I reached out.
He jerked back. “Homework.”
“Right, God forbid you and I actually have a moment.”
His lips curled as if he was about to smile, and then he coughed in his hand. “Believe me, if we were having a moment, you’d know it.”
“Warm fuzzies?”
“I don’t do warm fuzzies.”
Well, can’t win ’em all.
“I do scorching blazes,” he muttered under his breath. “That sear you alive.”
My heartbeat quickened. “I’m trying to find the romance in that.”
“Ha! Try all you want.” He nodded. “You’ll find no romance in me.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Good God, Bee, just get out of the damn car so I can put it in the garage.”
“You better hope you put up a good fight, Phoenix.” I stepped out of the car and leaned my head in. “Because I don’t give up easyily.”
His face transformed in that moment from hollow to hopeful, almost as if his own body and soul were screaming for me to keep pursuing, even though his words said something else entirely.
“You’re always welcome to try whatever you want in your free time, Bee. But it will never happen. Now, run along, do your homework, pour yourself a glass of milk, and if you’re a really good girl, I’ll turn on Cartoon Network.”
“Go to hell, Phoenix.” I rolled my eyes at his grunt then slammed the door in his face and stomped up the stairway into the house.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Life is made up of crappy days rolling into more crappy days with maybe one good day in between. Unless you’re Phoenix De Lange; then you get no good days. Only bad.
Phoenix
I PULLED INTO THE garage and turned off the car. The desire to chase after Bee had been so strong that my body ached. Everything about her told me to stay away, but her eyes… they were like bread, water, my possible survival. My body craved her, and I hated myself for it.
Which was pretty impressive, considering how much I already loathed my own existence.
She was making everything worse.
And we were… what? We were officially at Day One, and I was ready to do something. Hell, my fingers itched for me to do something irrevocable, something that would put me at odds with my new family and at odds with my old one.
With a curse, I got out of the car and made my way into the house.
Screaming erupted from the kitchen.
Sergio and what sounded like Nixon.
Wow, as far as days went, this one wasn’t turning out to be my favorite. I rounded the corner and froze.
“Sergio?” I blinked twice. “What the hell did you do to yourself?”
“Makeover,” Bee said from the corner, lifting a can of coke to her lips and watching in rapt fascination. “He cut his hair.”
“Why?” I shook my head. “I thought you liked the whole Prince Charming look.”
“Yeah.” Nixon pushed against Sergio then set his gun on the table and spun it round and round. Ha! Nice, almost like spin the bottle, only the end game is someone getting shot. “We’d all really like to know, Sergio. Why the sudden change of appearance? You thinking of going underground?”
Sergio rolled his eyes, briefly glancing at me then at Nixon. “It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it…” Nixon seethed. “…before I shoot you.”
The gun spun again. Nixon’s finger settled on the trigger. Shit. Whoever said that marriage tamed the man had been clearly deranged.
Sergio exhaled a curse then bit down on his lip, damn near drawing blood from the looks of it. “I’m going undercover.”
“Why?” Nixon leaned over the gun and pointed it straight for Sergio’s heart. “Why now? You’ve been more than happy tinkering away on your computers.”
“Hacking,” I said helpfully, reaching for a bottled water from the countertop.
“Well…” Sergio closed his eyes. “…I got a fun little phone call from Phoenix. It seems that the feds have an implant at Elite.”
“The hell they do!” Nixon spat.
“Actually…” I swallowed. “They do, but this isn’t the place to discuss anything.” My eyes fell to Bee.
She was grinning from ear to ear; then she ran her finger along her plump lips as if zipping them. “Come on, guys. I’m like a vault.”
“Guarantee I could tap you in three seconds flat.” I growled.
Her cheeks went pink.
Both Sergio and Nixon went deathly silent.
Hell-in-a-freaking-handbasket. Not what I meant.
“Not like that guys.” I rolled my eyes as if my brain wasn’t conjuring up images of said tapping and her soft body beneath mine. The image always ended up horrific, so I pushed it away — far, far away — and popped my knuckles. “We’ll talk tonight at the meeting.” I shrugged.
Nixon nodded slowly. “Fine, but if shit-for-brains makes a run for it...” He pointed at Sergio. “Shoot him.”
Ah, nice.
“Please.” Sergio let out a sour chuckle. “Phoenix has been itching to shoot me, way-ta tempt him.”
Nixon shrugged. “Not my problem.” He picked up his gun. “I’ll see you guys tonight…” He paused and almost smiled. “Bee, how was school?”
“Awesome!” She glanced at me and winked. “Phoenix even held my hand the whole way to class.”