AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She flipped open to the middle and didn’t look at him.
She could practically hear his brain cells reorganizing to head south.
But then her sweatpants hit her in the chest, landing on the magazine. “Put some pants on,” he said.
She glanced at him. “You don’t really want me to.”
He came and sat in the chair in front of her. He kept his eyes level with hers. “If I hadn’t just watched your mom lose her shit, you’re right. I wouldn’t want you to. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I’m not going to play. Put some pants on.”
She pouted. “Make me.”
He sighed. “Fine. The hell with it. Sit around half naked.”
She pushed the magazine and the pants to the side and crawled into the chair with him, straddling his lap like she’d done the night before.
Tonight, however, his jaw was set, and he didn’t make a move to touch her.
But when she leaned in, pressing her chest against his, he caught her waist, holding her at a slight distance.
“What do you think?” he said. “That if you don’t sleep with me, I’m going to put you out on the street?”
Well, that was honest. Anger flared, and Quinn started to climb off his lap.
Tyler’s hands tightened on her waist. She struggled, but he held fast. “Why is it that you get to screw with me, but when I call you on it, you get all indignant?”
Honestly, because arguing was easier than thinking.
“Let me go,” she said.
“No way. Not until you tell me what’s rolling around in that head of yours.”
She met his eyes and made her expression hard. “Let me go or I’ll tell Nick and his brothers what you can do.”
Well, that broke his control. His face turned furious and he shoved her onto the couch roughly, leaving her there and storm-ing into the kitchen. The refrigerator door opened with a creak, and he slammed it shut hard enough to make the contents rattle.
“You don’t know what the f**k you’re talking about,” he snapped, using an opener to jerk the cap off a bottle of beer.
“Don’t you get it? This isn’t a game.”
“Yeah, I get it,” she fired back. “You’re all gung ho for someone to kill my friends, when you’re guilty of the same thing.”
“I’m not guilty of anything!” he yelled. “I never hurt anyone with this! They did.”
Quinn sucked back into the couch, holding her breath. His anger was frightening, reminding her of that first night behind the 7-Eleven, when he’d burned her arm and demanded answers.
He wasn’t done yelling. “I risk myself for you, and you’re going to turn it around and threaten me? Are you f**king kidding me? Do you understand that the Guide could be watching?
That what I did was enough to earn a bullet to the head?” He took a long drink and slammed his beer onto the counter. “God damn it.”
Quinn wished she could make herself invisible. She hugged her knees to her chest and wished she’d put the pants on. She felt too exposed. Too vulnerable.
She was ready for him to stride across the apartment and shake her or slug her or physically shove her out the door. But he just stood there and took another long drink.
After a minute, he looked back at her. His voice was rough, but not aggressive. “Nice job, getting the conversation off of you.” He paused, and his expression turned resigned. “Tell the Merricks whatever you want. I know what I did—what I am. I can’t undo it.”
Quinn kept her breathing shallow, scared to move.
As usual with Tyler, she wasn’t sure whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. He’d helped her—more than once, and at risk to himself. What was she going to do—tell Nick about Tyler’s secret so these mysterious killers could kill more people? Turn Tyler in for saving her life?
