Chapter 56: Chapter 56

C H A P T E R - T W E N T Y - T H R E E

I might safely claim I'd had enough. I'd been broken into, firebombed, fired at, kidnapped, tied up and targeted, and nearly used as bait by an undercover DEA agent obsessed with catching the bad guy. I was not going to stand by and watch my new partner get arrested for assault and violence. Enough was e-fucking-enough!

"Stop it!" I yelled as I let go of Ramona's hand.

Falcone and Skull didn't split, but they both turned to face me.

My gaze was drawn to Skull. "I understand and appreciate your purpose, but this is America, and I have the freedom to choose whether or not to engage in it. I am entitled to the training I would need to possibly survive the experience, should I chose to do so. It's not cool that you didn't offer me the option, but just so you know, I would have selected no. I edit novels while donning high heels and drinking Cosmopolitans. I decided to live that way. I don't act suspiciously. I don't want to do it. Although I'm sad to hear that the streets are overflowing with drugs, I wish it weren't true, and I want to wish you success in seeing things change, I know enough about myself to realize that, even if I had wanted to, I wouldn't have been able to do anything to assist. I would have made a mess of everything. But there are those, like you, who would choose differently, they could have assisted, and ultimately, you should have sought another path." I gulped in air and proceeded. "I've had a pretty bad day, Brett and Betsy's have had worse, and we don't need anything to make it stink any more than it already does, so if you wouldn't mind controlling your testosterone, standing down, and regrouping in order to fight another day, I'd appreciate it. "Now that my sister is tied up in this shit, I knew it was bad, but now I, and incidentally, my and Isabelle's Mom, know it's worse."

This was accepted silently, with all the badasses and badass commandos merely gazing at me, so I continued.

"And baby," I continued to Falcone, "I understand you're furious about Brett and having to rescue me again, but if we find out Brett's okay, you promised me a night out, and I don't believe you meant that night was me coming to the police station to talk to you on the phone through glass." "I don't have a visit your jailed lover costume and I don't want one," I leaned in.

"Tell it how it is, darling," Ramona whispered through a smile.

Skull and Falcone remained still and expressionless.

"Stand down from the DEA agent, Falcone," I said, and he continued to sneer at me, so I lowered my voice and pleaded, "Baby, Betsy needs you now."

Falcone frowned at me again before stepping away from Skull and demanding, "Come here."

He may have moved away, but the tension in the room remained, and I briefly considered escaping for my life rather than approaching Falcone, but as his eyebrows raised, I decided to take my chances and approach Falcone.

The moment I did, his hand curled around my neck and tugged me into him, colliding my head with his chest, his arm clamped around my shoulders, and his other hand closed around my wrist. He yanked it up until it, together with its crimson welts and fragments of damaged flesh, was level with Skull's eyes.

"This is on you," he whispered gently, releasing my wrist, but his fingers slipped down and wrapped around my hand, allowing him to bring it over his waist and leave it at the side. "If she loses sleep, it's your fault." You're to blame if I lose my boyfriend. If one of those two things happens, I'll make it my job to make sure you never forget they're on you. Are we done? ”

They weren't, according to Skull, who said, "My play was permitted to go down, I woulda kept her safe, and I woulda protected her sister."

Falcone drew his lips in and bit them while his arm tightened over me, and I understood both of these were attempts at control. He didn't react, so Skull's gaze was drawn to me.

"I would have kept you safe," he said again.

"And I would have liked the option of not having to waste that effort," I said.

"Gia, the job I do saves lives, but I don't think you saw this play out and can mistake me for a man who doesn't realize that the lives I'm saving are worth the trade of a nice lady," Skull said.

"Thank you for that, but how do you explain Brett if that's true?" I fired back, and Falcone's arm tightened over my shoulders even more.

"Because," Skull said gently, his face had changed. He still looked rough, rock 'n' roll, ultra-cool hot guy, but the way his face changed and his voice gentled, his hotness quotient, I, unfortunately and automatically due to vast amounts of research on the subject, noted had entered the stratosphere.

"He works for your man, so I know he's a man who puts on his boots every day, knowing that what happened to him today is always an eventuality, and knowing that, he'll have planned for it." And I also know he works for your guy, and if he had the option you're upset I didn't provide you, he wouldn't have even blink before deciding he was willing to take his risks to play my game."

Shit. I figured he had a point there.

I made the decision to cease talking. Skull waited for me to say more, and there was something about him allowing me the time to say what I needed to say that I didn't want to acknowledge, since he wasn't my favorite person, that was pleasant.

And it was then that I knew he had been standing guard defending me the entire time he had me in that dirty flat. And it wasn't because I scratched his arms that he looked so downcast. It was because he was a nice man who was living a life pretending to be a terrible guy for the greater good.

He'd been involved in an operation in which one of his team members was killed, and for the greater good, he found himself in a situation that resembled many of the situations he'd encountered over the prior year and a half in order to keep his cover. He had to make a choice, let it happen, and was helpless to stop it.

And I had no choice but to deliver it to him. That would also make me upset.

When I didn't respond, he shifted his look away from me, his gaze catching Falcone's for a brief minute before turning and walking away.

Magtanggol took up his position, and I stared up at him.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I have to accept your statement."

I exhaled a sigh.

"We need to stop meeting like this," I said.

Falcone drew me in closer to his side.

Magtanggol grinned.