I shrugged lightly when that electric-blue gaze finally landed on me. “Conner isn’t stupid. He’s going to be right on my tail, so I couldn’t risk going home. My folks have had a hard enough time with things in the last few years. They don’t need to be in the middle of all this.”
“Isn’t he going to look for you there first?” He moved like he was going to sit on the edge of the bed and then made a face when he caught sight of just how gross the mustard-yellow comforter was upon closer inspection. Instead he crossed his arms over his broad chest and faced off against where I was leaning.
“I don’t think so. We weren’t close after Rissa died. I was suffering so much and I guess I felt like they weren’t suffering enough. I haven’t really spoken to them in years.”
Titus grunted at me and wrinkled his nose as the people in the room next door decided to start a bout of noisy morning sex that shook the entire wall behind the bed.
“You don’t have friends, any other relatives, no one that can give you a place to hide out while we figure out to handle Roark? The state attorney general is going to think you skipped out on WITSEC. You’re going to be a fugitive until we catch him and put this all to rights and until I can hand over the proof that he’s dirty to the right people.”
I let my head fall back until it thunked against the door. “Tell the feds I’ll still testify; I just don’t want to be in protective custody anymore. They did that for Bax and Race. Besides him being dirty, he slept with me and broke protocol. Why do I have to prove I’m on the up-and-up?” I could see the answer in his eyes. They would believe the best of Conner because he had a respectable job even if he had used it to break the law, and I was just some girl that kept making bad choices.
“Bax and Race weren’t involved in a murder-for-hire plot with Novak and his goons.”
I cringed involuntarily. “No, but they were involved in his other criminal enterprises. I’m still going to hold up my end of the deal, I’m just going to do it here.”
“That’s not safe. I saw the texts on his phone. Roark isn’t done with his rampage and he’s unhinged. He furious about something and it’s driving him to do what he’s doing. He wants the Point to fall and he’s going after everyone involved in holding it up after Novak went down. I’m sure he realizes you’re the one that turned him in and took the evidence needed to nail him. Things are going to be really bad for you.”
I laughed drily and lifted an eyebrow at him. I wished I had the nerve to walk up to him and wrap him up in a hug. I think we both really could have used one. “Things are always really bad for me. I had a few minutes of peace when I was pretending to be someone else and her skin never quite fit right. This is what my life looks like, Detective.”
His eyebrows pulled together and there was a noticeable tick in his jaw. “You do understand Conner will more than likely murder you when he gets his hands on you for double-crossing him? He burned down Nassir’s fight club on a night it was full of people. We pulled ten bodies out of the debris. Most of them were younger than you.”
I didn’t need a lecture about how cruel and coldblooded Conner was. I knew. The bastard had tossed the word love at me like I was an idiot. Like I was some simple girl that hadn’t grown up on the streets knowing what a chore it would be to love someone like me. A good man, a man with a purpose and a cause, would never throw the L-word so carelessly at a woman with a past like mine. Right then and there I knew he was up to something I wanted no part of. He thought he could tell me he loved me and I would be malleable and sweet. Instead I lied right back to him and set about really fucking up his plans. Served him right for underestimating me.
“I know what Conner is going to want to do to me if he gets his hands on me, so that’s why I came to you.”
I looked at him from under my long eyelashes and saw his mouth tighten when our eyes locked.
“You are going to keep me alive long enough to testify, Detective King.” He was going to keep me alive long enough that I could take Conner out before he took me, only Titus didn’t need to know that part of the plan.
“What makes you so sure of that, Reeve?”
I sighed heavily and pushed off the door. I walked over to him so that I had to tilt my head back and he had to look down slightly so that we could continue to meet each other’s gaze. He really was a brute of a man but it worked for him . . . and for me.
“Conner is going to know I’m the one who sold him out. I’m the reason he can’t operate out in the open anymore pretending to be good. He’s going to want me to suffer for that, but he’s not stupid and he knows all your fancy policeman tricks. This isn’t some uneducated thug dealing dime bags on the corner. He’s you, Titus, just the evil version.” I crossed my arms over my chest to mirror his pose and a small thrill raced through me when he couldn’t hide the way his gaze dipped to watch how my shirt pulled across my chest. He might not like me, but there was an attraction there he couldn’t always control. There was an inner part of him that pushed against his rough façade when we were within touching distance. That was the part I wanted to snuggle up with and curl around.
“You want Conner; then you’re going to need me to draw him out. He’s going to come for me regardless of what or who he has to get through to get to me, so you need to put me out there and then grab him when he comes for me.”
He was silent for a long, tense moment and I saw his Adam’s apple dip as he swallowed hard.