him before we leave.”
“Don’t feel too bad, Fast Lane. He’s a smart guy,” Cody says. He pulls on the tips of his hair. The sleeves of his shirt bunch up, exposing muscle and tattoo. I have to close my eyes to clear my head.
Clearing my throat, I ask, “Of course he’s smart, but how is that supposed to help me feel less guilty?” Mustering strength, I make a go for it and walk into my garage.
Cody follows and opens my car door for me. “He knew this would be the outcome. There’s no way he figured this would end any differently, Lane. He knows you. He knows me. He knew us.”
Sitting down behind the steering wheel, I look up at him. “I feel so bad. So guilty.” I can’t stand myself. I fold my arms and let my head fall on the steering wheel.
He clears his voice and takes a deep breath. “Sometimes you have to be recklessly heartless in order to realize you own a heart,” Cody says. I feel his lips on my hair and smell his cologne, and then he shuts the door and leaves me with his words ricocheting around my world.
I jump out of my car and catch him as he’s pulling himself into his own vehicle. “I do have a heart,” I explain. I feel the need to defend myself against what he’s said even though I know it’s true. I know he didn’t say it maliciously.
Cody smiles. “I don’t want your heart, Fast lane. You already have mine. Forever. For a man like me, that’s enough.” What does that mean?
I don’t have time to ask. He shuts his door and backs out of my driveway and out of my fucking vain world.
CHAPTER TEN
Cody
SHE HAD THE courage to do it. Lainey broke it off with her fiancé. He’s standing here in my home office in Virginia Beach right now, flaming mad and with intent. It’s six a.m. He’s losing Lainey. Blaming him is the last thing I’ll do. Dax Redding was merely a pawn, or perhaps a knight, in our twisted love game. The comfort, love, and support he provided Lainey was integral to her healing. I know her well enough to know she may be a piranha in many ways, but emotionally she can be manipulated and destroyed. She wouldn’t be the same woman if it weren’t for him. I’m grateful to him. I also fucking hate him.
I’m shirtless, sitting at my desk, feet propped up. When he started banging on my door before the sun rose I was sure it was V and his men. Dax was a pleasant surprise. It’s too early for gun fights and bloody hardwood. Although, I’m still not sure it’s not going to happen. “Lainey can make her own decisions, man. Nothing was said to influence her to do anything. She does exactly as she pleases. You must know that,” I explain. He paces the hardwood—his boots making a clipping sound with every step he takes.
“Bullshit. You couldn’t send her away, start new with someone else when you saw she was happy with me? You’re a fucking con artist!” he yells.
Swinging my legs to the floor, I stand and adjust the waist of my pajama bottoms. Dax glares at me, eyeing my tattoos with an eagle eye. None of them will mean anything to him. I’m sure he’s looking for anything related to Lainey. I purposefully avoided that type of tattoo because it would have been unsafe. I walk to the window on the side of the rectangular room and look out as he continues his pacing. What can I tell him to get him the fuck out of here? I wonder if Lainey is okay. I miss her.
“She came to me. She came to me,” I say, my tone low. The condescension sticks to my words like glue. “What is it you want to hear me say? What do you want, Dax?”
He stops around eight feet behind me. I mentally calculate how he may attack. There are several ways and I’m ready for all of them. He clears his throat. He must want a fight. It’s the only thing a man like him, in his situation, is capable of. “I’m well aware she came to you. I came here to give you something in exchange for something else.” My brows rise on their own accord. I wasn’t expecting this.
I spin on my bare foot to face him. “Talk.” The energy in the room has shifted. A