Chapter 7 #2
“I am not in the mood for your bullshit.” Gray stomped closer to them.
“You think it’s easy making security footage of you just vanish whenever you decide to stride in this place?
Dude, what in the hell are you thinking?
” But his gaze jumped to Agnes. Or rather, to her chin.
The chin that Cass still cradled carefully in his fingers. “No, no, no.”
Cass let her go.
She backed up. Put her hands behind her back. The better to not reach out and grab Cass in front of her boss. Because that would be a very bad move.
“Since when are you touching my agent?” Gray demanded of Cass. “Since when are you rushing in here to check on her?”
Since they’d had wild sex two nights ago.
Gray stood right beside them now. His gaze swung from her to Cass, then back to her. “No.” A shake of his head. His gaze returned to Cass. “No.”
Cass’s jaw had locked. “We have a problem.”
“I noticed,” Agnes assured him.
His head cocked as he studied her.
She sent him a weak, very brief smile. “It was hard to miss the man who came barreling at me with a knife. His name’s Judas Long, by the way. Guess Judas didn’t like that I stopped him from attacking you the other night.”
“Shit.” Gray squeezed the bridge of his nose. “You actually saved Cass’s life a few nights back? That story was for real?”
“She didn’t save my life,” Cass growled. “She just threw a beer bottle.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Gray squeeze the bridge of his nose harder.
“A beer bottle that stopped a knife attack,” she had to point out. Seriously, her throw had taken some skill. “Don’t belittle my efforts. Not cool.”
“Sorry, princess.” Cass nodded. “Your beer bottle kicked ass.”
Damn straight, but… “Technically, you kicked ass when you started that whole hand-to-hand fight in the bar with him. The guy is covered in bruises, FYI.”
“For the love of—dammit!” Gray exploded.
Her head whipped toward him.
A muscle flexed along his clenched jaw. He wasn’t squeezing his nose any longer. He was pointing straight at her. “I’m in charge here. I’m supposed to be in the damn loop.”
She hadn’t planned to loop him in on her, uh, sex life. Kinda a need-to-know situation. She had not thought he needed to know.
“The near stabbing tonight wasn’t about you,” Cass told her.
“It felt like it was.” Her attention shifted back to him. “Call me crazy, but when a man comes at me with a knife, it feels personal.”
Cass pressed his lips together. Then… “It’s because we fucked.”
Her eyes widened.
“Sonofabitch!” An explosion from Gray. “This is not the shit I need to hear right now!”
Yes, well, she’d prefer not to be discussing this either but… “What does us having sex matter? What does it have to do with anything?”
“Weakness.” One word from Cass. Gritted. Snapped.
She waited for more. He kept her waiting. Sighing, she told him, “You’ve got to elaborate. I’m all for a bit of suspense, but you can’t just drop one word and be done. You leave too many unanswered questions that way.”
“You’re my weakness,” Cass said, as if each word had been torn from him. “And they are gonna use you against me.”
She wondered who “they” were. She also wondered how in the world she could possibly be his weakness. As far as she knew, the man had zero weaknesses. That was why he was the big, tough badass leader of the Night Strikers.
“My enemies know I fucked you. They know you are a Fed. They will line up to take you out.”
Because she’d had a one-night stand with him?
“Me fucking a Fed didn’t exactly go over well in the MC circles. Those who hate me have always been looking for a weapon to use against me. A weakness. They think you’re that weakness.”
How flattering. What woman didn’t want to be called a weakness? Her eyes narrowed, and she realized that her hands had fisted.
“Oh, hell.” From Gray. “You two really—jeez, why? How do you two even know each other well enough to do that crap?”
Cass never looked away from her. “A bastard named Bayne Hendrix came up to me tonight. He’s the one who told me about the coming attack on you. Bayne said he’d picked up on rumors that I fucked a Fed.”
A curse from Gray.
“He told me to my damn face that you were going to be eliminated. Said I should send flowers to your funeral.”
And she had a flash of soggy flowers on a gravesite. But not her funeral. It had been Max’s funeral. Her boyfriend. Her fiancé. She’d stood in the rain and felt as if she were drowning.
“What did you do to Bayne?” Gray wanted to know.
“I…convinced him to call up the prick who was going after Agnes.”
Ah. That would be how she’d gotten the phone call. Or, rather, how Judas had gotten the call. “Where is this Bayne now?”
“Running.” A bit out response from Cass. “Running and getting the hell out of my town. He was told to spread the word that you were protected. He was also warned that if he ever tried to hurt you or come after you in any way…”
She waited. He needed to finish that sentence.
Cass shrugged. “If he ever tries to hurt you, death will seem like a blessing compared to the hell I’ll bring to him.”
Well, okay then.
“When Bayne announced to everyone that I’d fucked a Fed—”
“How did he learn that,” she cut in to ask, “exactly?”
“He learned it because there are too many pricks wanting to take me down. Too many eyes on me.”
Did that mean that someone had been trailing them that night? Trailing him…her?
“It was either act like you meant nothing to me and let a line of attackers come after you…”
“That doesn’t seem like a fun plan,” she muttered.
“Or claim you,” he finished. “Tell the world that you did matter. That you mattered more than anything.”
Silence.
“I claimed you.” Cass extended his hand toward her. “Agnes Quinn, from here on out, you are mine.”