It made my heart squeeze. Not because the story was heartbreaking or anything unusual in this place, but because he cared so much. He carried those other people’s choices and failures around as his own, and in a place like this the weight of that had to be enormous. He was Atlas. He really was trying to carry the world and all its messed-up ways on his back.

Those crystalline eyes cut over to me and then skated over the bed I was lounging on.

“How about you? This place needs a hazmat team to clean it up. Did you sleep?”

“No. I grabbed the phone and bolted. I didn’t even grab a change of clothes and I don’t even have my real ID. To the rest of the world I’m still Jill Parker. Reeve Black doesn’t exist.”

“Jesus. This just gets better and better.”

“Ohhhh . . . I don’t think we’ve even begun to see the worst of it yet.”

He groaned out a swearword and curled his hands into tight fists at his sides. The tick was back in his jaw but there was something working in his eyes. The color was doing that thing where it started to fade into something lighter and brighter. He was molten hot from the inside out. Man, would I sell the fragmented parts that were left of my soul to burn with him.

“How far are you willing to go with all of this, Reeve? What’s the limit?”

I didn’t understand what he was asking me, so I sat up straighter and leaned forward intently. “There is no limit. What are my options here, Titus? I die or I go to jail, and neither one of those is very appealing. I know I don’t deserve a second chance, but I’m stubborn enough and selfish enough to want to take one for myself anyway.”

“You know Conner is going to come for you, but have you even considered the other threats? My brother is just as dangerous and just as unpredictable as Roark and you had a direct hand in getting the only girl he has ever cared about abducted and sliced up. And I bet you never even thought about Nassir. That guy is a blackhearted monster. He’s mad as hell that his club burned down and that Roark got his hands on one of his girls and worked her over. He’s the type that would use you just like you’re saying, to draw out his prey, only he wouldn’t care if you made it out of the carnage alive or not. You have more than one enemy here.”

His words were chilling in their frankness and they brought goose bumps to the surface of my skin. “I know.” It came out sounding shaky and I hated revealing that weakness in front of him.

He moved closer to me so that our knees were touching. He reached out a hand and put a finger under my chin and lifted my head up so that we were once again locked in an unwavering gaze. His eyes were so light now there was almost no color in them at all. It made him look fierce and wild.

“I am the only person on your side and I am there reluctantly.”

“Ouch.”

I went to lower my lashes so I didn’t have to see how he really felt about me shining out of that reflective gaze.

“But as much as it pains me to say it, we can help each other out. In fact I think the only way to do this with minimal casualties is to work together. I want Roark and you want to keep your ass covered, and to do that, we need to be attached at the hip.”

I frowned at him as he continued to loom over me. “What are you suggesting, Detective?”

“I’m not suggesting it. I’m telling you that you are suddenly and irrevocably in love with me. You are obsessed with me and we are about to embark on a passionate, out-of-control, unexplainable, and very, very obvious romance. We are going to shove our new relationship so far down everyone’s throat that they are going to choke on it.”

I gulped and opened my mouth to tell him how crazy he sounded, but he reached out a hand and placed his palm lightly over my mouth. I scowled at him and contemplated sinking my teeth into the meaty part of his hand.

“Seriously, Reeve, it’s the only way. Bax will rein it in if he thinks I’ve got a thing for you. Nassir won’t back all the way off, but he’ll be less dangerous if he thinks he has to go through me to get to you. Plus, from what you’ve told me, and what I understand about whack jobs like Roark, if he thinks you replaced him with me, it’ll force him to move more quickly. He’ll come out of hiding faster if he thinks you moved on without a second thought. If you understand the risks involved, I’m willing to take them with you.”

I lifted both my eyebrows up and tapped my fingers on my knee until he took a step back as he gauged my reaction. I don’t know what he was expecting but he actually looked nervous as I climbed to my feet.

“What do you think?” His voice was low and he didn’t look away as I walked up so that I was standing directly in front of him.

What did I think? I thought there was no “suddenly” about being irrevocably in something that looked a lot like love with him. I thought passionate, out of control, and obsessive about summed up the way I already felt about him and that it would require zero acting on my part. I reached out and put a hand on the center of his chest. He was warm and hard. He felt like security and strength.

“I think you are going to have a much harder time pretending you like me than I will pretending I like you, Detective. Have you considered that?”

He balked a little and lifted a hand to circle his fingers around my wrist. I wondered if he felt my pulse kick at the touch.

“I do whatever it takes to get the job done.”

Oh, I bet he did. I smirked up at him and lifted up on tippy toes so that our lips were almost touching. I expected him to recoil, to back away in haste, but he didn’t. Instead his tongue darted out to lick across the curve of his bottom lip, and I almost groaned out loud.

“Prove it.” I whispered the challenge and then held my breath to see what this scary, sexy man would do once the gauntlet was thrown down.

He didn’t disappoint. He never did.

Chapter 4

Titus

PROVE IT.

Those odd, dark blue eyes flashed the challenge at me and I couldn’t resist it. Not the challenge or the girl. I didn’t like that she got under my skin. I hated that she was right at the center of this mess with Roark, and it really, really grated across my already taut nerves that even with no makeup on and looking like she hadn’t slept a wink, she was still the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen. I didn’t want to notice that. I didn’t want my dick to twitch when she touched me¸ but it did, which was going to make pretending to be infatuated with her easy and so much harder at the same time. She knew it too.