13. Char
CHAR
“What do you want?” I asked as I slid my stare down his body.
There was a lot of him to behold, too. Muscles pulled tautly at his clothing, threatening to burst free at the seams as he stood there, staring me down.
His long, strong legs pulsed with life, and I found myself wanting to run my fingertips up the inside of his thighs.
My gaze slithered back up his body, taking in that trimmed beard of his that he kept growing on his face that had streaks of white in it.
Just like his chestnut-colored hair. I wanted to pull that bun out at the crown of his head and run my fingers through it.
Those brooding brown eyes of his pierced directly into my soul, as if he were able to read every word I had scratched upon it in the wee hours of every night during my childhood.
The downturn of his lips accented the healthy, pink skin that stared back at me, a stark contrast to the soft tan the rest of his body had.
I wondered what his lips might taste like as he cloaked me in his shadow.
“May I come in,” he said.
Not a question, but not a command. A request, maybe?
“No,” I said plainly.
He ushered his hand through the threshold of my front door. “I figured you may want to talk inside where you’re?—”
“Well, you’re wrong,” I said as I stood there, staring up at him.
I had to figure out what the hell these men were up to, and until I did, they weren’t stepping foot inside the only place that had ever felt safe since I moved away from home.
They couldn’t just take Miss Lilly’s bar from her.
I wouldn’t allow it. Maybe if I could convince the local police force to look into things, it might spook them into giving me some answers.
After all, I took down my father, who was easily the biggest fear of my life. The biggest darkness I’d ever carried.
After all that bullshit? Nothing seemed scary.
Not even the big, bad wolf trying to blow me down at my doorstep.
Yet still, his gaze danced in between mine. “Just let me in, Char.”
I shook my head. “You don’t get to talk so nonchalantly to me. I don’t know who you are or what you want, but whatever it is, know this: I won’t stop until I know what you guys have done to Miss Lilly, why you did it, and what your plans are for this place.”
The man narrowed his eyes, and I knew I had touched a nerve.
“Anything else we need to discuss?” I asked in a cheery voice that I plastered on just to piss him off.
It worked, too. “Fine. What if I simply answer your questions, then?”
I blinked. “What questions?”
“The ones you just asked.”
I… hadn’t considered that. It never occurred to me that they’d simply talk to me if I asked. But, were his words trustworthy?
Why did I want them to be trustworthy?
“But,” the man said, ripping my gaze out of my confused little head, “you have to let me in.”
I tilted my head. “Why do you want to come inside so badly?”
His gaze never wavered from my face. “Because it’s private. Why else?”
I studied him intently. I took in the soft pock marks that lined the bottom of his jaw and the indentations of his furrowed brow upon his forehead.
The streak of white in his hair that intermingled with the rest of his bun sparkled in the sun as it hung heavily in the sky.
A breeze kicked up, fluttering my hair as wisps of his danced around for my viewing pleasure.
I had no idea what in the hell possessed me to do it, but it was as if my legs took on a life of their own.
They stepped off to the side, providing clear entryway into my place before the man stepped inside.
I knew this, however: if I was going to pull any information out of them, I had to at least play ball if I wasn’t going to play nice.
“All right,” I said as I stood in front of an open door, “you’re inside.”
Deacon looked around my place as he headed toward the middle of the room. Halfway between the back of the couch and the small square dining room table I had never used.
“I’ve seen worse,” he said as he nodded his head.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “All right, spit it out.”
He pointed at the door. “Close it.”
“No.”
He snapped his stare toward me. “I don’t want anyone overhearing us. Lock the door, Char.”
“Wasn’t part of the deal, so mind your words next time.”
A devilish grin snaked across his face, and it made my knees sizzle.
I didn’t even know my knees could sizzle until he graced me with that twinkling look in his eye.
I watched him walk over into the kitchen before leaning against the countertop. “My crew and I are looking to get out of the trade we are in and establish ourselves in a trade that benefits the town.”
I took the smallest possible step toward him. “What trade are you pulling away from?”
His chuckle sounded like the first day of summer break. “That’s between me and the local police department.”
I had no idea what the hell that meant, but it reminded me of that article I stumbled across. So, it was true. They really did have a lasting alliance with the Layborn police.
So much for enlisting their help with things.
It couldn’t be good, though. Whatever they were doing, it had to be illegal.
At least, that’s how it felt. All of the secrecy.
The compartmentalization. I remembered that shit from my childhood.
How my father only told me and Mom things we absolutely needed to know.
How he’d always get us into these batshit crazy situations simply because he lied to us by omitting truths we needed.
It felt the same way conversing with Deacon.
And I sure as hell didn’t appreciate it.
“Why do I think you’re lying to me?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Because it must be hard, being the little girl that put her father away.”
I felt my face pale. My knees went from sizzling to swaying. They knew me? They had researched me?
I no longer felt safe with him in my apartment.
“Get out,” I said as I pointed to the door.
Deacon pushed off the countertop and stalked toward me.
“Get the fuck out of my place,” I hissed.
He didn’t stop moving, however. With his hands balled up at his sides and that sharpened chocolate stare of his, he charged me.
He lunged for me, wrapping his hand around my throat and squeezing so hard that I didn’t have the capacity to call out for help.
I struggled to breathe as he dragged me away from the door.
I tried to get my feet beneath me, but it was as if the bones in my legs had completely evaporated.
My hands clawed at his wrist as he pulled me away from the opened door and slammed me into a wall.
Before pinning me to the surface with his knees between my legs.
“Deac—on,” I choked out.
“Breathe,” he said as he released my neck.
I gasped for air as he gripped my chin, forcing me to look up at him.
My entire body trembled. I shivered against him as the fabric of his jeans shook against my panties.
His pelvis pressed into me. His stare held me hostage.
His grip on my chin juxtaposed the way his thumb slid along my skin, stroking me mindlessly as I stood there on my tiptoes, just trying to stay in control of my faculties.
Why, oh why, the fuck did I choose to wear a goddamn skirt?
“The bar is hemorrhaging money,” he said as he smoothed his thumb along my lower lip.
I swallowed hard. “But, but Miss Lilly said?—”
“Bosses say a lot of things to keep the masses quiet,” he said as his stare settled against my lips. “My men and I aren’t prone to playing that same game.”
“H—how?—.”
Goddamn it, I really needed him to move his fucking knee.
“What was that?” Deacon asked.
I heard the grin in his voice, and I wanted to smack him for it. “How badly is the bar losing money?”
He tilted his head. “Enough for Miss Lilly to be broke.”
“What?” I asked breathlessly.
“Well, she was broke, before she took us up on our five-million-dollar offer.”
“This place isn’t worth half that, though.”
He released my chin and took a step back, releasing me from his grasp. Moving his knee so that my body was freed from his confines.
So, why the hell did I want to grab his shirt and yank him back?
“We know it’s not,” he said as he stood there in front of me, still blocking me against the wall. “But, she deserves a retirement and this place deserves a facelift.”
My stare danced along his face. “Yeah, that’s a crock of shit.”
That grin returned, and it fluttered my heart in my chest. “I figured you might see through it.”
“Don’t start lying to me now. Why did you really pay five million dollars for a bar like Bottle Grounds?”
“We were looking for a business to turn around, and we found it. Nothing more, nothing less.”
I slid my gaze down his body, clocking every movement that he made while I tried to figure out whether or not I believed him.
I found a bulge against the zipper of his jeans that called to the tip of my tongue.
I found his thighs contracting. Flexing.
Moving against the denim he painted his legs with.
Fucking hell, why did he have to be so gorgeous?
I wanted to jump his bones, but I had to keep my wits about me. I had to make sure they didn’t fire me. I had to play nice and prove that I was worth keeping around so that I could find the answers Miss Lilly deserved. Hell, the answers we all deserved.
So, I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes.
“Just—promise me something, okay?”
“Sure,” Deacon said, “I’ll do my best.”
I slowly opened my eyes and found him intently staring at me. “Promise me that I’m safe up here.”
His eye twitched. “I can promise that?—.”
“Please,” I said with a heavy sigh. “Just… please, Deacon. I have nowhere to go if I don’t have this place. Just promise me that I’m safe up here. That you guys won’t kick me out.”
I wasn’t sure what I expected of him, but I didn’t expect him to walk past me.
His shoulder nudged into mine, enough to turn me around as I watched him walk toward the front door.
He eased through the entryway, his head damn near touching the top part of the door frame as he turned and made his way down the steps.
Tears brewed behind my eyes before his voice echoed up toward me.
“Don’t make me regret it, and there won’t be an issue!”
And as tears of relief slipped down my cheeks, I sprinted toward the door and slammed it closed before throwing every single lock I had on that door back into place.
I stood there with my back pressed flat against it, heart slamming against my ribs, trying to work out whether what was crawling through my body was fear or something else. Something I had absolutely no business feeling toward a man who had just wrapped his hand around my throat.
I didn’t figure it out. I shoved it down instead, the way I shoved everything down, and told myself it was the adrenaline.
Because now that phase one of my plan was finally complete, I had to prepare for phase two.
Earning their trust so that they’d flap their fucking jowls.