“You’re the same height, share the same build, too, yes, but it’s the similar facial structure that really caught my attention.” Her head cocked to the right as she studied him. “Same hair texture, but the color is a bit different. Yours is a little darker. I definitely can see the family connection when I look at you both.”
Nope. Not happening. He laughed.
She sighed. “Really? Gonna lie to my face and tell me that I’m wrong?”
He lied to people’s faces all the time. Why should she be special?
But his laughter slowly faded. “You said Gray didn’t send you.”
“I came on my own. Because I think we can help each other.”
Screw that. “I only help myself in this world.”
But Agnes shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
And why the hell not? “Lady, you don’t know me. You think my cheekbones have told you some bullshit about me. You have no clue who I am, deep inside.” He needed to scare her. Get her to run away and never come back. “I’m a dangerous man.”
“I have no doubt about that.” Agnes nodded. “If it makes you feel better, I’m a dangerous woman.”
He blinked. Shook his head. Refused to be derailed. “You have to know about all of the crimes that have been linked to my MC.”
“Oh, yes. Murders. Robberies. Thefts. Drug-running. So many stories circulate. I’m pretty sure if you believe all the tales, your MC is responsible for every single crime that happens every single day in the United States.” A roll of one shoulder. “But I’m not one to believe the hype.”
He did not speak. She was as cool and casual as you please, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do with the little Fed. Except, well, maybe fuck her. He really, really wanted to fuck her. Talking to her wasn’t making his dick settle down any. In fact, hell, he was finding himself more and more curious about her with every single word that she spoke.
“You spend too much time in the darkness,” Agnes suddenly told him.
Yes, he did.
“Gray has profiled you, you know. I mean, Agent Stone has.”
“Of course, he has. Because the guy lives for mind fuckery.” Maybe he should have a drink. Not like he’d even gotten to finish his beer at the bar. Not before she’d started throwing it at his attacker. “Guessing you do, too, huh?” Cass challenged. “What are you, like a Junior Mind Fucker? A Mind Fucker in Training?”
Her nose scrunched again. Damn cute freckles. “I don’t know if that is the professional term…”
He had to fight a smile.
“But I did decide to make my own profile on you after our paths crossed at the FBI office.”
His muscles tightened. “You made a profile on me…after a one-minute meeting?”
“I studied you for more than just one minute.” No humor. No scrunched nose. Just all seriousness.
“And what did you discover in your studies?” He wanted to kiss her again.
He’d been so deep in the darkness with the MC. Agnes was right on that count, he spent far too much time in the dark. So much that he sometimes forgot what the light even was.
Darkness. Pain. Betrayal. Violence. Over and over again.
The adrenaline from the fight tonight still churned in his blood. He’d beat the hell out of a man, and Agnes wasn’t so much as batting an eye about the events of the night.
Maybe she does understand me.
No, no, impossible. No one understood him. He wasn’t looking for understanding. But maybe he was looking for two bodies slamming together in the dark. Her soft skin. Her moans. Her body opening for him as he drove in deep. And made all the demons that tormented him go silent for just a little while.
“You’re a highly protective individual,” Agnes noted. “If someone belongs to you—if you consider them yours—then you will do anything necessary in order to defend the individual. Or to get justice for them.” A decisive nod of her head. “You’ll even work with the Feds if that is what it takes to get vengeance. You’re old school like that. The eye-for-an-eye type straight to your marrow. Someone fucks with you, then you fuck with them harder. You wreck them harder.”
Okay, she was not wrong.
