“No, you’re even worse. It’s almost dangerous how much you distract the fuck out of me.”
“Then stop looking at me, asshole.” My anger must have reached its peak because I can no longer draw the line between subordinate and employer.
“It's myjobto look at you,idiota.”
“No, it's your job towatchme Reuben, but instead you'rereadingme like a—” what do you call that profession again? “A therapist.”
“Ilovetherapy,” Reuben’s grin widens and I have to step back instinctively. “We should hold sessions.” He steps forward and I step back.
“Reuben, you’re freaking me out.”
“You’re more pissed than freaked out.”
“I get pissed when people freak me out!” I snap. The bastard is having the time of his life but all my instincts are sensing danger.
“That combination isn’t so bad either,” he mumbles.
Bastard must be drunk as fuck. If he’s drunk then I can knock him out no problem, right? He won’t remember a thing… isn’t that how it works?
The moment he reaches for me, I’ve simultaneously lost my shit and thought it through, and my training has kicked in on impulse. I direct his outstretched hand away from me with my left and my fist shoots out to aim for his cheek.
The moment he catches my knuckles, I know I’ve fucked up big time.
He twists my hand around and pulls my body with so much force, I’m stunned as I’m pinned to the wall.
“You know, I think this is the first time a member of my team has tried to hit me.” His breath tickles my neck, and it’s unfortunate, but I don’t smell alcohol on him. Both his closeness and his scent are enveloping me and I find myself bristling.
“Is this how they did things on the Adler Squad?” The sound of his voicesends a tingling sensation across my spine again, but his words make my heart drop like a fucking stone. I have to bite back the hiss that lingers in my throat from all those days as a cat.
“Hitting your boss. Flirting with women on the job. Behaving like a lost puppy whenever one of them rejects you.” The crazy tone in his voice has all but melted into a strange cold and I find myself scrambling with new fear. Not from what he’s about to do, but what he’s about to say.
“Reuben, don’t you fucking—”
“It’s no wonder the Adler Squad ended up the way it did, right?”
It’s like he forced frost down my throat. My emotions still and for a moment I can’t think.
I can’t feel.
“A leader like you is really too wishy-washy.” His voice pushes a strange cold into the pit of my stomach. “I expected an adult, the ‘Great Christian Adler’. Portland’s number one enforcer… but it seems I got a child instead… Looks like the order got a bit mixed up.”
Like a spark, the frozen stillness inside me snaps into a rushing flame. Before he can react, I pull him down to get as low as I possibly can and throw my body back quickly to catch him off guard, putting some space between me and the wall, to kick off it with both feet and send us crashing to the floor.
The moment he loses his grip, I whirl around to grab him by the collar. I’m above him, legs braced on either side of his waist when I raise my fist.
I don’t care that he’s my employer. Or my second saviour. Or a Taiga.
I don’t care for the apology in his eyes, or the crazy smile on his face when my knuckles connect with his cheek.
Reuben's smile doesn’t even break, “Ahi esta.”
He lets me hit him exactly three times before locking my arm on my fourth swing and twisting his body until he’s on top of me.
Still, it doesn’t end. I free one leg just in time to swing it towards his head. Bastard stops that too, with his other hand. He doesn’t say anything more as I tryto strike him, and he doesn’t try to hit me back, only attempts to restrict me.
But I’m not thinking about any of those things, I’m swinging and kicking with everything I have.
Until I just can’t anymore. Until I’ve stopped completely and the gaping hole of his words has gotten bigger and bigger, dragging my anger to a stop like the emergency brakes of a screaming train.
