Page 56 of Mr. Wrong
He smirks again. “Despite what you might have been told about me, Elle—I don’t generally make a habit out of tracking grown ass men. My job is safeguarding Cassie—that’s it.” He drops his arms and shows me his hands. “That’s what I do. What I getpaidto do, so if that’s—”
“Bullshit.” I must be possessed because I lift a finger and jab it at his scary, Special Forces face and snap it at him like he’s a puppy I just caught chewing on the furniture.
“Excuse me?” With more patience I thought a man like him would be capable of, he pushes my finger, very slowly and very deliberately, out of his face. “I’m not sure I heard you correctly.”
“You heard me,” I tell him, somehow managing to keep the fact that my knees are shaking from bleeding into my voice. “I saidbullshit. Lex is your brother and if I’ve learned anything about this family over the last five weeks, it’s that you’re all completely up each other’s asses so don’t give me that—”
“Lex and Landonaren’tmy brothers.” He pushes it through clenched teeth. “I work here, same as you—that’s it.”
No.
Not the same as me at all.
Instead of calling bullshit again, I come to my senses a little and let it go. “If you say so.” I cross my arms over my chest because I can feel the shake start to spread and I don’t want him to know how close I am to giving up completely. “Look,” I say, changing tactics. “I know you know about Lex and me and I know you don’t approve—” I untangle one of my arms and lift a hand between us when he unhinges his jaw to tell me he doesn’t care what orwhoLex does. “And I don’t really care about your feelings on the subject one way or the other.”
“Don’t you have a coffee date or something?”
Shit. I forgot about Derek.
“I’m an excellent multi-tasker,” I tell him, refusing to back down.
He stares at me for so long I’m sure he’s getting ready to shut the door in my face and dismiss me completely. Then he lifts his hand, making an impatient gesture at the pocket of my jeans. “Gimme your phone.”
“What?” My own hand flies to my pocket and presses against it like he’s about to mug me, while I shake my head. “No, I just—”
“Goddamn, woman,” he growls at me while he leans into the space between us. Pushing my hand out of his way, he reachesinto my pocket and yanks out my phone on his own. “You talk too much.” Stung, I watch his thumbs fly over the screen. Finished, he flips the phone over in his hand and makes an impatient gesture with it, obviously intending for me to take it. When I do, he sighs, leaning back to open a metal cabinet mounted to the wall next to the door, just inside his apartment. “Can you drive a stick?” he asks, flicking a doubtful look in my direction.
“Yes.” I frown at him and shake my head because I have no idea what’s happening and it makes me uncomfortable. “My first car was an old Volkswagen Rabbit. I worked after school and weekends for an entire—”
“Cool story.” He cuts me off while lifting a set of keys from the box before tossing them at me. “I’ll text you the gate code, oh and the car is worth roughly a half mill—make sure you set the alarm.”
Catching the keys, I look down at my hands—a couple of house keys and a fob with what I think is a Porsche emblem on it and a residential address in Malibu programmed into the Google Maps app on my phone.
I own a beach house in Malibu. Lex can stay there.
“House key is on the ring if he doesn’t answer the door. If he barricades himself in, call the fire department,” he says, right before shutting the door in my face.
Thirty-Seven
Lex
Incoming.
The text from Killian comes through about five seconds before I hear the rev of what sounds like Landon’s Porsche engine outside.
A few seconds after that, I hear the door slam and the alarm chirp. Twitching the curtain away from the front window, I expect to see Landon, home a week earlier than expected and stomping his way up the walk.
Instead, I see Ellenore.
Shit.
Letting the curtain fall back into place I stab out a quick text in response.
Me:You’re a dick.
You know that, right?
Kill:Old news.
