Chapter Fifteen #2
I jerked back. “No.”
His hand moved back, his fingers weaving through my hair, gripping it tightly as he forced my neck to arch. “Answer me,” he ordered.
I scoffed, trying to brush it off. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It is to me.”
He wasn’t going to let this go. Suddenly, I felt like I was being studied through the lens of a microscope, every fiber of my being on display for him and him alone. My voice dropped to a trembling whisper, laced with doubt. “Why?”
“Because you’re you.”
“That’s not—”
“Why did you let me in?” he seethed, shaking me gently, baring his teeth. “Why did you let your walls fall down for me last night? Why did you beg me to hold you while you cried halfway through your story, Margo? Huh? Why, after telling me that you weren’t mine, did you let me feel like you were?”
I lost it.
“Because you’re you, Hayes fucking Mitchell!
Mr. Perfect Superman! Mr. Grumpy Top Gun who can do no wrong!
That’s why I let you in! Because you’re the only person in the world who makes me feel safe in the middle of a storm.
You don’t let it drag me under. You keep me afloat.
I should hate you for the way you left me alone in my bed, for not waking me up and talking to me, but for some fucking reason, hating you is proving to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever tried to do. ”
His gaze was burning into me now, branding my soul as his chest heaved against mine.
The glimmer within his dark green pools was unfamiliar.
All I knew was that it was dangerous. And yet my mouth continued to move.
“Last night, you didn’t look at me like I was some damaged thing, a lost cause.
You still looked at me the way you’ve always looked at me,” I finished on a whisper.
“How do I look at you?” he rumbled, his voice thick.
Before the words could slip out, the shrill sound of his cell phone ringing cut through the air like a knife.
I swallowed the truth back down, ignoring how painful it felt.
“Fuck.” He dropped his arms from me and stepped back, putting his phone to his ear. “Mitchell,” he answered, his eyes cutting to me as I swung my legs out, my skin tingling. “Yeah, we’re here. On our way up now.” He ended the call, pocketed the phone, and grabbed my hand.
“No one can see the ugly parts of me. I won’t be able to survive it,” I rasped, falling into step beside him.
Nothing was said until we were in the elevator, the door falling closed as his fingers weaved through mine.
“Set your boundaries and I’ll make sure no one crosses them,” he promised.
“Grayson, can you please stop looking at me like that?” I pleaded up to him.
His piercing dark gaze didn’t falter, leaving me pinned in place, my skin covered in goose bumps.
From his cold gaze and dark hair to the scar that trailed from his temple to his neck, Grayson looked like something out of a nightmare.
Even though I knew what kind of man he was, in this moment, he scared the living shit out of me.
My body started to quake as fear cackled loudly, the horrid sound causing my ears to ring. “Please.”
Hayes’ voice surrounded me then, the warmth of it causing my shoulders to sag. “Gray, she asked you to stop. You don’t, we got problems.”
Hayes’ business partner blinked, snapping back to reality, a muscle twitching in his cheek.
He said nothing as he gave me his back and returned to his desk.
There, he braced his hands on the glass surface and dropped his head, not taking a seat.
I shot a questioning look at Hayes, who was standing on the far side of the room, arms folded over his chest, eyes on his friend.
When the elevator doors had opened only just a few minutes ago, Ash was there to greet us, and before I could even greet him, he pulled me into a tight bear hug and kissed my forehead. He assured me that Jake and Dominic wouldn’t see me until we talked to Grayson.
Which was good.
I hadn’t fully had a chance to mentally prepare myself for how these men were going to react. Granted, to them, I was just Cardinal’s friend, but the words Jake had said to me in Rossy’s last week stuck with me.
You mean something to Carrie. She means a whole lot to Grayson, and she is basically family to us—which makes you, Sarah, and the Brit family.
“When?”
My attention was back on Grayson, who was staring at me again. His gaze was softer, but his voice still possessed a cold sharpness that struck my soul. “When did this happen, Margo?”
Clasping my hands at my front, I dug my nails into the skin at the tops of my hands. “The night before last,” I answered, my voice cracking.
Grayson’s eyes turned cold once more as they swung over to Hayes. “You shitting me?” he barked.
Hayes’ face held no expression, his mask firmly in place. “I took care of her.”
“My woman’s best friend is standing in my office with a bruise on her face, shaking in her fucking Docs, and you fucking knew?” he pressed, pushing off the desk.
Hayes refused to yield. “I took care of her.”
“Mitchell, look at her!” he roared, rounding his desk.
I stumbled back at his outburst, watching in stunned horror as Grayson charged for Hayes. “You should have fucking called me the moment—”
“He kicked down my door!” I shouted.
Grayson froze, looking at me now.
Shit.
Shit.
Damn.
Fuck.
Quickly, I moved to Hayes and tried to get in front of him, but Hayes being Hayes, wasn’t having none of that.
He pulled me back and nestled me into his side.
I clung to his warmth, needing it after Grayson’s cold assessment.
“Hayes came to me yesterday and kicked down my door because he thought I was in trouble,” I rambled.
“I wasn’t then. I was just trying to shut the world out because of everything that happened And Hayes…
” I trailed off, looking up at his profile.
He was still staring straight ahead, and I knew there was nothing that could break his gaze with Grayson.
There was too much history between them.
“For what it’s worth, he and Ash replaced my door. ”
“Ash knew?” Grayson quipped.
Oh no.
“Well, he stopped by to drop my car off and saw that my door was kicked in,” I rushed out before adding, “Please don’t fire Hayes.”
“He can’t fire me, Margo. I own 50 percent of Red Snake,” Hayes deadpanned.
“Oh, right. Well, then please don’t beat Hayes up.”
“Gray isn’t stupid enough to try that shit, Temper.”
Grayson’s eyes bounced back and forth between Hayes and me. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose and tipped his head back to the ceiling. “Fucking hell. A man takes a few days off and everything goes to shit.”
Sucking my bottom lip between my teeth, I watched as the big man tried to gather himself.
“We need a debrief, Gray,” Hayes finally said.
My stomach lurched, knowing just how well that was going to go based on Grayson’s reaction.
Then he muttered something else under his breath that also scared the living shit out of me. “My woman is gonna fucking kill me.”
I shot forward then, panic shooting through my veins. “No!”
Grayson’s hand slowly fell away from his face. “What?”
My head shook and I set my boundary. “Carrie can’t know.”
“Margo, sweetheart, no offense, but you have a bruise covering nearly half your face. She’s going to notice.”
“I have tattoo cover-up at home. She won’t notice anything.” I took a step forward. “No one at work can know about this, Grayson. Please.”
“She’s your best friend,” he murmured, brow furrowed.
“Yes.”
“She cares about you.”
My eyes began to sting. “I know that.”
He tipped his head to the side, his features softening. “She needs to know.”
I shook my head. “Grayson, she can’t know. Not this. None of this can touch them.”
The temperature dropped a few degrees as something snapped into place in the bounty hunter’s mind. “Is what you’re dealing with going to put them in danger?” he asked, his voice low.
“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. I held my tongue.
There was no need to tell him about how dangerous and unhinged Gordon was.
He would hear that when the rest of his team did because there was no way in hell I was going to repeat this shit twice.
“All I know is that Carrie has been through a lot of darkness, and she just found her light again. I don’t need it dimming on account of my own shit. ”
His hands fell to his sides as his back snapped straight. “Margo—”
“Gray,” Hayes interjected calmly. “We don’t have time for this. Margo set a boundary. For right now, until she states otherwise, what is said here stays here.”
Grayson focused on his partner, and for a moment, I thought he was going to push back.
Instead, he nodded. Relief washed over me as he moved to the desk, plucked the phone off the receiver, and told everyone to meet us in the conference room in ten.
Hayes was beside me then, his hand engulfing mine as I felt his lips against my ear. “You with me?”
I nodded.
“You need a break; you say the word. Yeah?” he said gruffly.
I turned my head, finding his lips an inch from mine. “I will,” I promised.
“I assume you aren’t going to tell me what the fuck is going on between you two either.”
We turned our heads. Grayson was gathering his stuff up, shaking his head.
“Margo is under my protection,” Hayes declared.
“No shit,” Grayson clipped, walking to the door. “Come on. The sooner we get the guys caught up, the sooner we can nail this son of bitch.”
Surprisingly, Dominic didn’t have an outburst like Grayson or Ash.
No, instead, he walked in, took one look at my face, and looked at Hayes for a few moments before moving to the corner.
Nothing else was said, and the tension in the room was so thick, I could barely breathe.
Underneath the table, my knee started bouncing, the pain from my nails digging into my palms not a good enough distraction anymore.