Page 53 of The Reluctant Hero

A loud throat clearing yanks our attention to the doorway.

Amanda is standing there with her arms crossed under her ample breasts with a raised chin of clear stubbornness. Her flannel pajamas are large enough to be a man’s, which angers me, worn thin from excessive use. There’s a rip over her thigh that calls my attention to her creamy pale skin, making me swallow hard at the sight of it again. How is the simple sight of a bare inch of her more arousing than anything displayed in these pictures?

My eyes snap up to hers, but she’s focused on the photos in our hands.

Her expression is filled with bitter pain. She didn’t want us to see this. Not because she wanted to hide information. To spare herself the pain of seeing us digging through something that’s obviously very personal to her.

She didn’t take these pictures. And the manisBlake. These are something else sent to torment her. I don’t doubt that this part of the mystery is real.

This isn’t the face of the fierce woman we’ve seen. The vulnerability there makes me want to destroy all of this. And the man that put that look in her eyes. The defeated, hopeless expression should not be there.

A muscle twitches in her jaw before dark anger covers her pain. When she looks at us, the disgust at how we must appear to her makes me want to drop the photos and pretend to be innocent. Anything to get the pain-fueled rage off her face.

The following rant that rips Gabe’s pride to shreds is as amusing as it is concerning. Gabe has it as bad for her as we do. It would be easy to trip any of us up with how much chemistry is getting thrown around. There’s no way this ends in anything but combustion either way.

I’m excited to feel the burn.

The three of us are on the same page about her, even though we haven’t explicitly spoken about it. We’re all interestedin her. We’ve shared this type of dynamic before. There’s no reason to feel jealousy when we each have our own methods of seduction. Or they do, at least. I gave up on that a long time ago. Long enough that I have no idea what I’m doing. Other than trying not to drool like an idiot when she comes into view.

No. I have to be level-headed about this. Ace is too far gone, and Gabe is baffled about how to deal with her. The heavy hit she gives the top of his head proves it. Watching him backtrack at speed would be funny if I didn’t want to punch him for his insulting comment.

I hurry to drop the photos I’m holding with Gabe’s back covering me before I become her next target. Ace tosses his on the counter beside me so I can sweep them into the drawer as well. Out of sight, hopefully out of her mind.

Nothing about this woman is adding up. Several things are glaringly obvious. She’s been emotionally manipulated before. She’s standing up for herself with enough belligerence to be concerning. There’s no fear if we’re mafia or not. She doesn’t seem to mind if she’s set up and thrown in jail. She seems eager to see her ex dead.

If this is a play, it’s the oddest one I’ve ever seen.

She thinks we’re here to take advantage of her. That isn’t the natural thought process of a guilty person. She has something we want. She could easily leverage information for money. She hasn’t, as if the thought hasn’t occurred to her.

Her knee-jerk reaction is to assume we’re here to torment her, just like these photos.

A victim mentality in the form of an enraged spouse.

I don’t want to think of her being married to the owner of that fucking ring.

Especially when Manny comes back and tells her Blake is here. He urges her to confront her ex instead of hiding. She’s bounced from puzzled to angry and now timid. Watching hersudden withdrawal from the fiery rage she’s been spreading all over us is sobering.

But who could tell if any of it is genuine?

The kid.

Manny knows her well enough not to be surprised at her sudden withdrawal into timidity. He also knows that her temper is real. She’s loud and brash but not violent. Take away the magazine, and I doubt she would have approached Gabe at all when he lost it.

After he tosses her out of her apartment, he locks the door so she can’t come back in. It makes me uneasy. Fake or not, she’s out there alone with a possible threat.

“Don’t back down!” Manny turns to smile at us. When he sees us and remembers we’re bad news, his smile falls off.

“She shouldn’t be alone out there,” Ace snaps at me. What I did, I don’t know, but his fury is focused on me.

“This is a public place,” Gabe mutters. Ace gives him an exasperated look. “Public enough, Ace. Manny, has he hurt her before?”

The kid jumps a little when we turn to him.

“I don’t think so. She doesn’t talk about him much. Whenever I try, she clams up. We all know he treated her like shit, though.” He looks back at the door guiltily. “She used to be a doormat around here all the time. We thought she was a pushover. Until we heard her threaten to put the old landlord’s dick in a blender. Scared him bad enough that he disappeared.”

Wait a second. Didn’t South say-

“Whoall has seen her act like this?” Gabe asks quickly.

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