Page 16 of Beneath The Truth
My mother’s voice echoed in my head.“Life is passing you by while you sit on the sidelines.You’re better than that.Figure out what you want and goafterit.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out I wanted Ariel Sampson.But what the hell was I going to doaboutit?
I rolled out of bed slowly, stretching as I went.It felt like a group of street kids had used my head for a drum on a street corner in the Quarter instead of a five-gallonbucket.
Going out last night had been a mistake, not because of the hangover, but because of everything else itshifted.
I should have stayed at my hotel.But I hadn’t.And now I couldn’t get the picture of Ari’s hair spread across my pillow out ofmyhead.
Turning away from the bed, I walked into the massive attached bathroom.Probably nicer than any I’d ever seen, but all I cared about was the new toothbrush on a tray between the doublesinks.
After ridding myself of the gutter-sludge taste in my mouth, I used one of the glasses to drink a half gallon of water before opting for a shower.The steam killed the headache, and I finally felt like a functioning humanagain.
I pulled on my jeans, wishing they were sweats instead, and walked out in the hallway.I was hoping my nose would lead me toward the scent of coffee or breakfast, but no such luck.Instead of finding the kitchen like I intended, I got lost in the maze of hallways and heard a thump coming from one of the rooms on the back side of the house.I approached the door and heard a grunt and a groan followed byamoan.
I froze twofeetaway.
Whatthefuck?
Another thump and agroan.
No way.Ari was not having sex in there.Not in this house while Iwashere.
Because if anyone was having sex with her in this house, then goddammit, it was going tobeme.
I froze, realizing I’d made a decision this morning that changed a hell of a lot.Now that I knew what I wanted and was going after it, no one was going to get inmyway.
Especially not ...who the hell was in there with her?If Ari’s boyfriend showed up last night ...No.Not after the way she acted when Heath talked about him.She said shewasdone.
Then I heard her grunt again, and with my ear practically pressed to the door, it sounded more like a noise caused by frustration rather thanpleasure.
I shoved open the thick wooden door and burst inside—to find a full gym and Ari on her back, struggling against a much larger man, her facetwisted.
Oh, hell no.No one puts their hands on her.He was goingtodie.
Rushing forward, I didn’t think.I reached for the first weapon I could find, a dumbbell.I poised tostrike.
Ari flipped the much larger man onto his back, keeping hold of his arm in a classic arm-bar submission move.“Tap,dammit!”
Her face red from exertion, Ari widened her eyes when they locked on me.Through labored breaths, she said, “What the hell are you going to dowiththat?”
She released her grip on the man and he jumped to his feet, hisexpressionwary.
I lowered the dumbbell and Carver surveyed me carefully, something like respect settling onto hisfeatures.
“I heard you.Thought you were introuble.”
“And your plan was to bludgeon someone with a thirty-pounddumbbell?”
I glanced at the weight in my hand before looking back at her.“Ifnecessary.”
“Brutal,” she said as she held out a hand, and I used my free one to pull her to her feet.“Butthankyou.”
Carver retreated to a small fridge, retrieved two water bottles, and walked toward us, tossing one to Ari.He didn’t look all too interested in getting close to either of us, probably because he almost died of blunt-force trauma tothehead.
Instead of catching the water bottle with a feat of coordination like one would have expected given the level of skill she just demonstrated, Ari batted it away with both hands, hopping backward.“Whoa.Just because I can submit you with an arm bar doesn’t mean I can catchthings.”
For some reason, it was comforting to know that certain things neverchanged.
