Wicked Love - Michelle Dare Page 0,26

a seat next to her and watch as she takes her first sip, her full lips once again mesmerize me, and her next words float to my ears like a whispered song. “Mmm, I love a man who knows his wine. This is excellent, Krew.” I’d be a complete idiot not to catch the lilt in her voice, the mischievous glint in her eyes, and the flirtatious way she says my name.

I lift my glass and raise it up for a toast, “To fine wine on a rainy night,” I say.

She taps her glass to mine, “And to men knowing what a woman wants.”

I nearly choke on the sip of wine I’ve just taken. The little vixen is coming on to me, probably because of the fucking mixed signals I’m putting out there, not intentionally, because the truth is I’m a conflicted mother fucker. And I know I don’t wear it well.

“So, give me the news,” I retort, “You sounded so excited when you called.”

She takes another sip of wine, and grabs a slice of cheese, and starts talking. By the time we finish off the bottle of wine, and start on another, Carson has confided to me in order of occurrence, details of her recollection dreams that started after her assault up and including today’s events. The fact she’s alleging one of her current professors and his wife are members of the sex trafficking ring, gives me grave cause for concern. I admit the coincidences could be just that: a coincidence, but I don’t want her personally digging around in this any longer.

The problem is her damn stubbornness. I know all about that trait of hers firsthand. I both love it and hate it. I also know in this particular situation it must be handled delicately, because she’s definitely psyched up about what she’s learned. And quashing her determination will be no easy thing. But there is no way in hell I’m going to let her continue on this 'Nancy Drew' mission. It’s too dangerous and she’s likely only nipped the tip of the iceberg.

If Armentrout is the brains behind all of it, Carson isn’t safe being on campus with him. Period. If he’s the one who personally assaulted her? Well, I can’t even think about what I’ll be tempted to do to him and the rest. I need to calm the fuck down right now. I have to present a calm and reasonable demeanor to Carson. I have to convince her now is the time to involve law enforcement.

“Babe,” I say softly, my fingers playing with a lock of her shiny brown hair, “you know now is the time to go to the authorities on this, right? I mean, I’ll go with you to make a report.”

She scoots closer to me, laying her head against my shoulder. “But Krew, I can’t prove anything. I still need to talk to Shelby, you know, like we talked about the other day? You said you’d take me there. She can confirm my suspicions. She’s a witness. We can get her to fill in the gaps if we play it right.”

My fingers lift her chin so that I can look into her eyes and make her understand that she’s got to stop playing detective with this. She’s stubborn and determined, and I need to make sure she knows this is about protecting her; keeping her safe.

“Carson,” I say huskily, gazing into her incredibly blue eyes, “I want you to promise me you won’t go to your classes tomorrow. I don’t want you near that Armentrout guy. Will you promise me?”

She reaches for her glass of wine, eyeing me coyly. She’s definitely got a buzz going, so maybe getting her promise on this won’t be as difficult as it typically would be. She takes a long sip of her wine. And then sets the glass back on the table and looks over at me. “But if I miss all of my classes tomorrow and then again on Wednesday, I could fall behind.”

“It’s only two days, Carson. Hell, I didn’t show up for a lot of my lectures when I was in school.”

“Seriously, Krew? You know, I’m glad I didn’t know that little tidbit before I allowed you to turn me into a human pretzel during my physical therapy for Chrissake!”

She gives me a wicked smile, and I have to chuckle. “Yeah, just so you know, it was only my elective classes I blew off, hell, everyone did.”

“But that’s just it, these are my