AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lou let out a dismissive huff of breath. “I won’t be caught. Laying down a few strips of tire spikes will be a hell of a lot faster than pouring all that water into the tanks. It’s not like I want those goons taking up more of my time than they have to when I have so many more interesting things to devote it to.”
Something about the sly shift in her tone had me bracing myself. “You mean your skating,” I said casually, knowing it was something more than that.
“I mean, there’s alwaysthat.” She tugged a strand of her dark hair free from its habitual ponytail and curled it around her finger. “But now I’m also hooking up with my sort-of coach, which makes the whole thing even more fun.”
Even though I’d had some suspicious thoughts when she’d signaled for me to hang back the other afternoon, jealousy roared to the surface beneath my well-practiced cool. I tucked my hands under the table as they clenched, my jaw echoing the motion for a split-second before I caught my reaction.
Lou could sleep with whoever the fuck she wanted. I’d made it awfully clear thatIwasn’t game, hadn’t I?
I could hardly expect her to become a nun.
But I couldn’t stop the images from playing out in the back of my mind, sending an infuriated ruddy haze over my vision. That guy’s slim hands running over her body, his lips pressed against hers…
Did he have any idea how to treat her the way she deserved? What kind of asshole got it on with a girl he was supposed to be coaching anyway?
“That seems a little hasty,” I said, straining to keep my voice steady. “You haven’t known him very long. Are you sure you can trust him?”
Lou snorted. “Trust him for what—not to be an undercover spy for my mother? Or a gang lackey? I think a couple of weeks of skating with him for hours nearly every day is plenty of time to be totally sure of that. Oh, and theyearsbefore that when I followed his competitions on TV.”
“There are other ways he could hurt you.”
She rolled her eyes. “I was the one who seducedhim, FYI. You should be rejoicing. He’s a huge step up from the kinds of guys I was stuck hanging around with back home.”
Okay, she might have had a slight point there. But the guys in the gangs I understood. I knew how to read them.
I knew fuck-all about how some figure skating star operated.
“Just doing my job,” I said with forced calm. “That’s why I’m here.”
Lou leaned back in her chair, narrowing her eyes at me. “Then I’ll remind you that it was your idea to come along. You know, my skating partner is all kinds of hot too, even if he’s a jerk half the time. Maybe I’ll see if I can get him to loosen up in all the right ways too.”
I obviously hadn’t hidden my disapproving reaction quite well enough, and now she was pissed off at me—and trying to rile me up on purpose. At least, I sure as hell hoped that comment about the other rink-jock was throwaway provocation, not her real feelings.
I opened my mouth and ended up shoving the last few bites of my dinner into it rather than saying anything. The heat of the meal churned in my gut alongside the flares of temper I rarely struggled this hard to contain.
She wasn’t a child anymore. I knew that. She was a grown woman, and it wasn’t my place to boss her around, especially now.
But when she made jabs like that, fuck, did I want to bend her over the table and—
No, that was definitely not the direction my mind should be going in right now.
I pushed my chair back from the table, tossed my plate in the sink, and strode down to my room in the basement without another word.
Never had I been more grateful for the punching bag I’d been able to pick up at a sporting goods store in the larger town several miles outside of Hobb Creek. I went right at it, slamming one fist and then the other into the thick material.
The bag’s chain squeaked. It swung away from me and back into another vicious punch.
I poured my tension out into the blows, letting the padded instrument absorb all of it. I hadn’t bothered to wrap my hands, and in a matter of minutes, my knuckles were raw. But I kept going, letting the sting ground me.
I’d followed Lou all the way up here to keep her safe. She might be grown up and a woman who knew what she wanted, but anyone, no matter how tough, was vulnerable on their own.
Especially anyone with a mom like Mireya Cordova, who wasn’t likely to take her heir’s disappearance sitting down.
So I was going to do my fucking best to protect Lou from the things she actually needed protection from—and that included shielding her from all those urges I never should have felt to begin with.
TWELVE
Luciana
