Page 48

His mouth turned down in a frown. “The fuck?” Tex’s gaze hardened the longer he looked up at me. I preferred the desire and fear in his eyes more, but I could work with anger.

“Why are you here?”

“Let’s go.”

Tex knocked my hand away, and his strands slipped through my fingers. He righted himself the best he could but was still leaning heavily to the right. A single breeze would knock him over.

A knock on the door interrupted us. “Hey, I want to go home. Hurry it up.”

Tex pushed himself up off the floor, every movement shaky at best.

“Hey, did you hear me?” A guy stuck his head into the stall.

I stood in front of Tex. “Get out.”

He took a step back. “Look, I just want to go home.”

“And you will, but if you keep coming back here, you won’t.”

He audibly swallowed before turning back around.

“Wow, you’re just an all-around gangster, huh?” Tex asked, laughing.

It sounded off as I turned back to face him. He was standing up, but he hadn’t moved off the wall.

“You knew that when you met me.”

His blue eyes focused on me. “Just like you knew who I was.”

It wasn’t a question, but I nodded all the same. His head fell forward, and his hair hid his eyes away from me.

“Tex...”

“Don’t you mean officer Caster?” He shook his head and lifted it once more. “You shouldn’t be here.” His eyes seemed to water as his teeth dug into his bottom lip.

I moved toward him and pulled it free. He was slow to react, raising his hand to knock mine away but this time I stayed unmoving. “I’m here.”

“You shouldn’t be. We’re enemies.”

When it came to public opinion or even Benito’s opinion, yes, we were. What did it say about me that I still wanted him? “Do you want me?”

Tex’s mouth opened, but he clamped it shut and shook his head. My chest felt as if a blade had pierced through me.

“I shouldn’t, but you make my fucking head hurt.”

Doesn’t he know he does the same to me?I pulled him toward me and draped his arm over my shoulder.

“You’re filthy.”

“Yeah, well, now I’m getting you dirty.” Tex leaned heavily against me as we moved out of the bathroom. I kept him upright to my car a block away. The walk seemed to have sobered him up slightly as he looked around once I had him seated in the car.

“Where are you taking me?”

I closed the door and rounded the car. Slipping behind the wheel, I still didn’t have an answer for him.

“Penelope has food?”

Tex nodded, his head bobbing before he grabbed it with both hands and groaned. “Bought those automatic feeders after my first overnight shift.”