lips.
“Why do you have
to question everything?” he countered, his hands simultaneously
rubbing and pulling me closer, closing the gap between our bodies
until there was just a breath of air separating us, giving his hands
more free reign of my back. I genuinely had to concentrate to prevent
myself from leaning against him. Like... it was a problem. “After
I left here last night, I went to see a friend of mine.”
“You... left me!”
I exploded, wrenching away from him, eyes bulging, as the heat spread
across my body. He left me. Trapped in a train car. That was locked
from the outside. Leaving me completely defenseless. Anyone could
have wandered into the obviously abandoned building. Anyone could
have found me and done... whatever the hell they wanted to do with
me. While he was off gallivanting with his freaking buddies.
“Oh Jesus
Christ,” he grumbled, looking upward, half-rolling his eyes.
“Here we go...”
“Yeah... here we
go. What is wrong with you? Anyone could have come in here, seen me
all defenseless and raped and killed me!”
“Five seconds of
listening to that mouth and they'd lose interest in the task, trust
me.”
The... task?
Meaning... raping me or
killing me?
Either way, it was kind
of insulting.
“I hate you,”
I said. Childish, I know. But he brought that out of me. What fun was
it to argue with someone when all they did was answer in a perfectly
normal, unaffected tone? It did nothing but further enrage me.
“That's
unfortunate because you're about to be working with me.”
My mouth had opened to
say something, then clamped shut as soon as his sentence ended,
hanging in the air.
“I think I
misheard you,” I said after a minute.
“Heard me just
fine. You and me... we are going to find a way out of this mess.”
This... mess?
Meaning... me being
killed (or killing myself) because of Lex Keith?
“Why?”
Breaker let out a long
breath, leveling his eyes with mine. “Lex took someone who
means somethin' to me. He did this because he wanted me to get you
and he damn well knew I don't extend my... services to women.”
“Really?” I
found myself asking, surprised.
“Yeah, doll,
really. If your name didn't sound like a man, we wouldn't be standing
here right now.”
I believed him.
“Who does he
have?” I found myself asking.
Without even a
hesitation, “My brother.”
“Your brother?”
I asked, my voice a small whisper.
I knew nothing of
siblings. Hell, I knew nothing of friends. But I could imagine. I
could imagine that bond. I could imagine the kind of gut-twisting
horror you would have inside when you realized someone you loved was
at the hands of Lex Keith.
No wonder he was
willing to go through with the deal even though he didn't deal in
women.
I looked back up,
knowing there was a small piece of my heart in my eyes. “What
do you need from me?”
“I need to know
what you have on him,” he answered immediately.
I nodded, reaching up
toward the collar of the sweatshirt and reaching in, grabbing the
chain I had worn around my neck for so long that I barely even
realized it was there anymore. I slipped it over my head, holding it
out and watching as Breaker's big, scarred hand took it.
“A key?” he
asked.
“Locker key,”
I answered, nodding. “To that gym on Willow.”
At this, his brow went
up. “The gym on Willow?” he repeated, a smile starting to
tug at his lips. “The gym owned by the Mallick's?”
“Yes,” I
said, nodding.
There weren't many
organizations that refused to kowtow to Lex's demands. So far, from
what I could tell, the only ones who didn't line his pockets were the
Henchmen MC, Lyon the cocaine king, the people of the survivalist
camp called Hailstorm, and the Mallick family- a group of notorious
loan sharks who didn't seem to have any alliance whatsoever to any of
the other crime organizations.
I could have hid my
information with the Henchmen. But, to be honest, they scared the
hell out of me. And I knew