Chapter 5
Xan
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were flirting with me,” I taunted, solely because I couldn’t help but push Shane’s buttons.
Shane was always cool, calm, and collected.
Never stepped out of the carefully drawn box he’d placed himself in.
Never lashed out. Never let his temper get the best of him.
Yet I had him on edge. I was slowly erasing the lines he’d drawn around himself and leading him out of his comfort zone, leading him out of where he was safe.
Sure, was I a bit of a fool to push him?
Fuck yeah, I was, but I just couldn’t goddamn help myself.
Not when he looked so fucking hot when he was getting angry with me.
He stayed silent, not rising to the bait, but there was a gleam in his eyes that told me I was treading on very thin ice.
And like the fearless son of a bitch I was, I skated across that mother fucker just to see if I could find the weak spot that would send me crashing into the freezing cold water.
“You’re telling me you really don’t want a taste?
” I asked, taking a step forward to erase the remaining distance between us.
I cocked my head to the side, studying him much in the same way he was studying me.
“Ex-military. Ex-Special Ops, at that,” I mused.
His jaw tightened. “Kept yourself locked down tight. Stayed in line. Never strayed. Took out people whose families and governments would put a target on your head if they only knew who you were. But it all ended when you got in a car accident and fucked up your back. Multiple surgeries later, and here you are. A mere tattoo artist pretending to be a fucking civilian when we both know you can never truly take the cold-blooded killer out of you.”
“How the fuck do you know any of that?” he growled, his mask slipping, and there he was. The hitman I’d wanted to catch a glimpse of. And fuck, what a beautiful monster he was.
“I have friends in low places, too, Ghost,” I said, emphasizing his call sign. “There’s nothing I can’t find out. I’ve been stalking you for weeks now. You haven’t noticed?”
His nostrils flared, anger burning in his gaze. There it was again. Fuck, he was beautiful when he was pissed. Looked like he wanted to filet me open and see what my insides looked like. And the sadistic part of me wanted to let him just so I could feel him inside of me.
“You could die for knowing this,” he rumbled, keeping his voice low. “Do you know that, X?”
I nodded. “Death has never scared me,” I confessed. “So bring your best, Ghost.”
He smirked then, like he suddenly held all the cards. My smile dropped, and I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what he suddenly knew.
“You might not fear death, X, but can you survive losing your little toy?” I gritted my teeth, knowing he was referring to Preston, and that was crossing a fucking line.
I didn’t give a fuck that I was obsessed with Shane and started this whole thing.
Preston was off fucking limits. “Looked like you and the handsome man who came to see you after your tattoo was complete were awfully cozy. How would you feel about him disappearing? Might teach you a lesson to keep your fucking eyeballs to yourself.”
My hand latched around his throat faster than either of us could blink, but while I was an underground fighter, he was a trained soldier who knew only to go for the kill.
He knocked my hand aside, latched his long fingers around my wrist, spun me around, and slammed me face first against the massive oak tree to the left of us.
His forearm pressed to the back of my neck, pinning me in place.
“Do not ever think you can get one up on me,” he hissed in my ear. “I’ll slit your fucking throat before you can even fucking blink.”
“You keep your fucking hands off Preston,” I snarled, bucking back against him, but he was too goddamn strong, and he had me at just the right angle that my movement was limited.
Letting him get the upper hand on me was a rookie fucking mistake, one I knew better than to allow happen.
This kind of mistake would get me killed in the fucking ring.
“Then I suggest you watch your back and keep your fucking mouth shut,” he quietly snapped.
“And keep your fucking distance, X. Or I swear to fuck, I’ll make you watch as I get rid of your little boyfriend before I eliminate you, too.
” Then, he pushed away from me and turned, calmly striding back toward the tattoo shop like nothing had happened.
Like he hadn’t just threatened to end my life.
To end Preston’s life.
I might have been obsessed with Shane fucking Vernon, but if he came after Preston, I was going to slice him apart into so many little pieces, the coroner would never find all of his pieces. Like Humpty Dumpty, he would never be put back together again.
When I got home, Preston was asleep on the couch, the TV playing some cooking show. When Preston wasn’t watching boy love dramas, he watched cooking shows, and he loved trying out some of the things they cooked. And I got to eat everything, so it was a win-win situation.
I didn’t bother him as I headed for the bathroom, stripping out of my clothes on the way. The water was still freezing cold when I stepped beneath the spray, but it helped clear my head and regain focus, bleeding away some of the cold-blooded rage I was experiencing.
I hadn’t expected Shane to threaten an innocent.
Me, yes. I saw that coming a mile a-fucking-way.
But Preston? Sweet, loving, kind Preston, who would never harm a fly, much less an actual human being?
He was off-fucking-limits. But Shane had seen a way to get under my skin, and he’d fucking taken it.
I’d keep my distance for a few days, even though I didn’t want to.
I’d give the son of a bitch time to cool down and fall back into his neat little box.
But then, I was coming in full speed ahead.
Preston had said no to kidnapping, but I could do something similar, couldn’t I?
After all, Preston’s life was now at stake.
Breaking into Shane’s little apartment above the tattoo shop and trapping him in his own bed until he caved wouldn’t be so bad if it meant I was protecting Preston, would it? Besides, by the time I was done with Shane, not only would Preston be safe, but Shane would be ours.
And that was always the end goal.