Bad Men - Piper Stone Page 0,80
“There’s more coffee if you’d like some.”
“And you’re avoiding the question.”
“There’s nothing to say. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with her and I did. It wasn’t fair to either one of us.”
Lindsey shook her head. “Does that mean you aren’t allowed to have a life outside of this mercenary gig?”
“We can, but not with clients.” I could tell my answer wasn’t going to go down easily.
“Was she a client, Jack? Is that what happened?”
“No. I was on hiatus. I needed some time.”
“Okay. I can see you’re not going to tell me. That’s fine. I’m supposed to place all my trust in you, including informing you about all my dirty laundry but you can’t trust me. How do you think that makes me feel, Jack? I care about you, more than I should.”
“You care about Diego as well.”
Huffing, she folded her arms and backed away from me. “Yeah, I do. I’m not entirely certain after a few intense days of being kidnapped, nearly blown to bits, and terrified for my life why I should, but I do. Call it the danger or the adrenaline rush. I’m also smart enough to realize that what we’re sharing is a fantasy and nothing more so don’t worry, Jack. I’ll stop giving a damn just like you want.”
When she turned to walk away, something inside of me broke wide open. I could no longer take holding the guilt buried deep inside. “Stop. Just wait, Lindsey. You have every right to be angry and the fact you look so much like Teresa allowed me to act unprofessionally.”
“Unprofessionally. You’re a hired mercenary paid by my father likely because he fucked up in his life. Now, when I return, I can fully expect to be forced into a life of servitude for a man from a mafia family. The last thing I care about is whether or not you acted professionally. What I do care about is that for a few minutes last night, the three of us were very close. Not just because of what we’re going through or because of the great sex. There was more. I know it.”
When she finished, she was barely whispering, reaching out for me to dare fill in the blanks. “I adore you, Lindsey. There isn’t anything that I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you, but I know that if I dare consider anything like that, the same thing will happen to you that happened to Teresa.”
“Yeah, disillusionment? The feeling of abandonment? Is that what you’re talking about?”
I inched closer, the rage of all the years of guilt and hatred of myself breaching the surface. “No, Lindsey. You will die.”
“What?”
The flash of color on the television screen grabbed my attention. “Shit.”
“No, don’t you dare do that, Jack,” she admonished.
“Hold on.” I grabbed the remote, turning up the volume just as Diego walked into the room.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
I threw out my hand as pictures of an intense fire were followed by the face of a reporter.
“This just in, there has been an explosion at the Plaza de Armas early this morning. There are reports of several casualties.”
“Wait a minute,” Diego said, moving closer to the television. “That looks like where we were last night.”
As the camera drew closer to several of the stores, Lindsey crept closer, suddenly touching her neck. “No. That can’t be. That’s…”
“What is it?” I demanded.
She shook her head over and over again as she continued to stare at the screen. “No way.”
“Lindsey, what the hell is going on?” Diego hissed. “You can’t hold anything back from us at this point. If you did something, we need to know.”
“You don’t understand.” As she raced toward the hallway, I dared look at Diego.
“This is far too coincidental,” I hissed then moved toward the set of open doors, peering outside, my hand on the gun.
“Yeah, I don’t like this at all. We need to contact Dante now,” he answered.
Lindsey raced back into the room, the bag she’d had with her the night before in her hands. “That’s the store where I bought these from. Remember, the same one you found me in last night after the restaurant?”
Diego yanked the bag from her hand, pulled out what appeared to be two copper bracelets. “I don’t get it.”
“I had them both engraved, but I had to go back for one of them. A present for the two of you. That’s why I disappeared. I was just going to pick it up. How could it be