Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
“Why do I hunt killers? Someone has to do it. I’m good at the job. And maybe…maybe I like hunting them. Guess that makes me just as much of a predator, huh?”
– Gray Stone
Gray shut the front door and glared at the man who’d just entered his home. “I’m going to kill you,” he told him, the words coming out as an angry snarl.
Cassius Striker quirked a brow. “Is that any way to talk to family?”
Gray grabbed him. Shoved him against the nearest wall. “Watch it.”
Cassius—Cass—blinked. Then his brown eyes narrowed. That sharp stare swept over Gray’s features. Then he smiled. “Sneaky SOB, am I interrupting you, again?” Laughter hummed beneath the words. “Are you busy with that hot new partner of yours?”
Gray heard the faint click of a door opening. His bedroom door. Hell. His eyes closed for just a moment. “She can’t follow orders for shit.” He didn’t let go of Cass just yet. “Watch what you say with her.”
“Why? Don’t think the sexy partner can handle some painful truths?”
Gray shoved him harder against the wall. “First, she can handle anything. Second, you don’t get to notice that she’s sexy.”
“When she comes down the hallway naked, I sure as hell do.”
Naked? No, no, no, no. Gray let him go and whipped around because he had, indeed, left Emerson naked in the bedroom. If she was walking toward him naked, if Cass was seeing every beautiful inch of her?—
Cass burst into laughter.
And Emerson crept forward. Fully dressed once again, minus her high heels, but sexily disheveled as she stared at Gray and gripped—holy hell, Emerson had his back-up weapon in her hand. The weapon he’d left in his top nightstand drawer.
“Heard you threatening to kill someone,” Emerson announced as she sent a frown toward the laughing Cass. “Thought you might need backup.”
Cass’s laughter stopped. Probably because he’d just spotted the gun that she held. “Uh, Gray?” He cleared his throat. “How about tell her that I’m not here as a threat? Get the pretty lady to put down the big gun.”
Gray pursed his lips. Maybe he should let Cass sweat it out a bit.
“I forgot that the two of you had plans to meet tonight.” Emerson’s brisk voice. “What with everything else that happened, I let that slip my mind. I should have realized when your doorbell rang that he was coming to follow up on that chat in the alley.”
“You told her I was coming?” Cass’s surprise was clear.
“No, I damn well didn’t.” Gray advanced on Emerson. “What do you mean, you forgot? I didn’t tell you anything about our meeting.”
She lowered the gun. Carefully placed it on a nearby table. Her hair wasn’t in its normal smooth style. Instead, it was tousled. Her cheeks held a hint of color. Her lips were still swollen from his mouth. Dead sexy. He wanted to punch Cass for even staring at her.
But her words had distracted him, for the moment.
“You know sign language,” Emerson said. She put her hands behind her back. Rocked forward. Didn’t add anything else.
He waited.
There was still nothing else added. “And…?” Gray prompted.
She shrugged. “And I’ve been watching your hands extra closely since I realized that important fact.
Sign language is a great way for you to communicate with others if you want to send a message but make certain you don’t leave a verbal trail.
But while you can’t overhear sign language, you can see it, if you’re paying close enough attention. ”
“I didn’t sign anything with Cass.” He was certain of that fact.
“No.” Her gaze slid past him, to a Cass who was still standing near the front wall.
“But he did. Didn’t know what the movement meant at first. Had to look it up on my phone.
” Then she mimicked the quick sign that Cass had made near O’Sullivan’s, bringing her hands up with her index fingers extended.
“‘Meet,’ right? ‘Meet me,’ perhaps? You didn’t have the sign for ‘later’ included, but I figured that part was understood.
You told Gray that you intended to meet up with him later. And it’s later.”
Cass gave a low whistle.
“He looks like you,” Emerson mused as she cocked her head slightly to the right.
“Same jawline. Hair has the same texture, even if the color is a bit different. Eyes are different, too, but the cheekbones are the same. The resemblance is probably why he felt so familiar to me. Guessing he’s a relative?
Not a motorcycle gang leader, after all? ”
It took a lot to surprise Gray in this world. But Emerson just ticking off her facts when he’d kept this particular secret for ages? Shit. Am I just sloppy where she is concerned? Was he not on his guard enough?
But it had been Cass’s mistake. Hadn’t it?
Hell.
Cass ambled toward her while Gray remained rooted to the spot. Cass stopped about a foot away from Emerson. Took her measure. “Sweetness…”
She stiffened. “Trust me, I am not your sweetness.”
No, she fucking belongs to me.
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Where in the hell had that savagely possessive thought just come from? Because she was his partner?
Uh, nah. Gray’s chin lifted even as Cass cut him a quick glance. It came from the fact that I just had her coming against my mouth. “Not yours,” Gray repeated flatly.
“Someone sounds possessive. Which is new. And vaguely concerning.” Cass’s brows climbed.
“Gray, come on, man. It’s me. You and I both know that you are not about to bare all with her.
I mean, sure, you’ll fuck her. So I guess you’ll be baring all that way.
But you won’t take her into your confidence.
Partner or not.” He motioned dismissively toward Emerson.
“So how about you direct your partner back to the bedroom and then we can get down to confidential business?”
Gray focused on Emerson. Her face had gone doll blank. All emotion gone, but he knew Cass’s words had hurt her.
Cass could be an asshole.
It was a family trait.
He elbowed Cass out of the way. Cass, who was Gray’s size. Who had his same build and temperament but had gone down a different path in life.
“By the way, new partner,” Cass rasped, “I can be both family and a gang leader. Haven’t you ever heard of a family’s black sheep?”
Her eyes weren’t on Cass. They were on Gray. He could see that she’d shielded herself. As if she expected him to take Cass’s side. To tell her that this was not her affair, even after he’d had her coming beneath him moments before.
“I came out to protect you,” she told Gray with careful dignity.
His chest ached. “I appreciate that.” His head inclined toward her. “Thank you, Emerson.”
“You think I don’t ever follow orders.”
Could she be more adorable? “I know you don’t.”
“Tell me to walk away. I will.”
“Yeah,” Cass muttered. “I need to get down to business. Don’t have all night. Time’s ticking. My bike is stashed around the corner, and I had to sneak around to make sure no nosy neighbors spotted me.”
Gray caught Emerson’s hand. Rubbed his fingers over her knuckles. “Emerson, don’t you dare walk away. You stay with me.”
Her eyes widened.
Maybe that was a bit too intense. Screw it. Her taste was still on his tongue, and if his annoying visitor hadn’t been there, he would be buried so deep in her that they’d both be lost to paradise. “Cass is my cousin.”
“What the hell?” Cass exploded. “Look, man, there is her guessing, and then there is you confessing. Big difference.”
He kept staring into Emerson’s eyes. Those incredible eyes. Had he ever told her how bewitching he thought they were? “He’s also a gang leader, so, yeah, just know that family or not, he’s trouble. Dangerous to his core.”
“Aw, thanks for that,” Cass told him. “I’m flattered. Means the world coming from you.” A brief pause. “Why are we over sharing with her? Want to explain that?”
He already had. Gray tugged Emerson closer. “Because she’s my partner.”
“Yeah, got that.”
He angled his body a bit toward Cass. “She’s going undercover with me on the case you insisted that I take.”
“Again, got that. Still doesn’t mean you give out secrets to her that you haven’t shared with anyone else. I mean, the next thing I know, you’ll be sharing with her about—” But he broke off. Because there were lines Cass would never cross, and Gray knew it.
So Gray crossed the lines for him. “Sharing with her about my bastard father? Been there, done that.”
“Oh, shit.” Cass’s gaze swung to Emerson, and he was suddenly looking at her in a way different light. “Partner.”
“Right,” Gray told him grimly. “Now why the hell are you here? This meeting is unnecessary.” And a bit reckless. Especially after the public showing outside of O’Sullivan’s. “I told you already, I’m taking the case. I’ll find out who killed Anzo and Kim. I will make the perp pay.”
Cass was still staring at Emerson, though now he eyed her more like she was a bug under a microscope.
Gray waved his fingers in front of Cass. “Yo.”
Cass slanted him a frown.
“There more intel you want to give me? That why you showed up tonight?”
“Wanted to meet tonight…” He rolled back his shoulders. “Because this bastard can’t just go free, Gray.”
Hell. He’d feared this. “Cass, I’m going to get him dead to rights. He won’t be seeing the light of day again.” But he worried that wouldn’t be enough to satisfy Cass. Cass had been walking deeper and deeper into the darkness lately.
“You alert me when you have him in your sights. I can handle things after that. I just need his location.” Cass smiled, all innocence. Except Cass had never done innocence particularly well.
Then again, neither had Gray.
“There’s playing a role,” Gray reminded him flatly, “and there is sinking straight into the dark and never surfacing again. Don’t forget who you are.”
Cass backed up a step. “You really are sharing all with her, aren’t you?” He jerked a thumb toward Emerson. “You might trust her to keep your confidences, but I don’t trust her with mine.”