Page 33 of Asphyxia
I shouldn’t have been surprised in the least. He always seemed like the type of man to chase after feral women—and she was the tip of the iceberg in terms of viciousness.
I was, however, very caught off-guard when the two of them decided that right then and there was the appropriate time to kiss, make up and tear each other's clothes off before fucking in Eli’s bed.
In Derek’s fine choice of words:
“You two, get the fuck out, now. Or stay and watch, I don’t give a fuck.”
Trouble in paradise, remedied by coming all over another man’s sheets.
Eli and I stood next to each other in the hall, listening to their grunts and moans before he finally had enough of listening to them and agreed to meet us at the CIA—whenever Derek had finished…
Apparently, fucking Alexis had put Derek in a mood because once we had returned to the office and sorted all our shit out with Eli, he went ahead and accepted Eli’s ridiculous demands for ascrubbed background, new identity, and cash to sustain him for a year after the fact.
All for a single goddamn name that we didn’t even know would hold weight in this case.
Derek had unquestionably lost his fucking mind, but I went ahead and followed his orders regardless. With him being the senior agent on this case, I wasn’t about to argue with his request as long as he was fully aware that when shit hit the fan, I was not taking any of the responsibility.
Conrad could have at Derek all he wanted; I was sitting this one out.
When the contract promising Eli all of his insane demands was signed and filed away, he gave me the name the CIA ultimately paid for.
Adrian Valtores.
Not wanting to waste any more time, I immediately got to work, pulling a full, in-depth background check on Adrian. I didn’t recognize his name and had never heard of him before today, leaving me to initially believe that the name Eli had given us was complete and total bullshit.
It took me significantly longer than expected, but within a few hours, I had everything I needed for Derek, and I already knew how he would react to the single-page background check I currently held in my hand.
The only problem was the second name that appeared in his history:Madison Scott.
Fuck.
“Youareabsolutelyoutof your fucking mind if you think I will say anything to you about that sick son-of-a-bitch.” Madison growled, ready to slam Marcus’s bedroom door in my face.
Before confronting Derek with the less-than-successful background check on Adrian, I went to her first, figuring she could shed some light on her history with him before I had to have my ass chewed out by Derek for giving him… essentially nothing.
That wasn’t going to fucking happen.
“Mads—”
“The answer isno, Dean. I would rather stab myself in the eye with an ice pick than relive the years that we were together. Fuckthat.” She barked, her chest rising and falling with exaggerated, rage-filled breaths.
It annoyed the fuck out of me that she wouldn’t open up about him. I knew the two of them were engaged in the past; it was in the report—and it made me jealous as fuck. I wanted to know what went on between them, not for Derek but for my own goddamn sake.
What the fuck was I doing getting worked up and jealous over a woman I barely even knew and had fucked only a handful of times. Jesus Christ.
Marcus would never let me hear the end of it if he found out I was becoming possessive and obsessed over Madison after mere days of—whatever the fuck we were now.
I need to lock my shit up.
I could want her… Couldn’t I? If Marcus was catching feelings for her, wasn’t I allowed to do the same?Fuck sake… too soon, Dean… too fucking soon…
I was being ridiculous—naive. I was still getting over Amber and that fucking trainwreck of a relationship.
Madison refused to give me what I needed, regardless of how hard I pressed her for information on Adrian. Eventually, I had to ease up on her, knowing full well that her past with him was traumatic enough and that I was only rubbing salt on a wound that never fully healed.
What kind of man would I be to send her right back into whatever spiral she just climbed out of?
Done with any attempt at further conversation, she slammed and locked the bedroom door in my face, and I could hear Marcus laughing in the living room.
