AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Marie interrupted our stand off. "You say you can protect me. Prove it. She says she trusts you. Let her help. Keep her safe. Then it will prove that I can trust you."
"No." I was really grinding my teeth down now.
"Fine." Marie crossed her arms across her chest. "You've just shown me that I shouldn’t trust you."
"Exactly," Aster crossed her own arms across her chest, the two were mirrors of each other, uniting in female solidarity.
I stared them down, wishing I could shoot actual daggers from my eyes.
“Fine," I grit out, only conceding because Bourbon and Rose’s life was on the line too. "But you do exactly what I say, when I say it. No back talking or going off on your own.”
"Of course." Aster bat her eyes at me, then gave me a devilish grin, like she’d known I would give in. "Don't I always?"
“Time to go.” I gripped her arm, pulling her towards the door, the bloody nightmare. As we left, I threw over my shoulder towards Marie. "Carlos is waiting at the back door to take you home."
Then I dragged a smirking Aster from the room grumbling, “You have no idea how much trouble you’ve gotten yourself into.”
Eleven
Coulter was silent the whole way back to the house, his fingers clenched tight on the steering wheel. He wouldn’t look at me and was short if I attempted conversation.
Disappointment coiled in my stomach and chest. I thought he'd be proud of me. Instead, I got some strange version of him being pissed off—that I’d done what he’d asked of me.
I might not have gotten exactly what he wanted, but we were at least a step ahead. Marie was beginning to trust us and that was because of me, not his rude ass.
A thank you and maybe a cold beer with squeezed lime was in order, but apparently all I was getting was the cold shoulder.
As we approached the gate to Coulter's house, he barked at me to climb in the back. I considered refusing but I knew the fastest way to getting locked back up was to get caught.
I could only count my lucky stars that he didn’t make me put that dumb bag on my face as he snuck me back into the house. As soon as we got to his room, I rounded in on him.
"What the hell Coulter? Why are you acting like I did something wrong?"
“You betrayed me in there."
My mouth dropped open. “I did no such thing."
“You did." He walked off, his fingers going to the tie at his throat.
I followed him into the closet. "I did exactly what you asked me to do."
"I asked you to get information from her, not gang up on me." He threw off his shoes and socks, then shrugged out of his coat with jerky movements, hanging it up.
"She did give us information. She told us about the notebook. She--"
"You forced my hand in there! Made it look like I wasn't in control!" He wrenched the tie from his neck, tossing it on the floor. "Of course she didn't think I could protect her. If I can't even keep you under control," his fingers went to the buttons of his shirt, flicking them open, “how am I supposed to prove to her that I can protect her from my own father?”
“I helped you, not hurt you in—”
He peeled off his shirt, revealing a broad, muscled chest and stomach. A gorgeous tattoo filled the right shoulder and spread down his arm. I opened my mouth again to speak but my brain short circuited, distracted by smooth skin interrupted by three stark scars on his chest.
“In…”
“In what, Aster?” His hands went to the button on his pants, and I shrieked, turning around as he unzipped his pants and stepped out of them.
Not because I was afraid of seeing him naked.
Because I was afraid of my reaction to seeing him without clothing on.
