Page 38 of Dark Wolf Soul
“Sure,” I mumble as Mia shuts the door.
On the sidewalk, Mia wraps an arm around her and whisks her into the front door of the apartment building.
When they’re gone, I face forward again and find Grey watching me from the rearview mirror.
“Want to come up front?” he asks.
I shake my head, and he peels smoothly away from the curb without another word. The entire drive back is a mental tug of war with myself as I try to reconcile the two halves of the man before me. He’s twisted enough to kidnap me and drop me into the middle of a war, and yet tonight, when he could have stepped aside and let me die, he saved me. And then he saved Claire.
At least, I assume that’s what the Mia woman will do.
I still have no idea who the good guys are here. So far, no one’s proven themselves good. It’s more like opposing forces of evil trying to one-up each other on just how corrupt they can be.
Back in the penthouse, Grey drops his car keys onto a tray by the door. My eyes track the motion—not that it matters since there’s no way out of here for me—as the elevator door seals shut behind us.
Despite the softness of the sound, there’s a finality to it.
I begin to tremble.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” Grey says to me.
I turn, struggling to keep my emotions in check. “No,” I agree, “It shouldn’t have.”
The trembling only gets worse as he steps closer to me. I try to call up my earlier anger. It’s so much easier to hate him than to let him see my fear.
But his hard expression has lost its granite coating. Now, I can see the exhaustion hovering behind his dark gaze. “If I thought for a second…” He runs a hand through his tousled hair. I wonder what it would feel like if I did the same thing. Burying my hands in his hair, arms wrapped around his broad shoulders, mouth—
“I never would have brought you in there if I knew he was going to come after you like that.”
“Right. Because you’re so worried about my safety.” I snort and turn for the hallway so he won’t see how distracted I am.
“I fucking saved your ass tonight,” he snaps, and I stiffen. “So, yeah, I think we can both agree your safety matters to me.”
I turn back, my eyes narrowing. “You kidnapped me, injected me with drugs, and brought me into a city where half the population wants to kill me simply based on which family I was born into. A family I never knew existed before you dropped me into the middle of this shitstorm. Without you, I could have lived my entire life in blissful ignorance, so if you’re looking for gratitude, you’re not going to find it with me.”
“I told you—”
“And on top of ruining my life as I knew it, you walked me into some kind of gang execution tonight and made me watch you kill a man at point-blank range. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe you consider my safety a priority.”
“He was going to hurt you,” he says, his voice dipping dangerously low.
He’s pissed.
Join the club, buddy.
“You mean likeyouhurt me,” I retort.
His eyes flash, and he stalks closer until he’s standing right in front of me. I force myself to remain where I am even though everything in me wants to back away, to get a little more breathing room. To remind myself how much I’m supposed to hate the idea of him backing me against this wall and touching me until I lose all common sense.
“I have done nothing but protect you from the moment we met,” he says.
“Bullshit,” I snap.
His voice rises as he says, “I protected you from Trucker tonight, whether you choose to believe that or not. Hell, I even protected you from my own father—”
“And who’s going to protect me from you?”
His gaze is dark, the storm in his eyes full of thunder crashing. “I’m not going to hurt you, Lexi.”
