Mine - HelenKay Dimon Page 0,41
pot-kettle situation.
She sighed because it was either that or yell, and she guessed that wouldn’t help the situation one bit. “Talk to me.”
He turned around and faced her then. “About what?”
Yeah, no question about it. He was in full-on showdown mode. She hated the curt answers, the barely talking thing he did in general. The scruffiness, the rough hotness—forget all of that. Right at this moment his mood struck her as especially annoying. “Don’t be an asshole.”
He didn’t even blink. “It was a legitimate question.”
Right. “You and your brother Rick work in the same field and—”
“Wrong.”
Anger radiated off him. She knew it was directed at some feud with his brother but still felt caught in the crossfire. Whatever plagued him now and drove him and Rick apart qualified as the type of thing that should have been in her file on him but wasn’t. That meant the fight was new or so deeply personal that no one talked. Both options piqued her curiosity. “Correct me then.”
“He’s on the government payroll.” Gabe leaned against the counter and gripped the top on either side of him. “I’m not.”
She knew all about Rick and his black-ops career. The guy had a go-to operation for off-the-book infiltration and extraction jobs. Nasty stuff. Not something a guy with deep emotions and a bright-line sense of right and wrong could pull off. Word was Rick didn’t let either get in his way. He’d been seriously injured about eighteen months ago and came back twice as lethal.
“Is that why we hate him? His job choices?” she asked, trying to make light of an obviously heavy subject.
Gabe’s grip tightened until his knuckles turned white. “No.”
Could be Rick’s mind-set and personality clashed with Gabe’s. She could see that. Gabe talked tough and absolutely qualified as lethal, but something about him said bone-deep decency to her. He’d followed orders and gotten the job done, killed when necessary, but she had a hard time imagining him torturing someone under the guise of information-gathering and enjoying it.
But then this kid issue hovered. She didn’t get that part of his life at all. Abandoning a son he never disclosed in the first place didn’t fit in with the guy she thought she knew, so maybe she didn’t know anything at all.
Except the stubbornness. He didn’t bother hiding that trait. “Gabe¸ honestly, it would be easier to talk with a tree.”
He shrugged. “Maybe I don’t want to talk.”
That would be consistent with his personality. Still, she didn’t intend to let him get away with the lame excuse. Not when they had days, possibly weeks, to get through with nothing but each other and a few elk for company. “We’re stuck in here. We may as well burn through some time.”
For a few seconds he just stared at her. Stood stock-still and toured his gaze over her, his frown deepening with every second. “Do you want me to fuck you? Is that what this is about?”
The icy words crashed over her, and she held back her flinch. She morphed from half-amused and wanting answers to fighting off the urge to punch him. Hell if he didn’t deserve it. “I don’t know Rick but from your description of him it’s starting to sound like you’re a lot alike.”
Gabe pushed off from the counter and came toward her. “Sorry, do you want me to use a prettier word?”
Every syllable slashed into her. Ripped and tore until she expected to see blood puddle on the floor. She shouldn’t care. She had protective walls to keep shit like this out. But something about him attacking, about him using sex and what they’d shared as a weapon, struck against something deep inside of her.
“I want you to drop the attitude.” That qualified as an understatement, but she went with the comment anyway. Much more and the tension would skyrocket.
“We are not friends.” He took another step.
She refused to get up. To show any sign that the words landed with the force he intended. “True.”
“If the plan is for me to spill my guts for your entertainment, forget it.” He stood right in front of her, blocking the light behind him and looming over her seat.
“Understood.” He could not be clearer, and she could not hear one more thing.
Fighting with her need to battle back, she stood up. If he wanted to piss all over someone, he’d need to find another target. He’d slipped into nonsense mode, and she refused to follow right behind him. It was as if he thought