Vandal
Iwoke up with Macy in my arms. Her head rested on my chest and one of her arms was slung low over my ribs. She was perfectly comfortable, like we’d been sleeping like this for an eternity. It felt that way. Natural. Perfect.
The room was quiet in that rare way that fooled you into believing that the world was right and perfect and peaceful, even when the truth was it was conspiring to tear your shit apart. Macy was breathing slow and even, her breaths warm against my skin while I stared at the ceiling, watching the first slashes of light as they snuck into the room. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, pretending it was just another day.
For a few more minutes.
My body didn’t want to move but my instincts urged me to get the fuck up and start moving. My mind was already up and pacing the room, running through worst-case scenarios until I’d run them down a hundred fucking times.
As much as I wanted to stay in bed with my body tangled with Macy’s, I couldn’t. Duty called to me and I wasn’t a man who shirked my duties. Not fucking ever.
“You’re thinking so hard,” Macy sighed, her cheek shifted against my chest so she could look at me. “You’re trying to find a plan that won’t use me as bait?”
I hated that she knew me so well sometimes, but I huffed out a breath and exhaled through my nose. I could’ve lied,could’ve tried to bullshit her, but I refused to be another asshole insulting her intelligence. Our gazes met and I nodded. “Yeah,” I admitted. “I don’t like it and it’s not safe. Too much shit could go wrong.” And I hated that part more than anything.
She exhaled slowly, studying me carefully. I wondered, for a brief moment, what she was looking for and if she’d found it. Eventually her expression smoothed out and she nodded. “Itisrisky, I know that. Believe me, I’m under no illusions that this is an easy or safe choice, but if anyone should put themselves at risk in this situation, it’s me.” Her voice was strong and sure, with just a thread of fear woven through. “This mess is mine, Drew. I brought Diego and his minions to your doorstep, and I have to help fix it.”
Fuck.
Every instinct in me wanted to shut that shit down. Permanently. I wanted to wrap her up and lock her away somewhere no one could get to her so I could go and deal with Diego the old-fashioned way. But that wasn’t how this ended.
And we both knew it.
I held her gaze, searching for any traces of doubt or hesitation. I didn’t find any. What I found was a steely resolve. She was scared as fuck, but that wasn’t new, she was always a little bit scared. But what I saw now was managed fear. She was in control of it, managing it so that she could get through lockdown and whatever came with it.
My strong girl.
“I don’t like it,” I finally said. I sighed again, already tired of today when it had barely started. “But you’re right. I’ll take it to the guys, and we’ll come up with a plan to keep you safe.”
She relaxed almost instantly at my words. “Yep,” she said, nodding too many times. “Okay.” The way she said the words, too quick and too easy, told me everything she was trying like hellnotto say.
“It’s okay to say you’re scared,” I told her, my voice as gentle as I could manage.
She flashed a soft, small smile and a half-hearted nod. “I know and I am scared, really fucking scared, but saying it out loud doesn’t help. If anything, it only makes me focus on the fear instead of what I need to do to end this shit. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah,” I answered on a heavy sigh. I understood more than she knew. “It does.” I pulled her up until we were chest to chest and face to face, pressing my lips to hers into a kiss so hungry and fierce it stole my breath. I poured all the words I refused to say into that kiss because it wasn’t the time for more words. I pulled back and rested my forehead against hers, needing to feel that connection. “This plan doesn’t happen if you can’t do it, Mace. I don’t mean you power through it, either. I mean you have to feel confident you can pull this off from start to finish. No matter what the guys say, I won’t risk your safety. Not for anything. Got me?”
She nodded, a slow smile curved her lips as she pressed them to mine. This kiss was soft and sweet, punctuated by a frantic need that was intoxicating. She pulled back—too soon—with a slow smile. “I got you.”
I wanted to stay right there in that moment, in that bed, with Macy’s weight on top of me, forget about the whole fucking world around us. But I couldn’t. Today was the beginning ofa whole new level of stress. “We’re on lockdown,” I told her. “Officially.”
She rolled off me with a dramatic groan. “It sounds so damn ominous.”
My lips tugged into a reluctant smile. That was Macy, making me smile even when I didn’t feel like it. “No leaving the property without one of us.”
“Got it,” she replied with a teasing smile. “I’m not going anywhere, anyway.”
“Good,” I shot back.
“At least until it’s time to dangle the bait.” She laughed when I groaned, tilting her head back for a kiss before I left.
The first order of business was another goddamn meeting. It wasn’t church, nothing official this morning, but we needed to make sure everybody was on the same page going forward. The minute I stepped into the office, the air was filled with tension and anticipation.
I listened with half an ear while Diesel and Rocky outlined the day and assigned the prospects to various duties. “We need to keep an eye on the businesses,” Diesel said. “I wouldn’t put it past these assholes to attack there just to fuck with us or create a diversion.”
Rocky nodded, eyes bouncing around the room before they locked on mine. “Somethin’ on your mind, Vandal?”
My leg stopped bouncing under the table and I sat up a little taller. I knew exactly what Rocky saw, me looking like an emotional mess with wide eyes and an air of rage pulsingthrough me. “Yeah,” I answered, scrubbing a hand over my face. “Macy wants us to use her as bait to draw Diego out.”
