Shameless - Sybil Bartel Page 0,9
Captain.”
Fucking Christ. “Staff Sergeant, woman. You gonna use my rank, get it right.” I led her out of the restaurant.
“What branch?”
She had to ask? “Marines.” The only branch.
Conscious or not, she moved closer to me. “How long were you in?”
“Ten years.” I should’ve stepped the fuck away from her. Possessive shit screwing with my head, I allowed myself to consider the way she fit under my arm like she belonged there. “Now whose turn is it for twenty questions?”
“I promise to limit it to nineteen,” she easily sparred. “So, you seem like the Marine type. Why’d you get out?”
“Medically retired, and word of advice, unless you want your head bit off, don’t ever call a Marine the Marine type. There is no type. We’re Marines, period. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Remember that.” I opened the door of the Escalade.
“Got it.” Her face scrunched up. “Medically retired? Were you hurt?”
“It was war,” I evaded. “Get in.”
Looking up at me, she stared for a long moment. “Now you’re opening my door?”
For a split second, I hesitated. Her voice even, her expression void of attitude, she looked like she was asking an honest question.
But then she bit her bottom lip.
Yeah, not honest. “You reading into my actions, princess?”
“You said don’t let a man take advantage of me.”
“I know what I said.” I meant it more than she’d ever know.
“You were an asshole when you picked me up,” she blurted.
“Your point?” I knew what I was.
“Why aren’t you being one now?”
“You want me to be?” Jesus, was this chick fucked in the head?
“No, I just want to know why you’re being different now.”
No hesitation, no bullshit, she threw her questions out there, and I had to admit, not many women I’d met who were my own damn age would’ve had her brand of brass.
I gave her the truth. “The last time I saw you, you were letting your dealer hold your stepmother at gunpoint. I was making sure you knew I wasn’t going to put up with any bullshit.”
Snorting out a laugh without an ounce of humor, she shook her head. “I was high.”
“No shit.”
Embarrassment hit her cheeks. “Well, I’m not that person anymore.”
“You clean?” I didn’t fuck with women who were messed up with that shit. Not that she was a woman. Nor was I gonna fuck her.
Her voice and her eyes dropped. “Yeah.”
With a knuckle under her chin, I tipped her face up. “Why didn’t you look at me when you said that?”
She looked away. “What does it matter to you if I’m clean or not?”
“Eyes on me,” I demanded.
She brought her gaze back to mine.
“It doesn’t.” I didn’t lie to her. “But it should matter enough to you to look me or any other asshole in the eye and tell them you’re done throwing your life away.”
She gave me a wry smile. “So, you’re admitting that you’re an asshole?”
Holding her chin, holding her gaze, I didn’t give her a verbal response. Instead, I let her look at me. If she was smart, she’d figure it out.
She dropped the smile. “Point taken.”
“Smart girl.”
Her voice turned shy. “I’m not a girl.”
“Get in the car, woman,” I ordered.
“Yes, sir.” A smile tugged at her lips, and she got in.
Closing her door, I muttered under my breath. “Little minx.”
Keys in hand, I rounded the front of the SUV and opened the driver door as a black Lincoln pulled into the parking lot and slammed on the brakes right in front of me.
My hand went to my piece.
The rear door of the sedan flew open, and a woman I never wanted to see again lunged out of the vehicle.
“Sfumatura,” Carabella Contessa Palermo Vincenzo breathed, reaching for me. “I found you.”
Motherfucker.
WITH HER LONG, DARK HAIR loose, Cara grabbed two handfuls of my shirt and aimed for my mouth before I snapped the fuck out of my shock.
“STOP.” Enraged, I gripped a handful of her hair and yanked her mouth away from mine as I drew my 9mm. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Aiming at her driver, I held her back. “You goddamn tracked my cell?”
“You left me no choice,” she pouted, ignoring my gun and putting on the same tired act she did when I was fucking her. “I needed you.”
I scanned the open car door and, more importantly, the man behind the wheel. “Get the fuck out here, Dominic.” Holding my aim steady, not easing up on my grip on Cara, I gave zero fucks about any witnesses in the restaurant