When He's Bad (Walker Security Adrian’s Trilogy #2) - Lisa Renee Jones Page 0,20
obviously here for a reason.”
“You two were hiding in a damn cave,” he says. “How the fuck could I not be here? When one of our own is in trouble, we stand with them.” He eyes Adrian. “That means you, asshole.” He doesn’t give Adrian a chance to reply. He motions to the door. “Let’s all go inside and talk and then you two can shower and get some rest.”
Savage and Adam join us and Savage grins and adds, “Because you look like shit. Just in case I forgot to tell you.”
“You did tell me,” I say. “And I know you remember.”
He grins. Blake arches a brow at him. “As my mama would say, you’re the pot calling the kettle black, man. You look like shit, but then, you were born that way, Savage. You can’t wash that off.”
I laugh and Adrian and I exchange a look—it just sort of happens, a familiar, intimate look, and yet the strain between us is there, a pulse that refuses to be ignored. Blake leads a path up the stairs, with Savage flanking him and talking smack. They’re family, I realize then, brothers. I understand why Adrian defended them so heartily when I suggested one of them might have betrayed him. They’re his family and yet so was his brother. I wonder—I wonder so many things.
Adam steps closer, parallel to me and Adrian, and gives me an inspection. I laugh. “Are you going to tell me I look like shit, too?”
“No,” he assures me. “I was just going to ask how you are. You had a hell of a ride out there.”
“I’m good,” I say. “Thank you for asking. It was actually kind of fun.” I laugh at the insanity of that reply. “Well, aside from the men shooting at us and the fact that we could have rolled and died at any moment.”
He smiles. Adam has a nice smile, a warm smile. A Captain America kind of smile, filled with charm and honor. “There was that.” He glances at Adrian. “I’ll see you inside.”
Adrian gives a barely perceptible nod and Adam walks away. I assume we will follow, actually taking a step to do so, but Adrian halts me with a softly spoken, “Pri.”
I pause, aware that he’s avoiding touching me. Facing him, our eyes collide, and Lord help me, that pulse is back. It never went away. “Are you really okay?” he asks.
“Yes,” I assure him. “You can stop worrying. I’m pretty darn daring as long as you don’t shove me into a small space.”
The rapidly rising sun beams down on us, almost as if it’s a warm spotlight, burning hotter by the moment. He steps closer, the air charging between us. “I know more about small spaces than you might think. And boxes. I’m in one now.”
I blink, surprised by this reply when I perhaps shouldn’t be. He is a man of secrets who dances with demons. And Waters is only one of them. The worst is the one of his own creation. The one he calls his own self-hatred. “Yes,” I agree. “I do believe you are.”
He studies me for several heavy seconds, and I hold my breath, waiting for a reply, for more. He doesn’t seem to ever give me more.
Blake shouts, “You two coming?!”
For a beat, Adrian ignores him, his attention locked on me, a deep burn in his eyes that fades and then disappears as if a shutter had been dropped. “On our way!” he calls out, turning away from me, and while his energy says he’s withdrawn, his hand settles on my back, urging me forward.
And that hand is still possessive.
That’s exactly why his touch both scorches me and confuses me, but that comment he just made does not. When he testifies, the defense will demonize him. He and everyone around him will have to live with all those dirty stories, all the dirty pieces of his life. And they will call him a bad man. That’s his box. The one where he lives as a bad man for the rest of his life, not the hero he deserves to be called. I decide right then that I’m going to get him out of that box. One way or the other, we will take down Waters without him destroying Adrian. For now, I focus on how we stay alive and that starts with gleaning all the information I can from this “talk” Blake wants to have.