“What? Why would we do that? It’d make such a mess?—”
“Because it would make you feel better,” I cut her off. It would make me feel better about being a gigantic ass, too, but that was selfish. This was all about her.
“Me?” she asked incredulously, looking straight at me. Like there wasn’t a damn thing she missed and for some reason still liked what she saw.
“What happened…” I said delicately, “happened here, right?” She swallowed, and I lost her pretty stare. Her eyes skirted the bed, and the pretty tan of her skin paled. If I hadn’t been watching her so fucking closely, I would have missed the way she nodded slightly, like she was suddenly reminded of what had happened. As if I had somehow found a way to distract her and she’d forgotten.
And my big-ass mouth only reminded her.
I had to take a deep cleansing breath to keep my shit together as my hands fisted at my sides. I’d fucked up. No one would ever put a hand on her. Not ever again, not without paying for it with my foot pressed down on their balls before I pulled the trigger.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t do more than kick the fucker in the balls, but maybe doing this…” The knot in my throat tightened. “Maybe it would help,” I suggested. I felt like an idiot hearing myself say the words.
As if smashing up shit would make it better. As if anything that creep did could just be erased. It was on the tip of my tongue to take it back and offer her a ride to therapy. Maybetalking it out with a professional would be better. She chewed on her bottom lip as she looked around the space, at the things I’d mentioned.
“I really like the sound of beating the crap out of something,” she admitted with a sigh, and her dark gaze connected with mine. “But these things… The TV, the, bed, the mirrors… it could all be donated. They’re in great condition. Someone could use them.” Shit. If I wasn’t already half-way in love with her, that right there would have nailed me to the coffin.
“Hmm… okay. You’re right.”
“I am?”
“You are.” She was also fucking sweet and thoughtful beneath all that attitude. I’d bet my bike she had a soft, gooey center. One I knew, without even having to kiss her, I’d work tooth and nail not only to protect but to be the one who was honored in seeing it.
Yeah, I am fucked.
My mind went a million miles a minute as to what the fuck to do next. “Come on.”
“What?”
“Trust me?” Her mouth opened and shut, and she stared at me for a moment. “Trust me?” I repeated, taking a step closer to her, and when I was within reach, I extended my hand.
Her eyes dropped to it and then moved back up. The only saving grace I could hold on to was the fact she wasn’t staring at it like a fucking snake that was about to bite. Her gaze rose, and I couldn’t decipher what that look meant.
She drank me in and didn’t make any attempt at hiding it as she checked me out. The appreciation of my body was crystal clear, but there was something else there, too. A softness beneath the shrewd study of her gaze.
“Fine.” But no funny business.” She pointed a finger at me. It was almost close to impossible to hold back my grin as I agreed.
“I’m probably the least funny person you’ll ever meet,” I said seriously, and that’s when I saw it.
A crack in her tough-girl exterior.
“I bet,” she mumbled before taking my hand. The moment her palm touched mine, all warm and soft despite having to work with harsh chemicals, something in my world righted at the very time it shifted on its axis.
And I knew that no matter what, life would never be the same again.
6MARTY
“Gracias, Marty!” Dayana said as one of the prospects, as Griffin had called them, helped her carry her new TV to her car.
“De nada!” I waved at the woman who had been working here longer than me.
She smiled, her gaze grateful, before turning to point the baby biker, as I now called prospects, toward her car. I sipped on a Diet Coke as I looked around. I was dusty, the sweat on my skin had dried, and the sun had gone down on Vegas only to have the Strip light up with the brightness of all the hotels in the distance. Our casino had lights of its own, but since I was sitting at the back of the building, it was the lights from the Strip that shined brighter than the stars that littered the dark sky.
I felt my lips quirk upward.
I was happy.
Content, despite probably looking like a mess still wearing the coveralls, protective glasses sitting top of my head.
