself. It seemed I wasn’t so bad at lying to myself. It was others I struggled with.
At the bottom, I hesitated, not sure if he meant for me to go outside alone or if he was going too. And if he was, did I want to continue the conversation that had ended last night when he walked out of the bedroom?
Before I could delve too much further into that thought, a woman—the one who had walked out of his room, naked, yesterday morning—came strutting out of the red door that led to the kitchen in a black halter top and shorts, which didn’t cover much more than a pair of panties. Rome’s hand returned to my lower back, and I glanced from her to him. If he’d noticed her— and I didn’t know how he could not—he wasn’t acting like it.
He tilted his chin forward. “This way,” he told me.
“Tex!” the female called out.
His hand felt more like a flame than a sizzle now, one that I’d allowed too close, and I knew it was going to burn me if I didn’t put distance between us.
He didn’t respond to her, although her voice had rung out loud and clear. Instead, he began walking, and I had no choice but to go with him or be pushed. The veins in his neck stood out, and I knew he was clenching his teeth. He only did that when he was angry and trying to control it or…or…when he was inside me.
God, that image was one I had tried so hard not to think about for a very long time.
“Tex!” she called again, and I could hear the heels of her stilettos against the hardwood floor as she hurried in our direction.
He might have no issue ignoring her, but I did. Sure, I was jealous of her. There, I’d admitted it. She’d had the man, whereas I’d had the boy. But to walk off as if she were invisible was rude.
I stopped walking and stared up at him. “Aren’t you going to acknowledge her?” I asked in a clipped tone.
He raised his eyebrows as his pale green eyes lowered to mine and then shook his head slightly. “I’d rather not.”
But he had no problem screwing her and then shoving her out of his room without clothes on. I opened my mouth to say just that, even knowing it was something I shouldn’t because it would make it sound like I cared about who he screwed. However, the woman reached us, and her long fluorescent-pink nails with rhinestones on them caught my attention as she grabbed his arm. I felt his entire body tense as his hand flexed against my skin.
“Tex,” she said in a breathy whine, “I was coming to see you.”
Her eyes cut to me sharply, and the sultry smile she’d been giving him faltered.
If looks could kill, she’d have me splayed out on the floor.
“What do you need, Nixie?”
The annoyance in his tone made me wince. She might not like me and would like to strangle me with her bare hands, but she didn’t deserve that. He could be nicer to her. She was young. Too young, in my opinion. If she was of legal drinking age, I’d be surprised. But then he’d mentioned my being old right away. It seemed he didn’t like them after they hit full adulthood. The thought soured my mood further.
“I miss you.” She pouted.
“That’s an issue you will have to work out yourself.” He dropped his eyes back to me. “Come on,” he said, then began leading me, this time forcing me to move toward the door with him.
I was reluctant, but I also didn’t want to make a scene.
“That’s it then?” she asked, sounding almost hysterical.
He didn’t respond.
“TEX!” she cried out.
He muttered a curse word under his breath, but he did stop.
I waited as he turned back around toward her.
“Nixie, learn when you’ve been dismissed. And never use that tone of voice with me again, or you’ll be looking for a new job.” The warning in his tone made me shiver.
Her eyes widened as her bottom lip trembled, but she nodded.
We were moving once again, and a quick study of his face was one of mild irritation, but not the fury that I’d heard in his voice.
He stepped to the side of me and unlocked the bolts, all three of them, and then the doorknob itself before turning it and pushing the heavy metal door open. The instant warmth and sun washed over me as I stepped outside.
“My bike is over here,” he said, leading me toward several parked bikes to the right of the building.
Why were we going to his bike? I decided I’d stop now. He didn’t get to lead me around like a child. I wasn’t that girl inside, ready to do his bidding, and I wasn’t going to follow wherever he told me to.
“I don’t need to see your bike. I’ve already seen it. With the girl inside, Nixie, sitting on the back of it. Remember? It was just a couple of days ago.”
Yep. That had sounded snarky. I’d opened my mouth to say no thanks , and that had come out instead. No filter for me, it seemed.
He sighed as he studied me for a moment. I held his gaze, not backing down now. I’d said it, so I was going to own it.
“I thought you’d like some fresh air. Get out for a while. Take a ride.”
Getting out for any amount of time sounded wonderful. Sitting on the back of Rome’s bike, pressed against him as I held on, sounded like…a choice I would regret. I didn’t know how to respond, and I feared if I opened my mouth, I would blurt out the incorrect response.
“Salem…”
The sound of my name in his gravelly sent goose bumps over my skin, although there wasn’t even a hint of a chill in the air today.
“You’re here for an indefinite amount of time. I don’t want to pretend like you’re someone I don’t fucking know. I’m not asking you to straddle me and fuck me on it.” His mouth quirked, as if he knew, at those words, the memory of when I’d done just that was flashing in my head.
Damn you, Rome.
“I just want to take you for a ride. We both need to get away.”
I swallowed hard, then licked my lips, uncertain. “I thought it wasn’t safe for me to leave…this place,” I finished, not sure what to call it.
“It is with me, and we are going farther out of the city than we already are. I own some land not far from here.”
He owned land? Did it have a house too? Why did he own land if he lived here? Or did he only live here sometimes?
I knew he went to work at a strip club in Ocala often and for weeks at a time because Pepper had explained he wouldn’t be there when she talked me into coming to the bar.
I realized I did want to know things about Rome. Or Tex. The man he’d become. The one I didn’t know at all. Not like I had once.
“Okay,” I said before I could stop myself.
What would it hurt? We were going for a ride. I’d sat behind Lick and held on to him easily enough, and I hadn’t known the man at all. I had known Rome, but Tex was as much of a stranger as Lick had been.
The slow, pleased smile that stretched across his face should have been a warning. But if it was, I chose to ignore it.
“Let me get you a helmet,” he said, then walked over to a storage area only a few feet away from us.
My gaze did its own thing, not caring that it should be looking elsewhere. Instead, it drifted down the backside of Rome’s body, admiring the way his butt looked in a pair of jeans. God, I’d forgotten how sexy his walk was. Like he owned the place and he knew it. No matter where he was or what he was doing, his stride and body language exuded self-confidence.
When he turned back around, he held a black helmet in his hands, much like the one I’d worn on Lick’s bike. I wasn’t sure if I had snapped my gaze up fast enough, but I hoped so. The last thing I wanted was for him to catch me looking at his ass.
The Rome from my teenage years would have winked and asked me if I was enjoying my view.
I’d have laughed and replied, Very much so.
“This should fit,” he told me. “And the only other person who’s used it was Micah’s ole lady, Dolly. Before he bought her the pink one at least.”
I remembered seeing the pink helmet on her when we’d all ridden from the parking lot next to Pepper’s bar.
“Thanks.”
I reached to take it, and he ignored that, then went to put it on me like I was a child.
“I know how to fasten a bike helmet.”
That didn’t stop him.
He smirked and continued, “Maybe, but I want to make sure the strap is tight enough and it’s a good fit.”
As nice as that was of him, it played with my head’s and body’s reactions to his nearness. When he did things like this, it triggered too many memories that had been locked away. I fought the urge to step back and run inside, away from him. Remembering was territory that made me vulnerable. I didn’t ever want to be that weak again. That easy to destroy. There would be no Eamon to pick me up, dust me off, and stand by me, refusing to give up, no matter how hard I pulled away or closed down on him.
This is what I told you to do. His voice was in my head, and this time, I hadn’t put it there.
What?
Don’t pretend like you didn’t hear me. We both know you did, my blue-eyed girl.
I shoved that away, refusing to have that internal conversation with my deceased husband.
He hadn’t known what he was talking about in those last words he said to me. The guilt that had come with them would eat me alive.