Chapter Thirty-One
“L ast one,” T alon murmured as he used the plier things and took the final staple out. “All done, darlin’.” He set the tool down and turned my chair back to face his. His green eyes roamed over my face. “I can definitely see it.”
I blushed under his scrutiny. Blond hair, muscles, and the way he smelled like the beach and coconuts, he was gorgeous. But he wasn’t Sawyer. “See what?”
“Why Playboy’s got it so bad.” He winked at me without smiling. “But I’m missing somethin’.”
I dropped my gaze. “He doesn’t have it bad.” I did, or I had, until I’d stupidly, stupidly begged him for sex in the shower.
“Now you’re blushin’ even harder.” Talon chuckled, tossing stuff back in his first aid kit. Then he tipped my chin. “For real, you good?”
“Yes.” No.
Lacing his hands and resting his arms on his legs, he leaned toward me and dropped his voice. “Know what I figured out a little too late in life?”
“What?”
“Talkin’ helps.”
Touching the back of my neck, I avoided his gaze and lied again, “Besides thank you, I have nothing to say.”
Slow, not taking his gaze off me, he nodded. “Okay, well, not judgin’, but a woman who asks me to get her away from her man only to play hide the sausage with him six dead bodies later probably has at least one somethin’ to say.”
I was both all at once mortified and angry, and my anxiety bled out all over Sawyer’s friend. “He’s not my man, and he doesn’t want me. He made that perfectly clear.” I made to stand. “So you can tell him to go… go jump off a cliff.”
Talon took my wrist, the same wrist Sawyer had held, and pulled me back down. “Sit,” he commanded, being just as bossy as his jerk of a friend.
“I don’t have to do what you say,” I snapped, fighting tears and a coming tide of emotions I had desperately packed away, not to mention the emotions that had made me run from Sawyer’s penthouse in the first place.
“No, you don’t have to do what I say,” he conceded. “And I’m not gonna tell you one way or another how to manage your love life, darlin’, but I am gonna tell you you’re dead wrong.” He let go of my wrist, only to take my hand. “A man doesn’t get spittin’ mad when a woman he cares nothin’ for walks out. You hear me?” He squeezed my hand. “Savatier cares, darlin’. A whole lot.”
Tears welled, threatening to let loose. “You’re wrong.” Sawyer didn’t forgive me for lying to him about being married. I got that. He probably had all sorts of women lie to him to get his attention. And I’d been no better, but in my mind, I wasn’t seeing anyone. My marriage was over, and I knew that, I just hadn’t had the strength to move on yet.
“I’m so right, there ain’t no room for wrong.” Talon’s thumb stroked over my hand. “So do with that information what you will. I’m not here to play matchmaker. But I do have another concern, one that’s got even me worried.”
“What?” I asked, barely holding it together.
He stared at me for a moment. Then his Southern accent disappeared. “You saw a lot of violence tonight, more than most people see in a lifetime. That’s going to play on your conscience.”
“They shot first,” I blurted, telling him the thought I’d been chanting over and over as I desperately tried to stuff every single second of the past hour down deep where I didn’t have to think about it. “They were going to kill me.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes, they were.”
The shoddy wall holding all my emotions in started to crack. “I’m alive.” My voice shook.
“Yes, you are.”
My voice dropped to a whisper. “It was justified.”
“Yes, it was.”
A tear escaped and spilled over. “I didn’t pull the trigger.”
“No, you didn’t. I did, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Tears started flowing freely, but he wasn’t finished.
“So would Savatier, so would all of us here today.” He took my hand in both of his. “We were all trained to protect, and that’s what we did. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
I couldn’t swallow past the lump in my throat. “It was all my fault,” I sobbed. “I pulled his mask off!”
A man who smelled like the ocean pulled me into his arms. “No, none of it was your fault.”
I cried harder. I didn’t even hear the front door open.
“What the hell did you do to her?” Sawyer barked.
Talon eased back, but he held my arm and ignored Sawyer as his Southern accent came rushing back. “You remember what I said, darlin’.” He stood and tipped his chin at Sawyer. “No time like the present to man up, Playboy.” Grabbing his medical kit, Talon walked toward the front door.
Eyebrows drawn together, jaw set, Sawyer glared after Talon. “I need her stuff.”
“Already in Patrol’s ride,” Talon threw over his shoulder before opening the door and walking out.
Sawyer watched Talon leave before looking back at me. “Why were you in his arms?” he accused.
It was as if a switch had been flipped.
The foster girl who married Brian was gone, and the girl in the diner who owned her own business and told Sawyer Savatier’s supermodel ex-girlfriend off came out. “For real? You’re going to stand there and ask me that? After what happened outside? After everything ?” I stood. “You know what, forget it. Forget you .” I pushed my way around him. “Talon!”
“You’re still married,” he ground out.
The weight of humiliation slammed into my chest and I spun. “I’m separated, big difference. Get over yourself!”
“There is no—”
“No.” I held my hand up. “Don’t you dare. You were there in that shower as much as I was, and I’m not going to let you turn me into some villain or into some… some… bad person like those… those…” I hit a wall. The breadth of my emotional tolerance stretched to the very last shred of dignity I had left, and a sob, half mortification, half nervous breakdown, and all frustration broke free. “Carjackers,” I managed.
“This isn’t about a carjacking!” he roared.
I lost it. “How easy for you to say,” I yelled back. “You didn’t get staples, you didn’t get shot at, you didn’t get locked up for five days while crazy-scary gang members hunted you down. You have no idea what it’s like!” As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized what a complete jerk I was. Of course he knew. He knew what every one of those things was like.
But I wasn’t taking it back.
Not one word.
I yanked open the front door of the house I almost died in just as Talon was getting in his Challenger. “Talon!”