Shai
Rory gets backan hour before I get off. He sits in a booth in the corner, eyes following my every move.
It should piss me off.
It should be uncomfortable.
It’s not normal the way he watches me, the way he’ll sit here for hours while I’m working, but who the fuck wants normal? I like it, like his eyes on me. Like how it makes me feel. Like being craved by him. It’s like he’s obsessed with me, and the fact that it doesn’t make me walk away says just as much about me as it does about him.
I finish my shift, and he walks with me to the bathroom. I grin when I think about the guy he left there earlier to make sure no one interrupted when he got me off. People do what Rory says. They’re afraid of him, and again, that does something to me, but not in the way it should.
I clean up and change, neither of us saying anything, him just watching me. We get to the car, and he points to the glove box. “Your gun is in there.”
“Thanks.” I pull it out, smile at the way it feels in my hand.
“Where am I going?”
I give Rory the address.
“You said he has a bodyguard. Think we should expect more people than just the two of them there?”
Shit. I didn’t even think about that. I’ve never done something like this before. What if I fuck it up? What if Rory gets hurt because of me? “I don’t think so…” The conversation with Ollie comes back to me, when he talked about reeling Rory in and not letting him do anything to get himself hurt. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
“Why the fuck not? He’s taking advantage of you. He’s a piece of shit who needs to learn he can’t fuck with something that’s mine.”
My pulse nearly dies, then kicks back to life again, too hard, too fast. Something that’s his? He’s said that before, but it feels different in this moment.
“I know, but should we talk to Tiernan and Cillian about it? Or like…watch him first?”
He tosses a glance my way. “I’ll take care of you. I won’t let you get hurt.”
“I’m not worried about me. I can take care of myself.” But he’s the first person who has ever wanted to take care of me, the first person who has vowed to. The only one who would be doing this for me.
“I can bring you home first. I’ll go deal with it and then come back and—”
“No. Fuck no. You’re not doing this shit without me, Ror.” If he insists on taking care of me, I’m going to take care of him too. “I won’t let anything happen to you either.”
He grins in the dark car. “Aren’t you fucking sweet.”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I. It’s cute.” When I don’t respond, he adds, “It’ll be fun. We’ll be okay.”
I trust him. Strangely, I trust him more than I’ve ever trusted anyone in my life. Rory knows what he’s doing. Hewon’t get hurt. It’ll be just like the night outside the bar, the two of us together. “You can’t kill him. We just need to scare him, let him know he can’t dick us around.”
“If he dies or not is up to him,” Rory answers.
“I’m serious. Don’t kill him. I can’t…I can’t let you do that for me.”
He’s silent for a moment, then gives me a small nod, and I breathe out a sigh of relief.
My stomach is in knots the rest of the drive, but there’s excitement too. The idea of the power this will bring me, protecting my mom, letting Bruce know he can’t fuck with us…doing it with Rory. Him wanting to do it for me.
He pulls off to the side of the road, a little ways from the house. “You sure you got this? If you’re not sure, you can wait here. I can’t…you need to be safe.”
He can’t what? “I’m good, Ror. We’re doing this together.”
“Okay…we’ll sneak down to the house on foot, scope things out, get inside and take care of business. You stay close to me, right on my fucking ass the whole time. I’m not kidding about that. Let me do the talking.”
