“Then what is your plan?” I used finger quotes when I said the word plan. Clearly, I had worked her up, and I saw her as her old teenage self, throwing a fit when her mom wouldn’t let her do something Jared and I were doing. I wanted to reach out and hug her or smile, but I knew she wouldn’t appreciate it.
“I don’t think it matters so much as to who exactly pulled the trigger, they all work on Dante’s orders. I’ve only been at Sasha’s a short time and I know that.”
“So, you’re going to take down Dante?” I asked. I wanted to reach forward and shake some sense into her, but she just shrugged her shoulders.
I’m not the naive little girl I once was. I don’t need your protection or anyone else’s. I have a mission, and you’re not going to stop me from seeing it through.”
“A mission?” I mocked. “Are we five?”
“I’m going to take down the Coyotes, and if I have to take you down with them, then I’ll do it.”
“Your mission, if anything, should be to stay alive. And messing with Dante isn’t the way to do that.” My voice was lower now.
“Stop trying to tell me what to do!” she shouted.
Kobe
We stood nose-to-nose in my small living room. I was irritated with him, but at the same time, my lips were telling me they had muscle memory and remembered his lips on mine. I exhaled slowly as I attempted to regather my thoughts.
“This is ridiculous,” I said, no longer trying to bypass him. It felt undignified to try to squeeze passed when every step I took he blocked. Part of me seriously wanted to show him my skill as an MMA fighter and try out my new move that I had been perfecting with Ridley, though something told me he could counter those just as well.
“It’s not ridiculous. I’m trying to protect you.” His dark eyes blazed with frustration, and he moved closer to me, his leather boots falling heavy on the fake wood floors. “You don’t get it. I know these people better than you ever will. I know what they’re capable of.”
“I don’t need you to protect me. I’ve been looking out for myself for the last four years,” I said as emotion welled up inside me. It was strange that it had been four years since I’d lost my brother and since my brother’s best friend had been accused of his murder. “Besides, you don’t have any right to tell me to stay away from them. Especially, when you’re over there playing buddy-buddy with the leader of the fucking Coyotes,” I shouted as anger surged within me.
“I’m not playing buddy-buddy with anyone.” He glared, and I took a step forward, challenging him and closing the distance between us. The smell of smoke that was woven into the fibers of his hoodie filled my lungs.
Under other circumstances, I might have appreciated the closeness off his body, and how it reminded me of that kiss in Sasha’s, the kiss I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about my entire shift. I narrowed my eyes at the flashback. “And what the hell was that?”
“What the hell was what?” he asked somewhat taken aback by my sudden shift in topics.
“That kiss,” I said and looked deliberately at his mouth, the taste of him still on my tongue, his name still lingering on my lips.
“That was to protect you too,” he said, and I laughed.
“Really?” I demanded and pressed a finger to his hard chest.
“Yes, really,” he said. “If you knew what they have been saying you might show a little more appreciation.”
My stomach leapt. “What were they saying?”
“What the hell does it matter? The point is that I knew where it was headed, and I had to do something to protect you,” he said defensively.
“Kissing me was your defense?” I asked, first filled with humiliation since the kiss was just a ploy to him. But now I felt frustration, since part of me had hoped that he’d done it because he actually liked me and now, I’m once again faced with the fact that to Easton, I was just a kid.
“Yes, action,” he repeated, and I gripped his shirt hard and tugged his face inches down to send a message.
“I don’t need anyone to protect me, or to take action,” I said pushing him back from me. His heart pounded, and I found myself pressing my hands even harder against his chest. There was this security in feeling Easton’s life in the palm of my hands. Unlike my brother, this man was alive, he was my last connection to Jared. “Please, Easton, what are you doing with the Coyotes?”
He sighed, his breath uneven as his body responded to mine, and his eyes fixed on my mouth. “I need you to trust me, Kobe. For once in your life, do as you’re told.”
“No.”
His hands pressed firmly against my hips, and my back collided with the closed front door.
“Easton—” I gasped, but my words were cut off by the force of his body pressed hard against mine, one hand sliding up my side to grip on to my neck and pull me closer. His lips slid across mine and then he was ravishing me, silencing me.
My pulse throbbed beneath his fingers as my breath caught in my chest. If there had been any doubt about the kiss before, it was gone. I bit his lip, and he jerked back, wide eyed in shock, and pressed his finger to his lip.
“Don’t be such a baby,” I whispered and then pushed him backward. I wanted to get him to the couch. He tripped over the coffee table and fell hard to the floor.
“Kobe,” he exclaimed, and I chuckled as I unfastened the snap on my shorts and slowly pulled the zipper down.
Whatever he was going to say, whatever protest he’d formed in his mind, died as his eyes followed
