This morning, though, it’s a different kind of rough. One that for some reason doesn’t seem to be about me.
“Decker.” I break our kiss, trying to slow him. I barely have a reprieve before he’s on me again, not letting me pull back, barely even letting me breathe.
Lips on mine, he carries me across the kitchen and rests me on the countertop. When I’m steady, he unzips his jacket and tears it off, a dark look in his eyes—a mix of hunger and anger and something else. Something dangerous. Something violent. And the blood. The darkish brown splatter marked across his light grey henley. The red speckle on his neck.
Before he can kiss me again, I rear back and slam my palm into his chest.
“That’s blood,” I say.
He drops his chin and inspects his shirt. He opens his mouth to say something, maybe to explain, but I speak before he can.
“You lied to me. I asked where you were, and you lied.”
He stares at me until I start feeling a little too naked sitting on his counter with my tits out. Finally, he says, “So?”
I grit my teeth. “So, I don’t like being lied to. And I’m certain you didn’t end up covered in blood doing actual police work. Last time I checked, cops don’t do that.”
He snorts. “First of all, cops in South Baydefinitelydo that. You know that firsthand. And so do your brothers. Second, everyone likes being lied to, Grace. When the truth is ugly, it’s the last thing anyone wants to hear. Don’t ask, don’t tell. And trust me when I say my lie is much prettier than any truth you’ll get out of me. So don’t ask.”
I hop off the counter and fold my arms across my naked chest, concealing my breasts as I tilt up my chin. “What is this to you, Linc? What do you want from me?”
He blinks, the hardness set across his features softening slightly. “I?—”
“If this is more to you than what we agreed, more thanjust sex,then I need you to say it.”
He crosses his arms, matching my stance, readying to fight, to win the game this is about to become.
But I’m not playing anymore.
“And if it is?”
“I told you last night,” I huff. “I can handle fucked-up. I don’t need pretty. I need the truth, regardless of how scary it might be. If this is more to you, then be honest, if it isn’t, then hang on to that little lie and do what you’re good at and fuck me. Then I’ll leave.”
More of that silence, the studying, thinking. Then he lets out a quick breath. “I had some business for Axe.”
My attention drops to the blood staining his shirt. “And Axe… made you do that?”
“No. Not exactly. He… gives me an order. I get to decide how I carry it out. This time it was a little more”—he smiles and leanscloser, steadying his hands on either side of me, caging me in against his counter—“violent.”
“Trying to scare me?”
“You said you could handle fucked-up. I’m just giving you what you asked for. The truth. The Sinner prez calls, I answer. He tells me I need to send a message, to hurt someone who’s trying to fuck him over, and I come home looking like this. How’s that for pretty, Gracie?”
I swallow. “Did you kill someone?”
His jaw ticks. “No. I’m not usually who he sends to do something like that. But if he’d told me to, I would have.”
A chill rushes through me. “How do you… do that? You’re a cop. In averysmall town. What if someone recognizes you?”
“If I plan on letting them live, I wear a mask.” He digs into the pocket of his jeans and pulls out a black piece of fabric, then tosses it onto the counter.
I don’t know what Axe has on Linc, but it must be a hell of a secret if he’s this deep in with the Sinners. It’s eating at him, all this shit he does for them. It’s written on his face, in the dark that’s crept over the amber of his eyes.
Carefully, I step closer and feather my fingers over his jaw. Craning my neck, I brush my lips against his. “I’m sorry you had to do that.”
He swallows and frowns down at the blood still staining the fabric stretched across his chest.
I tug at the hem of his shirt and pull it over his head.
