Evan Arden 03 Otherwise Unharmed (22 page)

“Are you saying you would ask me to lie for you?”

“Yes.”  I kept looking at her, waiting for her to respond, but she just seemed dumbfounded.  I was a little pissed but figured the conversation was over and she understood where I was coming from, so I made my way back to the apartment with Odin trailing behind and Lia remaining silent.

At least, she did until we got inside.

“I have no idea whether you’re serious or not,” she said.

I walked into the kitchen and started to rummage around in the fridge.  I didn’t reply to her because I didn’t see any point in answering.  The whole conversation was making me mad, and I honestly didn’t know how to deal with it.

My idea of
conflict resolution
just didn’t fit the situation.

Avoidance was my next best option, but Lia seemed hell-bent on keeping me from doing that.

“You said you wouldn’t really hurt that dog, but then you would expect me to lie for you.  How am I supposed to know when you mean it and when you don’t?”

I opened up one of the drawers in the refrigerator, but I only looked in the direction of the food that was in there.  None of the actual contents were registering inside my agitated brain.  I closed the drawer and then pushed some of the containers around to see what was behind them.

“Are you even listening to me?” Lia asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Then why aren’t you saying anything?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Do you think this might be a little more important?”

I backed away and slammed the fridge door hard enough that the contents rattled.

“No,” I said, “I don’t.  I think this is total bullshit.”

Lia started to open her mouth, but that’s when m
y phone rang.  I was thrilled for the interruption and grabbed it out of my pocket immediately.  I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered just to get myself out of the argument with Lia.

“Yeah?”
I said into the phone.

“Open the fucking door,” the unfortunately familiar voice on the other end said.

As if I wasn’t pissed off enough.

Trent stood in the hallway looking like the rat-bastard he was when I opened the door, but
I blocked him from coming inside.

“Who’s this?” Lia asked quietly from behind me.

“Get in the fucking bedroom,” I snapped.  “Now.  Stay there until I tell you otherwise.”

Lia grumbled something under her breath before she walked away from me and into the bedroom.

“You do like to play ‘Mister Elusive,’ don’t you?” Agent Trent had somehow managed to get my phone number and the location of my apartment.  The annoyance I had been feeling toward the situation with Lia coupled with Odin’s impending fatherhood began to boil into something far more heated.

Fuck a duck.

“I don’t like people showing up unexpectedly,” I replied.  “What do you want, Trent?”

“I expect regular updates,” he snappe
d back at me.

“Well, I didn’t see that in the fucking contract!” I yelled
at him.  “As I recall, my instructions were to get you something on Gavino Greco that could put him away.  That’s going to take some fucking time, so get off my dick!”

“Listen, you little shit,” Trent growled.  “You need to remember who is calling the shots here.  If I don’t think you’re performing up to standards, I’ll pull this deal
, and your ass goes straight back to jail.  Considering you’ve already put a couple of Moretti’s guys in the river, I don’t think he’ll be inclined to help you out.  He’d probably be more inclined to take it out on that pretty little brunette’s cunt.”

I tightened my fingers around the
phone still in my hand, tight enough to make my knuckles go white.  My teeth crushed against each other, and my eyes began to burn behind their lids.  I barely stopped myself from killing him right then and there.

“Don’t say another fucking word about her,” I hissed through my teeth.

“Hey, bitch!” he yelled out, still smiling.  “Maybe you ought to check into the asshole you’re living with!”

I stepped closer and shoved him farther into the hallway.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” I warned.

“Sore spot, huh?”  I could
see the laughter in his eyes.  “Is she nice and tight on your cock, huh?  Don’t wanna share?  Then you better fucking listen to me.”

“
Don’t push me,” I warned.  It was taking everything in my power just to control my breathing and not crush the phone at the same time.  “I said I’d do what you wanted, but don’t fucking push me.”

“I want updates,” Trent repeated.  “I’m assuming those two dead bodies got you into Greco’s outfit?”

“Not yet confirmed,” I replied, “but that should do it.”

“You tell me when you’re in,” he ordered.  “Tell me immediately.”

He turned around and stomped down the hall to the elevator.  I slammed the door shut and then threw the phone across the room, shattering it against the wall.

How the fuck did he
figure out where we were, anyway?

“What was that?” Lia asked as she came
out of the bedroom and looked at the phone debris on the floor next to the wall.  “What happened to the phone?”

“
I dunno,” I snapped back at her.  “Maybe there’s a problem with the fucking battery.”

“You’re resorting to sarcasm?”  She narrowed her eyes at me.

“Only when you insist on asking stupid-ass questions.”

Lia’s eyes
blazed, and she placed her hands on her hips as she started in on me again.

“I’m sorry if smashing phones and threatening the neighbors is something that’s so commonplace with you, but
it’s still a bit of a shock for me.  I suppose I should also get used to having to lie for you as well?  Do I need to learn to use a gun in case I need to kill for you?”

“Now who’s fucking sarcastic?”

“Am I?” Lia fumed.  “I don’t know.  I have no idea what you expect from me!”

I didn’t know either, but I wasn’t about to say it.  I stomped past her and into the bedroom.
  Eating was no longer important, and I just wanted the day to end.  Lia continued to go on, but I stopped listening to her as I stripped off my clothes and stepped into the shower while she was in mid sentence.

The hot water didn’t improve my mood.

Lia was sitting on the edge of the bed when I walked out wearing just a towel around my waist.  Before she had a chance to say anything, I flipped on my electric toothbrush and acted like I couldn’t hear her.  Unfortunately, that activity didn’t last very long, and when I turned around, she had her arms folded across her chest and her eyes focused right on me.

I marched out of the room and poured myself a scotch on the rocks before going back to the bedroom. 
Attempting to ignore Lia’s glaring eyes, I stared out the window and sipped the drink.  After a minute, I glanced back to her, but she was still obviously pissed.

“
You done with the avoidance tactics?”

Ho
w did she understand me so well?

“I could go with distraction,” I countered as I lowered the towel a little. 
Lia continued to glare with her arms crossed.

I sighed and copied her gesture.

“Why did you threaten that woman?” Lia demanded.  “Why was that necessary?”

“It was necessary to shut her up,” I answered.  “I did it to keep you from seeing a side of me you really don’t want to run into.”

“Do you get bigger muscles and turn green?” she asked.

“Nice.”

“I wasn’t raised like this, Evan!  In my house, you didn’t threaten people when you were angry, and you didn’t lie.  And you certainly didn’t kill people for money!”

“You wanted to know!” I
slammed the glass down onto the windowsill and then shouted at her as I moved toward the bed.  “You wanted to know what all this shit was about.  I didn’t want to fucking tell you, and I told you once it was out, I couldn’t take it back, but you still wanted to know!”

“Knowing doesn’t mean I’m okay with it!” she yelled back.  “It definitely doesn’t mean I’m going to participate i
n any of it!”

I took another step
forward, and Lia pushed herself backwards with her hands and the heels of her feet until she reached the center of the bed.  I didn’t know exactly what she meant by not participating, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the details.  I just knew that if she kept talking, I was going to get really pissed off, and I had to get her to stop.

“You need to cut it out,” I told her.  My knees bumped up against the bed.  “Just drop it.”

“No,” she said firmly.  “I’m not going back to doing whatever the hell my boyfriend tells me to do.  I’ve lived that life—not anymore.”

I couldn’t take it anymore.  In frustration
, I moved forward, grabbed both her wrists in my hands, and held them up above her head as I pushed her into the mattress.  Tossing one leg over her torso, I straddled her and leaned in close, which caused the towel around my waist to fall off to the side of the bed.

“You are pissing me off,” I growled.

“So what are you going to do about it?”  Lia’s jaw was set and her eyes tight—almost daring me.  I wasn’t sure exactly what she was daring me to do, but the feeling was still there.

“I don’t know yet.  I’m not used to this shit.”

“What ‘shit’?”

“Having someone around who is questioning what I do or say.”

“Is that what I’m doing?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe you need it,” Lia said.  She tilted her head to one side a bit and twisted her hands.  I didn’t release her wrists—I tightened my grip a little instead.

Having her lying there beneath me
—even though she was clothed—was getting me obviously hard.  I watched Lia’s eyes glance down and dilate slightly at the sight of my cock lying on her stomach and growing by the second.

I pulled her wrists together and gathered them in one hand before reaching down and taking my cock with the other hand.  I wrapped my fingers around the shaft and stroked it a couple of times.

“Maybe you need to keep your mouth shut,” I suggested as an alternative.  “Maybe I need to give you something to fill it up for a while.”

Her eyes narrowed again.

“You think I’m really in the mood right now?”

“I think you’re usually in the mood for my cock, yes.”

“I’m mad at you,” she reminded me.  She twisted her hips a bit but stopped as I tightened my thighs against her body.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” I informed her.

“What?  Am I your prisoner now?”

The images I had of her restrained in my bed entered my head again, and
they were accompanied by thoughts of me holding her legs up against her chest as I fucked her.  However, as I looked down her body and then up to her face, I could see she wasn’t sharing my fantasy at the moment.  Her eyes went from flashing anger to somewhat fearful as she looked away from me.

It pissed me off.

“I don’t like this,” I fumed at her.

“Don’t like what?”

“Arguing with you.”

Lia’s eyes narrowed at me.

“So stop it,” she suggested, “and be reasonable.”

“I don’t want to be reasonable.”

“Well, what do you want then?” she snapped back.

I let go of my cock long enough to use that hand to unbutton Lia’s blouse and pull it open.  Her bra hooked in the back, so I reached inside the cups and pulled her tits out where I could see them.  I glanced back at her and saw her lip sucked into her mouth and her throat bob up and down.  Her eyes were wary.

“You afraid of me now?” I asked.

“A little,” she admitted.

“I told you I would never hurt you.”

“What exactly are you doing now?”

“Are you in pain?” I asked.  I already knew the answer was no.  I wasn’t holding onto her tightly—just firmly so she couldn’t move.  She was barely struggling underneath me, which was actually serving to turn me on even more.

Lia shook her head.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said.  “I do want to fuck the ever-loving shit out of you, though.”

There it was
—the slight parting of her lips, the rush of blood to her face, and the increase in her breath as her eyes darkened.  The fear and hesitation were quickly replaced by additional quick glances at my cock and the sight of her tongue reaching out to moisten her lips.

I didn’t ask her if she wanted it.  I didn’t need
the confirmation.  I only needed her to lift her hips a little so I could drag her shorts down her legs, which she did without much prompting.  Her panties were still around her knees, and her bra and shirt were still partially on, but it was enough for my tastes.  I ran my hand up her body, pinched her nipples slightly, and then ran the back of my hand up her neck.