He glared at me, emotion that didn’t fit our current situation bleeding from his obsidian eyes. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Am I laughing?”
“You’re off your head.”
Whatever Ranger was feeling gave way to annoyance. To frustration. He wanted to walk away from me, I felt it, but he couldn’t. Hewould not, and I did not like that he was trapped in a place that made him feel bad.
I stopped walking.
He gripped my elbow, trying to draw me on. “Keep moving. It’s too quiet here.”
We had reached the part of the beach that young families occupied during the day, and the sun had started to set. Twilight. Dusk. By the sea, it was always beautiful, but I didn’t notice such things anymore. As the sky turned from fiery orange to ghostly blue, I saw only Ranger and the fact that something I’d said or done had upset him.
Keep moving.
He didn’t repeat himself, but I obeyed, for his sake. And I walked at his side as if we were lovers strolling in the sand, waiting for his hyper-vigilant gaze to return to me. “What am I crazy about? That is what thisoff my headphrase means, no? Or... drunk, maybe?”
Ranger slid me another shadowed glower, but it lacked the bite of the first and he expelled a heavy breath. “Can we talk about this later?”
“Why?”
“Cos I’m more worried about someone whacking you right now than?—”
“Than what?”
“Fuck’s sake.” Ranger jammed a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. “You’re really going to make me say it?”
I stole the cigarette. Filled my lungs and passed it back. “I think so.”
Ranger kept smoking, lengthening his stride as he pivoted and headed up the beach.
Caught between fascination and concern, I followed, disregarding everything on earth except the consuming desire to remain as close to him as possible.
We reached the beach wall.
Ranger vaulted it. I lacked such spring in my legs, but I didn’t resent the view.
“Need help?”
“No.” I climbed over the wall and did not die. “I need to know what it is about the orange that makes you want to punch things. Unless it is me you want to punch.”
Ranger finished his cigarette and crushed it beneath his boot. “I don’t want to punch you. Believe me, it would be easier if I did.”
“What would?”
He sighed again. Like the world had ended. “Vik, you wereon top of me. I’d have put anything in my fucking mouth.”
[ 14 ]
RANGER
Viktor stared at me.
I stared at him.
It was our thing, apparently. Some people got movie nights and banging sex. We got this.
We? You’re not a couple, knobhead. You’re his fucking bodyguard.
