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“I told you I would look after you.”
“Then cut me loose.”
“Is that why you’re—fuck, forget it. You’re coming with me!”
“No,” she said again, pushing away from the doorframe. At that moment, it was important to defy him. It was important to show him she had power too. “I won’t just forget that. I can’t just forget it. You said our agreement ran until you were finished. You’re finished. You gave me the video. It’s over.”
His gaze darkened. “You think I don’t have copies?”
“Is that how you want to play this?” she asked. “Make like we’re repeating history? No.”
“No? No! You don’t say no to me,” he snarled. “No one says no to me.”
“I do,” she said, getting up so close her sling met his torso. “I say no when you’re wrong. You’re wrong, Conn.”
He grabbed the hair at the back of her head in a sudden tight fist. Sharp pain shot through her skull; the sting hissed out between her teeth.
Immediately, he relaxed his grip. “Macushla,” he whispered.
“Quit saying that,” she said. “I don’t even know what it means. Accept that things are different now. If you think this is necessary, that I’ll share or print anything I saw in my time at Stag if you don’t keep me sweet, you can relax. I have no intention of divulging your secrets.”
Or theirs.
“If you were going to spill, you’d have done it to the guy beating you.”
Her chin descended as her eyes closed. “I’m tired, Connel. I want to go to sleep.”
“You sleep in my bed. Where you’re safe.”
“I’m safe here,” she said. “Lachlan will call and check in. He’s pulled strings to route patrols this way too. I’m safe.”
“Not as safe as you’ll be with me.”
“And the next time you want to have a party? The next time you get bored and replace me with some bimbo?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe I don’t,” she said.“We talked about trust, but we didn’t have it. We never trusted each other, not really. And why should we?”
“You proved yourself.”
“Oh, is that what I did? Great! Thanks for the test.”
“It was nothing to do with us. I did not set those guys on you.”
“I know that,” she said. “I also know it happened on McDade territory, right on your doorstep. That why you dumped the body on Silvio? You’re pissed they came into your territory and touched your toy. Except I wasn’t your toy, not anymore, because you finished with me.”
“I found your goddamn notes,” he snapped. “Whatever the fuck you were writing about Dorsey.”
“Oh,” she said, no less affronted. “And you didn’t think it was weird they were right there in your office, probably lying on your desk? I wasn’t hiding anything and I’m not ashamed of what I was doing. If you’d talked to me about it—I actually planned to talk to you about it. You dumped my ass before I got a chance.”
“We had the weekend.”
“Yeah, and talking was so high on the agenda,” she said on a semi-scoff. “You have no idea what…” Clarity was an odd creature that visited at random moments. “You dumped me because you thought I was writing about your family. That what? I was using sex to manipulate you?” Probably something he’d faced before. “Shit, Conn, how often did we talk? You didn’t let me get close. You kept me a football field away from you. I was always less interested in the story than I was…” Not something she wanted to say out loud to him. “If I wanted McDade secrets, it would’ve been easier to manipulate Niall or Daly with sex. Hell, I could’ve slept with Hock or Snuff, any of the guys you had driving me, protecting me. You don’t think they’d have been an easier mark? You think I’m so low… that I’m such a cheap slut, I’d use my body to get a story?” She laughed, just a short, humorless exhale. “I do something you can use against me, you do something I can use against you. That was the basis of our relationship. I don’t go to that guy for protection when I’m scared. I don’t turn to him for comfort when I’m low. You don’t give a shit about me, not really. You sent your guy to the hospital, you didn’t even come yourself.”
“For you,” he growled.
“For me?”
