Coming Undone (6 page)

He sat back on his haunches at her feet, gaze steady on her face as he lifted his hand. His knuckles grazed her cheek, the pad of one finger wiping at her left eye. McKenna’s lashes fluttered.

Jesus.

“You want trust,” he pointed out gently. “I want the same, and someone has to make the first move for that to happen.” He shrugged. “Figured since I’m the one who approached you, I’d go first.”

She snorted. Approached. Was that the word they were using now for breaking and entering and scaring someone within an inch of their life?

He cupped her chin and tilted her face up so their gazes met. “What I just told you, no one knows. Not even my brother who’s my best friend.”

Lord. There was another one like him roaming around the place? McKenna frowned at him. “I don’t need to know this, do I?”

“What do you need to know, McKenna?”

She licked her lips, pulse racing when his attention dropped to her mouth. “I—Is RJ your real name?” Why she asked that she had no idea. It wasn’t like she could answer in the affirmative if he asked the same question.

“Yes.” He nodded.

“What is it short for?”

The fingers on her chin tightened then flexed. His thumb brushed her skin before his hand fell away. “Ren Junior.” He spelled it out. “Not short for anything.”

She nodded.
Ren.
His name formed right there on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to say it out loud, watch his face when she did. She wanted to ask him to hold her, deliver on the promise of his strong arms, keep her safe. She didn’t.

“What about you, McKenna?” The whispered words heated her skin all over. “Anything you wish to share with me?” He sounded hopeful, but there was no pressure in his tone. Only hope and curiosity.

She bobbed her head at his question. “I’m not in love with Salim,” she said fiercely. “I have never been in love with him.” She wanted to make that clear to Ren.

He didn’t appear surprised. “Then why be with him at all?”

She took a deep breath, inhaling Ren’s musk. Her stomach cramped suddenly at the thought of what she was about to say, to reveal. “My mother is wanted for some very serious crimes down south.”

Ren lifted an eyebrow. “Blackmail.”

It wasn’t a question so she didn’t bother saying yes.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked. “Your mother. What’s the matter with her?”

McKenna swallowed, tasting acid on her tongue. “A pissed-off boyfriend and a baseball bat. She’s all messed up in the head. Seizures. Barely any memory of who she is or where she’s been.”

Small mercies.

“How did Salim find out?”

“He saw me, he wanted me, and he needed a way to have me.” She shrugged. “I’m not really clear on the how.” She wasn’t about to lay it all out for him. Not yet. Her heart wanted to trust him, but her head wasn’t having it. Not right then.

Ren shook his head, the color in his cheeks deepening. “Son of a bitch.”

“Well, yeah.”

“To get you in his bed, he blackmails you with your mother’s freedom?’

“It’s how he operates,” she reminded him. “I didn’t have a choice, and he knew it.”

Ren gripped her arm. “You have a choice now, McKenna.” He shifted closer, voice dropping to a growl that sparked fires in her lower belly. “Help me make him pay, and you can get out from under him.”

She gazed down at Ren, refraining from making a joke about getting under him. It would be no joke, she knew that. And she knew that no matter the attraction flaring bright between them, Ren wasn’t interested in Salim’s seconds.

“I could help you.” She tilted her chin up. “If you tell me why you’re after Salim. You mentioned wanting information for someone, the woman he had before me.”

Ren nodded.

“Who was she to you?”

Chapter Five

RJ studied her while he contemplated how much to share. He wasn’t ready to spill how much he’d fucked up, how much all of it was his fault. Stella ending up in the clutches of Salim Najal was his fault.

All of it.

He took a breath, taking McKenna’s scent of cotton candy and warm chocolate into his lungs. He’d come
this close
to kissing her earlier, to burying his face in her neck in search of the source of that intoxicating smell. She’d pushed him and she knew he wanted her, wanted to spread her wide and lick her all over.

His body hardened and RJ cleared his throat. “Like I told you before, she’s the daughter of someone I know. He hired me to find her.” That was the truth too. The old man was financing their search for answers.

That didn’t appear to placate McKenna because she lifted an eyebrow. “Nothing personal for you?”

Her gaze searched his face, and RJ didn’t blink else she’d know. Those brown eyes saw too much too soon.

“Nothing personal. Business.”

After a moment, she nodded. “That’s what you do, find people?”

RJ snorted. Find people. Not by a long shot. He and Carter were hired muscle now. “I’m a jack of all trades.” He offered up a smile, but she laughed and slapped a hand to her thigh.

“But master of none, right?”
She giggled at the question.

Her mirth was contagious, and RJ’s lips twitched. “It is what it is.”

“Uh-huh.” She glanced up at him, their gazes collided, and her laughter bled away. Her hand came up, hovered in front of his face. “This happened in that prison?”

He didn’t insult her by asking what she was talking about. He nodded, a jerky gesture.

“Gonna tell me why Salim framed you or what happened to you?” She hadn’t dropped her hand, just kept it in front his face, fingers curved.

RJ looked into her eyes. They were devoid of pity, only understanding shimmered. He didn’t want to tell her no, didn’t want to shut her down when she was warming up to him, but he also wasn’t ready or prepared to rehash anything that happened in Ireland. He doubted he’d ever be. So he didn’t speak, simply held her gaze and his
tongue. She finally nodded.

“No talking then.” Her voice dropped lower, hitting him in the nuts. “Can I touch you, Ren?”

Fuck, he shouldn’t have told her his name. Shouldn’t have given her that piece of him because she marked him with the whisper of his name across her lips. Collared him, branding him as hers. Ren shuddered, fingers folding into fists in his lap. He could say no. Of course he could, but he wouldn’t. He wanted her touch.

“Yes.”

She took her time, touching him first with the pad of her index finger against the scar on his cheek. Breath left him in a rush. His chest seized. Shit. He reached up and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from taking him places he didn’t feel like going right then.

She didn’t struggle, didn’t question. She simply waited for him, waited on his next move. He didn’t move away, and after a while she stroked him, from the bottom of the patch covering his fucked-up eye to his jaw. RJ tightened his hold on her wrist but didn’t stop her this time. A fine tremor reverberated from her to him, the pulse under his fingertips galloping, matching his. Her breath warmed him, right there on his neck. RJ couldn’t move to save his life. He’d lost track of the last time someone, anyone, had touched him like that, reverently and so sweetly. It was certainly the first time
anyone had touched his scars except for medical personnel.

McKenna was Salim’s. Even if RJ was in the market for someone, McKenna couldn’t be the one. The wrong thing would be to get accustomed to her, her touch and her smell.

It was damn hard, but he gathered up his strength and shifted away from her touch, her heat, her scent. Disappointment flickered in her eyes then disappeared.

“Help me take down Salim.” He cleared the frog out of his throat. “Help me get rid of the threat over your mother’s head.”

She dropped her hand back in her lap, tiny lines creasing her forehead. Her gaze flicked from him to over his shoulder and back. “What are your plans for him?”

“Do you really want to know, McKenna?” He threw the question back at her, but she didn’t flinch.

“I’m not going to get myself into some shit I know nothing about,” she spat. Anger flashed in her eyes, lighting them up. “That’s not happening so if you need my help—and you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t—come clean with the details.”

RJ tried not to smile, but it wasn’t easy. “I need information from him. What I learn determines how he’ll be treated afterward.”

“But you want him dead, yeah?”

“Don’t you?”

She tilted her head and squinted. “You have a way of answering questions with questions, Ren. That tactic might work for some people, but I’m here to inform you, doesn’t work for me.”

“Good to know.”

She licked her lips. “Is it?’

He lifted his shoulder. “I need access to his place in the city.” Salim had a tricked-out penthouse apartment in the Meatpacking District, and try as he might, RJ saw no way to get in without her help.

“Why do you need to get in there?”

“Gonna bug the place, maybe get some eyes on the inside.” RJ grinned. “Mostly I want to search the place, see if anything pops.”

McKenna frowned. “I can’t see any way for you to get in.” She shook her head. “Why don’t I do whatever it is you need?”

“No.” That wasn’t a choice. “No way.”

“Really? Because I gotta be honest, Ren,”—she affected a sad face—“your plan sucks ass. Big time.”

“You don’t know my plan.” He got up from the floor and moved to the couch, taking a seat next to her. “Tell me everything about Salim’s place. His favorite room, where he sits to drink his
coffee. Everything.”

“Whatever.” She leaned over and grabbed a spiral notebook from the nearby coffee table. Using the pencil stashed between the pages, she drew something. “I can give you a layout of the
place. That work for you?” She didn’t look up, just kept drawing.

“That works.”

She made a low sound. He watched her profile as she went to work. The ends of her hair were shredded, as if she’d attacked it with a dull kitchen knife. He spied a tiny mole at the base of her left ear. He smothered the urge to taste it with the tip of his tongue. A reminder that she belonged to Salim was in order. That he didn’t have the time to start something he would never finish. That she deserved more than whatever he could give.

Which was nothing because she belonged to Salim. It would do him good to tattoo those words to his eyeballs. That way he’d see the reminder instead of those gorgeous lips he ached to kiss or the long, silky-looking skin and legs he wished he could have wrapped around his waist.

Damn it! RJ groaned and McKenna glanced up, the pencil in her mouth.

“You good?” she asked.

No. No, he wasn’t. “Never better.”

“Good.” She thrust the notebook at him. “This is the layout of the penthouse.”

RJ’s brows rose to his hairline. “This is good.” She’d sketched a detailed floor plan, much more readable than most he’d seen before. “You’re good.”

McKenna ducked her head slightly at the praise. “I’ve included all rooms I’ve seen or know about. I tend to keep my dealings to strictly the main bedroom, kitchen, and living room areas.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to know anything beyond how he wants me in bed.”

An ache started in RJ’s chest. Here was the reminder that she was Salim’s. She’d be sleeping with Salim and his friends if Salim requested it.

“Do you care that he shares you with his friends?” he asked before he could stop himself.

McKenna’s expression shut down. Instantly. “I do what I have to do. I’m sure you get that sentiment.” Her tone said he’d hurt her.

“I’m sorry.” Shit.

She got to her feet, gathering the food with her. “No need to apologize. It is true. I sleep with who he wants me to.” She walked into the kitchen, but her pain remained behind, haunting him.

RJ waited until she came back, her face blank, jaw determined. “Does that sketch work for you?”

He nodded.

“Then get to work on your plan, whatever it is. I’ll just wait around, see if my world crumbles to the floor fast or slow.”

“McKenna.” He went to her, touched the inside of her wrist before she pulled away, turned from him. “I’m sorry about what I said.”

She shook her head, her hair brushing her nape. “You’re sounding like a broken record, Ren. Let’s forget it and move on.”

He watched her and she didn’t move. RJ ached to wrap his arms around her and promise to keep her safe, but that wasn’t one he thought he’d be able to keep. Maybe he could free her from Salim, but she wouldn’t be safe with RJ.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said softly. “Maybe you should hide the bugs instead of us coming up with some plan that may or may not work.”

She stiffened when he started speaking and granted him a short nod when he stopped. “Okay. Bring them over. Tell me how and where to put them, and I’ll do it.” She pivoted to face him. “Salim will be occupied all night tonight, but I’m to meet him for lunch tomorrow then we’ll likely go back to his place.”