13. Grayson
GRAYSON
As if I needed to make things more complicated.
I watched the sunrise through the bedroom window. The world came to life slowly, the sky brightening, the trees coming into focus as rays of light painted them deep green. Birds twittered cheerfully without a care in the world.
And through it all, Scarlet slept, her head heavy on my chest. Every breath she took tickled my skin. Once in a while, she murmured in her sleep, but the steady rhythm of her breathing didn’t change. I had tired her out.
What the fuck was wrong with me? I did exactly what I told myself I wouldn’t.
What was worse, I loved it. Letting go, I poured all of my hate, regret, and rage into her.
She gathered every shard of it, each broken piece, and shaped it into something heartbreakingly beautiful—a connection. She wanted to be close to me.
Which made me exactly the monster I told myself I would never be because I knew that was no good. I would only hurt her. I didn’t have it in me to be the man she needed.
And now that I’d had her, I didn’t know how to let go.
Eventually, I had to, in the literal sense.
The alarm clock on the nightstand read seven thirty by the time I had no choice but to gently raise her away from me long enough to slide out from under her. She barely moved.
Why did it have to be so easy to stare at her? The morning light painted her face, turning her skin to bronze. There was now a thin strip of blonde running down the part in her hair that made me wish she had never dyed it dark so I could enjoy its golden gleam.
This isn’t about you, asshole. Pulling the blankets over her, I grabbed jeans and a shirt and headed for the bathroom to get dressed after washing up. She needed all the rest she could get. There was a long day ahead of her.
The news about Jack had made certain things crystal clear.
I needed to get her out of here, far away, before doing everything in my power to fuck up Dominic’s world.
I was going to hurt him, and I was going to enjoy it in a way I hadn’t enjoyed anything in much too long.
Not even the fresh memory of her fluttering pussy milking me dry topped the thought of making him suffer.
She couldn’t be around for that.
Drake had his orders to expedite the arrangements. I’d told him last night to have something ready this morning, come hell or high water.
The gnawing feeling in my gut refused to leave me alone.
I couldn’t stomach the idea of never seeing her again, especially after last night.
This would have been difficult enough without the knowledge of what it felt like to be inside her and the sweet taste of her skin or the sounds she made as she gave in to ecstasy, how completely she trusted me, and how deeply she slept in my arms.
My dick twitched at the memory, which I pushed aside in favor of brewing coffee and making breakfast. By the time the bacon was crisp, and the eggs were frying, soft footsteps rang out behind me. “Good morning.”
I looked over my shoulder and was relieved to see she’d put on clothes, not that it was easy to forget the way she looked without them.
She ran a hand through her hair, teeth grazing her lip like she was nervous.
It was touching. “Good morning. Thought I’d treat you after you’ve fed me all this time. ”
“It smells amazing. Thank you.” Her gaze was like a butterfly landing on me before darting away again, then returning for another brief moment as she poured coffee. “I’m sorry I passed out on top of you.”
“Don’t be.” When was the last time I had to suffer through a morning-after conversation with a woman? I didn’t normally stick around until morning. This was why.
Eating gave us something to do. I couldn’t help drinking in the sight of her, knowing there wouldn’t be much more of this.
The fact that she was forbidden made her that much more appealing.
Last night was a mistake, but I’d be damned if I could make myself feel sorry.
I knew I should, but the feeling wasn’t there.
Though I made it a point to keep space between us, I couldn’t run the risk of making contact and forgetting what needed to be done today. And touching her always seemed to make me forget everything, but touching her again.
She was gathering the empty plates when I got up to grab my laptop from the coffee table in the living room.
“Could you find something to do in the bedroom for a while? Or on the porch? I have a call to make,” I explained, powering up the machine.
“Normally, we’d talk over the phone, but Drake is already sending documents via our in-house network.
If we’re both going to be on anyway, I’d like to have a little face-to-face time. It’s been too long since I was around.”
I looked away from the laptop to find her frowning. Some of the light left her eyes as they searched my face. “I don’t get to hear what’s happening?”
“The less you know, the better.”
Arching an eyebrow, she spat, “Excuse me, but that’s bullshit. How can there be anything good about me not knowing what happens next? Maybe you think you’re doing me a favor, but you aren’t.”
I saw the truth behind her words, even if it was inconvenient. “You might hear things you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
“I don’t care. What, do you think I’m a child?”
No. Certainly not. She was a woman in every sense.
A woman who, even now, when she pushed my dwindling patience to its limits, made me yearn to forget everything I needed to do today and spend hours ravishing her.
Her taste still lingered on my tongue after I’d indulged in her musky sweetness, her scent locked permanently in my memory. I wanted more.
She wouldn’t have stopped me, either. Knowing she wanted it, too, made resistance that much more of a struggle.
How did I know? The way she kept staring at my mouth and the longing in her eyes.
The tip of her tongue ran across the seam of her lips, and I could barely stifle a groan.
Why the fuck couldn’t I have met her before Dominic had?
“I know you aren’t a child,” I grunted, snapping her attention away from my mouth. Fuck me, now she was looking me in the eye the way she did last night while I was on top of her, while we—
“Fine,” I decided, sitting in front of the laptop.
Anything to break the tension of the moment and focus my thoughts again.
She dropped into the chair across from me while I connected to the private network one of my techs had set up years ago for secure communication.
Drake was waiting, already logged in by the time I called him.
Moments later, his face filled the screen.
He was bleary-eyed, a man who’d been working overtime researching likely areas for Scarlet’s relocation.
“I have our friend here with me,” I explained before he could say anything.
No, she wasn’t a child, but there were still certain things she didn’t need to hear, like details his contacts might have picked up about Jack.
The thought of him lying on a slab was a punch to the gut. Later, think about it later.
“Gotcha.” He cleared his throat, and there was a definite change in his voice when he spoke again.
“Everything is in place. All documents have been processed, travel arrangements are finalized. She is ready to go.” He knew better than to reveal anything more than that.
We took every precaution, but there was no such thing as being too careful.
The strangled sound that came from her made me look away from Drake. Stricken, she wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed them briskly, wide-eyed, haunted.
“Excellent news,” I murmured as my heart sank. Sure, it was for the best, getting her out of town and taking her protection off my already overloaded plate, but I didn’t have to like it.
I did, however, have to pretend I did for her sake. I didn’t matter in all of this. “I want two men out here as soon as possible to escort her. At that point, I’ll be on my way back. We can discuss the next steps when I arrive.”
“Good enough.” He paused, his brows drawing together. “There’s something else. I got a call to the main number from the medical examiner. It looks like you were listed as next of kin under Jack Meadows’ pension benefits, so they tracked you down.”
Not now. Later, not now. I couldn’t let the feelings in. Pressure already filled my chest and threatened to split my skull. Later, when everything was over.
I swallowed back the burning coal lodged in my throat. “He didn’t have a family. Married to his job, that kind of thing.” That didn’t mean I knew I was his next of kin.
He shifted a little uncomfortably. “They’re looking for someone to claim the body. I’m sorry, but I thought you should know.”
“I’ll have to handle that when I come back.
Thanks for the heads-up.” My thirst for blood was more intense than ever.
I gripped the table’s edge with both hands, silently withstanding the swirling funnel cloud tearing its way through me.
Scarlet, Jack, all of it threatened to blow me apart.
“Give me a call when the guys are on the road.”
“Will do.” A look of relief washed over his face before he ended the call, leaving me sitting in profound silence while Scarlet stared daggers at me.
“When were you going to tell me this was happening so soon?” she whispered.
“Soon? We’ve been here more than a week now,” I reminded her, my tone brisk as I pulled up the information Drake sent.
It was all in place. She’d receive a new set of papers and cards once my men arrived, and they would escort her on a chartered jet to a small town in Maryland.
I would never see her again, but she would be safe there. Safe was all that mattered.
“Dammit, you know what I mean!” Her voice quivered with emotion as she stood the way I did. “Grayson, how can you send me away? I told you I’m not interested in starting a new life.”
“I’m not interested in what you’re interested in,” I shouted back, watching pain etch itself across her forehead. It was necessary. She could hate me all she wanted. She had to go.
“That’s it? It’s that simple?“ She threw her hands into the air before a soft whimper bubbled out from her throat. “You’re just going to send me away?”
“That’s not what this is about. I’m doing it to keep you safe.”
“Safe? Is there such a thing?”
“That’s the point,” I reminded her through gritted teeth.
My emotions were much too close to the surface, and she insisted on pushing me further.
“He is not going to find you. You are going to take the documents when they get here, you’re going to grab the money you receive, and you’re going to go. Far away.”
“And if I say no?”
“Scarlet, so fucking help me,” I warned, closing my eyes. “You’re pushing me too far. This has to stop.”
Did she listen? Of course not.
“I am through with letting other people decide for me. Don’t you get it? I’m not running away.”
A deep breath did nothing to cool the fire making its way through my veins. Opening my eyes to find hers filling with tears, I explained, “That’s not what this is. Protecting your life is not running away. It’s making the smart decision.”
She wrapped her arms around her trembling body, lowering her head until she stared at the floor. My arms ached to hold and comfort her, but I didn’t dare. “Maybe it would’ve felt that way if I didn’t know anything else about what he’s capable of,” she whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, he killed your friend. I mean, he’s going to be after you now.
” Her head lifted, a tear dripping from her chin and landing on her chest. “I am tired of him winning. He gets his way no matter what it takes. Running away would be the same as telling him it’s all right to do what he did. It is not all right.”
If only I couldn’t see her point. “Do you understand the additional resources that would go into keeping you safe if you don’t go away?” I asked, searching for a plausible excuse. “How I couldn’t worry only about myself if I had to worry about you too?”
“There’s a pretty simple way to get around that. You don’t have to protect me.”
“Fuck that,” I spat, gratified to see her head snap back. “Not going to happen.”
Her chin lifted as a defiant gleam touched her teary hazel eyes. “That’s your choice, isn’t it? And this is mine. If you drug me and put me on a plane, I’ll come back. You can’t throw me away.” The tears spilled over before she covered her face with her hands.
The fight drained from me, leaving no choice but to round the table and wrap my arms around her.
“Is that what you think?” I asked, holding her head against my chest while she shuddered from the force of her sobs.
It wasn’t easy fighting back the rage that still bubbled so close to the surface, rage she hadn’t caused.
I used to be better at it, but Dominic had erased years of work on my temper by murdering the man who convinced me to get it under control.
It wasn’t Scarlet’s fault either way. I had to remember that. She was innocent. I had no right to vent my anger at her.
Once I had a handle on myself, I murmured, “I’m doing whatever I can think of to get you away from all of this.
It’s going to get ugly. He might work harder than ever to find you and make me pay for betraying him.
” The idea made my arms tighten protectively even as my blood began to boil all over again.
“Control yourself. Once you master that temper, you can do anything.” Jack’s wise words came back to me and forced me to take a few deep, calming breaths.
“There has to be somewhere I can hide, right? Somewhere close.” Lifting her head from my now-soaked chest, her reddened eyes searched my face for answers. “I could be halfway around the world, but I wouldn’t feel safe without you.
Somehow, she knew exactly the right words to use, words that stirred every protective instinct I possessed. I stroked her hair, my mind racing.
Is there another way? Someplace already guarded with security cameras everywhere and men patrolling in shifts?
Of course there was.
I was going to owe Vaughn a big favor for this.