“He’s worried that he’ll lose control of his favorite attack dog, that Elyse will turn Grave against him.” I don’t phrase it like a question, things clicking into place as I continue speaking.
Maverick gives me a pitying look. “And take you right along with him. You haven’t exactly been subtle in fawning over her.”
Elyse refuses to meet my eyes, not that I blame her. We haven’t talked about that moment waking up in bed together before Julian summoned her, and there hasn’t been a repeat since. Grave’s ridiculous idea was dead on arrival, so I took a step back to give her some space.
Maverick removes the ice from his crotch and starts getting to his feet. “Why else do you think he’d put me in charge of her training, hoping to put her back in her place and remind her of how powerless she really is?”
His words are harsh, and Elyse flinches away from them, but doesn’t dispute the statement. Maverick is many things, but he doesn’t play the same bullshit games the rest of us do. He prefers to keep to himself and leave the political song and dance to people with far more patience than he has.
“You really have to go so far as to actually hit her though?” I snarl, agitated and taking it out on him. He knows what she went through and is a heartless enough bastard to make her relive that shit?
Elyse raises her hand, swallowing. “To be fair, most of my bruises are from falling. Doesn’t really take much to leave a mark.” To punctuate the statement, she presses one finger down hard on her skin until it’s red. “Trust me, there’ll be a small dot here tomorrow, just wait.”
Maverick pulls the ice pack away from his swollen face next and fuck, he’s going to have a black eye tomorrow, I’d hazard. “Figured after he threatened her, it’d be better if he saw some marks to satisfy him for a while. That way he’d feel like he was winning and his attention would turn to bigger problems. Let him have the little victories that don’t require much sacrifice to appease him.”
“Mav!” she hisses, cheeks tinting red and I stuff down a stab of jealousy I shouldn’t feel.
Biting my tongue, I breathe through my nose to try and keep my temper in check. “Fuck you mean, threatened her?”
She shakes her head and pleads, “It’s nothing, I just hit him too hard.”
Maverick’s pale eyes flash before he fills me in on what happened at the breakfast she was summoned to. By the time he’s done, I’m pissed enough to contemplate doing something incredibly stupid, like storming into Julian’s office. Instead, I take slow, deep breaths as I clench and unclench my fist, reminding myself of the likelihood of that ending well.
He has contingency plans in place for exactly this reason. No one surrounds themselves with murderers and thieves, and expects the best of them.
“So now what?” I hiss through gritted teeth, my entire body taut and ready to snap.
Mav clucks his tongue, rolling his shoulders and heading for the door. “Now, I shower. One day at a time, Ev, it’s the only way to survive this place. She runs, she can’t ever stop. So might as well wait until the last possible moment before it comes down to that.”
Elyse butts in, sounding dejected. “Not like I planned for a future that’s being ripped away from me or anything. It’s the sort of life I thought I’d have as soon as I saved up a little more money before everything happened, but now there’s just another person to watch for over my shoulder. This place is a temporary reprieve, so might as well soak it up while it lasts.” The door slams shut behind Maverick, leaving the two of us alone.
Taking a deep breath, I figure I might as well rip off the bandage and take Mav’s approach to confronting problems head on. “That why you’ve been avoiding me, or because of what happened that night?”
She fiddles with the bottom of her tank top, rubbing her fingers over the fabric in an attempt to avoid looking at my face. “Pretty much, yeah. And after the way Grave shot you just for interrupting our movie, wasn’t quite sure how he’d react. Didn’t want you to wind up dead on my account.”
My lip twitches in amusement and I confess, “That wasn’t why he shot me.” She finally looks up, forehead scrunched with confusion. “He was trying to help me out since I hadn’t made a move. With the way you were fussing over him, he thought he’d share the love.”
She chuckles, finally releasing the death grip on her shirt. “That sounds like Grave logic if I’ve ever heard it.” After a pause, she hesitantly states, “But I can’t really commit to anything. If things escalate, I might need to abandon ship without even being able to say goodbye.”
And there it is. It doesn’t matter if all of us are on the same page like I was worrying over, not when it’s become abundantly clear that there isn’t a future for any of us anyway. Still, I never expected one, not with this lifestyle. Hell, I never thought I’d wind up where I did, that Julian would appear from thin air and get his lawyers to make the case against me disappear. If that’s taught me anything, it’s that you never know what tomorrow might bring, even when everything seems absolutely hopeless.
“Don’t remember asking you to.”
She blinks, obviously not expecting me to take everything in stride so easily. But I’ve only survived this long by making the best of whatever shitty situation I’ve found myself in.
“Things are hard enough without making them more complicated than they need to be.” Before I can talk myself out of it, I cross the distance between us and kiss her.
She tenses in surprise and I pull back, wondering if I grossly misread the situation. A second later she fists the front of my shirt, rising on her tiptoes before I’ve gone far. Her tongue swipes across my lips, pushing for more that I’m happy to give.
She’s too inherently good for someone like me. I have enough blood on my hands that the Devil’s already reserved me a job. And sure as shit, there’s no doubt where I’ll end up, because while there are a few things I’ve done that I seriously regret, I wouldn’t change any of it. Because it all led me to her, and gave me the skills to protect her for as long as she’s here.
The angle isn’t comfortable, and I easily lift her up without breaking the kiss. Her legs wrap around my waist as I cross the room, pressing her back against the door to keep it shut. Tangling one hand in her pale hair to cushion it against the door, I grind against her as she rolls her hips.
Tearing myself from her lips, I run a path down her jaw and neck, switching between small kisses and flicks of my tongue. She works a hand between us, flicking open the button of my jeans after a bit of fumbling. Her knuckles brush down the muscles of my stomach before closing around my straining cock.
“Fuck, Elyse,” I hiss, biting her shoulder and pulling my hips back to give her more room to move.
She starts stroking my length with shallow pumps before the door starts to open, pushing her into me as she yips out a surprised squeak. I release her thigh to brace my hand on the door, shoving it back closed before it makes it more than a few inches.
