I don’t even stop twenty feet into the trees.
I walk for a full five minutes – and he follows.
His heavy boots trample the fallen foliage until finally, I stop and turn back to face him. I expect to come eye-to-eye with an intense black stare, but the gun he points at my chest is a surprise.
“I’m not gonna shoot you,” he starts warily. “You ran into a burning building with me, so I respect you. I respect the fact you’re willing to lay your life down for someone I love. We can be cool, so long as you don’t intend to fuck me over.” His dark eyes, almost black, glitter with awareness. “But in case youdidcome here to fuck me over, I’m gonna be first. I’m not going anywhere, I’m never leaving Jess again, and I refuse to be the reason she breaks. Which means I’m choosing me over you.”
I slowly bring my hands up in surrender. “Why would I kill you?”
He lifts his heavy shoulders and shrugs. “I dunno. Probably because you’re in love with the other twin. It must burn that I kissed her that one time.”
My heart pounds with the fact he knows my secrets when I’ve managed to hide it from everyone else this whole time. It pounds as I struggle to take my eyes away from the gun he points at my chest – a gun I guarantee the cops inside have no clue he’s carrying.
More than that, it pounds with the reminder he kissed Laine Lenaghan when heshouldhave been kissing Jess.
I lift my chin. “How do you know I’m in love with her?”
“You mean, apart from the fact you ran into a burning club to save her life? Probably something to do with the way your eyes burn every time I mention I kissed her.”
“Yeah, can you stop fuckin’ bringing that up? I don’t wanna hear about it.” I lower my hands and continue to watch that gun.
I’m not entirely sure he’s stable. He’s been an undercover cop for so long, I’m not sure ifI’m speaking with Special Agent Kane Bishop – respected and decorated officer of the law, or Kane Bishop – criminal, drug runner, gun transporter, hired muscle, and enforcer.
No, I have no fuckin’ clue who walked into the woods with me today, and I don’t care, because despite the fact I know a bunch of guys who own guns and know how to shoot, I trust Kane for what I need.
I need some ofhiscrazy.
“I wanted to ask you a favor.”
“Yeah?” He lowers his gun, but he doesn’t put it away. “What do you need from aguy like me?”
“You know that fucker that hurt Laine? You know what he did to her?”
He gives one fast nod. “I know what he did. I knowexactlywhat he did. Do you?”
“I know some. I know he hurt her. I know he kept her away from us. I know she cries all the time.” But worse, so much worse, I’ve heard the rumors that have circulated my family for months. “That’s enough for me to need something done about it. I’m under the impression that you’re no longer employed by the law.”
His wary eyes don’t leave mine for a single beat. “They had a problem with me coming out of hiding to let Jess know I wasn’t dead. I handed my badge in when they made me choose. I’m officially retired, but I have my own plans for work. I don’t need you.”
“I’m not offering you a job.” I stop. “Well, I wasn’t, but I got space at my garage. If you know engines, I could have you on.”
He shakes his head.
I shrug. “Whatever. That’s not why I brought you out here, anyway.”
“So get to the fuckin’ point.” His gun hand lifts a few inches. “Tell me what you need.”
“He still calls her.” It hurts me; my heart, my soul, my gut, and every inch of my body, it hurts me that he hurts her. “Every damn day, Graham calls. He asks her to come back. He cries on the phone and says he’s sorry.”
Bishop’s eyes narrow. “Do you have a problem with that because he’s an abusive piece of shit that deserves to be neutered, or because she’s yours?”
Kane’s my kinda guy. He gets it. “Both. He deserves to hurt for both reasons, so I was thinking maybe you can help me deal with him.”
“Help youdealwith him?” He watches me warily. The ink on his neck ripples as he swallows. “I’m gonna need you to say the words. I’m not incriminating myself, and I hardly know you, motherfucker. What do you want to do to him?”
I nod.Understandable. “I want him to hurt. I have a workshop, I have chains, I have a blowtorch, and I have a bunch of different tools that might aid in relieving him of his nut sack. I can’t kill him, I won’t, but I can get my point across in other ways.”
Kane takes a single step forward. Then a second. He watches me through suspicious eyes. “Is this a hypothetical thing? A bad mood you wanna take out on him because she stepped away from you inside?” He points back toward the house. “Are you pissed because she doesn’t want you to touch her? Or are you being literal?”