Chapter 4
four
. . .
Armin
“You got anything to drink in here?” It comes back to me in a rush: Mia always had that wild burst of energy after sex. I’d lay with her and hold her for hours if she’d let me. But she couldn’t be contained by a bed for very long.
“Whiskey. My usual. It’s over there in the decanter.”
“Oh, a decanter. Fancy.” She rolls out of my arms and bounds her way over to the bar cart. I close my eyes and listen to her clink around until she returns with a couple of hefty double shots, neat, and hands me off one of the crystal tumblers.
She gives herself a tour of the place, taking her time in exploring the loft. I sit up on one elbow and sip on the whiskey, happy to watch her wander.
“This apartment gives me the creeps,” she echoes. “I hate these open floor plans.”
“Yeah,” I agree with her. “Not my choice. Halo Protective Group-issued. Awful, isn’t it? It looks like art deco and exposed pipes came here to die.”
She laughs, a hearty sound that bubbles up from the back of her throat. I love to hear it.
She makes her way back to me and I lift up the corner of the blanket to beckon her under, the same way she did at my cabin in East Greenwich. Though I have to remind myself the whole reason she’d stayed with me as long as she did was because of that awful accident.
As soon as she could, she ran. Back to Harvey.
She joins me, not under the blanket, but she sits in the semi-circle of my naked body, her skin soft and supple. A sharp contrast to my tanned hide. I rest my cheek against her arm and rub her back. “That feels nice,” she murmurs. She lets out an exhale, takes her time with it.
She must be terrified all the time, under Harvey’s thumb, here in Halo City.
I inhale deep. My mustache smells of her. As it should. It’s such a relief to have her in my arms again.
She lifts up my glass and clinks it against her own, then holds it to my lips so I can drink. Roles reversed, it’s another echo of the days after her accident. “Cheers,” she says.
I raise an eyebrow, and let my fingers trail down her back. “What are we celebrating?”
“Reunions?”
“To reunions.” I’m having a hard time holding the tumbler up, all of a sudden too heavy. It tilts in my hand until the whiskey pours onto the bed and soaks through these damn slippery sheets.
She takes it from my hand before it falls altogether.
“Mia, really?”
Her eyes aren’t without pity.
“You didn’t have to do this.” My tongue is thick in my throat. She slides my elbow out from under me and helps me lay my head on the pillow. “Don’t go, Mia. It’s not safe for you out there.” I’m fighting to get the words out. “Stay, for a little while.”
“I’ll stay until you fall asleep.” She slides in next to me and lays her head on my chest. I want to stroke her hair, but whatever she’s laced my drink with is working fast. It’s already a struggle to move my arms.
She nuzzles into me, graceful and controlled, feline in her movements.
“What was this supposed to be, Armin? Were you planning to trap me in here?” She runs her fingernails through my hair.
“Take it upon yourself to deliver me to the DA?” When I don’t answer, she sits up to study me, propped up on one arm.
She shrugs and sighs. “Once a sheriff, always a sheriff.”
But she’s wrong, about all of it. I should have told her everything I know from the HPG briefing, fast, instead of spending my time licking on that delicious cunt of hers.
I’m fading, fighting to stay conscious. If only I could crawl over to my phone, dial Line 13.
Reinforcements would be here in a matter of minutes.
She’s going to walk into a wall of bullets. Could be right outside the door.
“I’m sorry I can’t trust you,” she says. I blink and her face multiplies before my eyes, becomes two of her, three of her. This is a problem. I could barely handle one Mia.
It’s too late to stop her. I’m too far gone.
“That’s ironic,” I slur. “Because I trust you implicitly.” My mouth can’t form the words. The way I say it, there’s no L in implicitly anymore. “I trust you with my life.”
She lowers to me, the blur of her blots out everything. “Maybe in another life.” Her lips press to my forehead, and when she pulls away a tear lands hot on my cheek, slides down to my chin.
I reach up to catch the next tear before it can fall. But I can no longer control my arms.
Mia slides out of my grasp.
I track her naked form shrinking away from me until the room dims to darkness.