Lie to Me (21 page)

“Get out of my way,” he said. “You’re hurt. I don’t want you involved.”

“I’m already involved.” Alex’s steel gray eyes bore into him.

Damian glanced down at the paper in his hand, and then raised his gaze again. With a breath, shaky from anger, he took heavy steps toward Alex. When he reached Alex, he shoved the crumbled paper into his hands.

Alex smoothed it out and read it, flinching. Sam also read, over Alex’s shoulder, and did a commendable acting job. He looked appropriately shocked.

“Scary stuff,” Alex said, shaking his head as he looked up, his features taut, “but we all need to stick together, not beat the crap out of each other.” He gave the note back and Damian let it float to the carpet. He’d retrieve it later.

“Alex, you’re naïve about Sam.” He wanted to shake sense into him.
How could he not see?

“No,” Alex said, in a firm voice, meeting his gaze. “Tell me where you found that letter.”

“Someone slashed all the tires of my car tonight and left this note inside of it. Somebody must have spied on me to know where I went.” His set his eyes on Sam, whose gaze narrowed, then Damian looked back at his twin. Alex’s obvious disbelief drove him nuts. “Listen to me, damn you! This is about
me
! Why would a fired mill worker focus on
me
? It doesn’t make any sense.” He swung his gaze to Sam. “Samson here has made it abundantly clear that he wants me gone! Alex, get a clue!”

Alex stared at him, mouthing curses, raking a hand through his short hair.

“Of course, I did.” Sam spoke in a bitter cold voice that could have chilled an icicle, and he focused his frozen stare on Damian. “I’m mad as shit at you, on top of the usual desire to put my fist through your face! Dad asked me if I had anything to do with the attack on Alex. You put that idea in his head.” His low voice filled with danger.

“What?” Alex’s eyes shot to Damian’s.

“He thinks I planned the attack on you,” Sam repeated, every word precise and clipped.

“Not to Alex, to me.” Damian had never felt this type of fury at anybody. “Sam, you planned that surprise for
me
, but your goons screwed up Admit it!”

Alex mumbled, but neither brother paid attention to him.

“Got Daddy on your side already, haven’t you?” Sam’s face was both red and purple at the same time. “You were always his favorite, he’d listen to you, and you told him that I was behind the attack on Alex.”

“You want me out of town!”

“Fucking right, I want you out of town!” He sputtered on his words. “I want you out of my life!”

“And you’re taking steps to make that happen.”

Alex muttered to himself again, shaking his head, and Sam’s eyes looked crazed. “You must have spoken to Dad, brainwashed him! Last night he was fine. This morning he asked if I knew anything about what happened to Alex! I do hate you!” An almost demonic gleam made his eyes seem to glow. “I’d like to kill you.”

“I know you would.” His mind flashed back to the enemies list and fresh stabs of pain and anger filled his being.

“Maybe I should thank whoever’s on my side and also wants you out of the way.” His gaze sliced him in half. “Maybe you should take the hint.”

Damian felt a strange force overtaking him. He stepped to the side, away from Alex, and cupped his hands around Sam’s neck, his thumb on his windpipe. “Admit it’s you!” His hands closed in harder and Sam tried to shove him away, but couldn’t. “Admit it so I can turn you in and have you locked up, where you belong.”

Damian quickly found his hands locked behind his back, and Alex’s grip impossible to break. “Stop it, man! I can’t let you attack him.”

Sam raised a fist.

“If
you
start up, I’ll kick the shit out of you, even in my condition.” Alex spoke in a cold voice. “Both of you are acting like idiots! Miles can hear this, you know!”

Damian yanked hard against Alex’s hold and managed to break free. The first thing he did, the only thing he wanted to do, was go for Sam’s throat again, as Sam went for his. Both brothers got strong grips on each other and, as they coughed and gasped for air, Damian knew how it felt to want to kill somebody. And to be wished dead.

“Fuckin’ stop!” Alex threw himself in between them, breaking their holds. He shoved them both backwards. His hard gaze hit Damian, then Sam, then back again. “If you care so much for my welfare that you’re making me stay at Casey’s tonight,
stop
! Because if you two go at it, I’m going to jump right in the middle of this and try to stop it!”

Damian’s fists itched and he could tell that Sam’s did too, but both backed off, neither wanting to hurt Alex while he still had a head injury.

To break his murderous mood, Damian turned away. “I won’t choke the life out of him right now,” he promised, in a brittle tone. “Don’t know about the future.”

“Fine,” Alex said. “Tonight just let it rest and think about it. Sam didn’t do this.”

Sam laughed. “You don’t really know that, do you, Alex?”

“I do know it.”

Damian clenched his teeth. Alex probably wouldn’t believe that his name was on Sam’s enemies list even if he stared at it. He couldn’t think of anything civilized to say, so he kept his mouth shut.

“I’m leaving,” he heard Sam telling Alex, and he couldn’t help a nasty smirk that Sam couldn’t see as his back was still turned.

“Yeah, good idea,” Alex said, sounding tired. “Go home and get some rest and we’ll all feel better—”

“Oh, I’m not going home.”

“Well, I’m not your mommy. Do what you want.” Alex ran a hand through his hair again, his body sagging with obvious fatigue. Damian grew concerned.

“Let him go wherever he wants, and you get rest,” he said, quickly. “Alex, you’re the one who needs it.”

“You’re not my mom either.” Alex gave him an angry look that seared through him, even though he could only use the eye that wasn’t swollen almost shut. “I’ve had enough of you tonight.”

Damian wasn’t used to being talked to that way by Alex and it stung. He quieted, not wishing to inflame Alex again. His twin had gotten pale and it worried him.

“I’ll talk to you, Alex.” Sam started striding out of the apartment. When he stepped into Damian’s vision, Damian wanted to race up to him, jump on his back, and beat him into talking. That didn’t work with Sam though. Very little did.

Sam turned to face him as he stood with his hand on the doorknob. “Why don’t you just do what the letters asked? Get the fuck out of town, asswipe.” His gaze narrowed until they were only two slits.

“If anything happens to anybody I care about, shithead, I may become homicidal for the first time ever.”

Sam shot him an icy smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He slammed out of the apartment.

As Damian, shaking from the events of the night and his exchange with Sam, turned to face a disapproving, hardened Alex, the atmosphere remained as tense and chilly as when Sam had still been there.

Chapter Twelve

Casey emerged from Miles’ room a few minutes after Sam’s departure, sensing the anger between Damian and Alex, both standing apart, their backs to one another. They weren’t speaking. Alex looked white and she felt a wave of alarm. “Alex, go lay down. I want you to sleep on my bed tonight. It’s the most comfortable place.”

He turned to her, his swollen eye almost shut and the other one heavy-lidded. “I can’t take your bed. I’ll sleep on the sofa bed or go home—”

“You won’t go home.” She knew Damian wanted to watch him, and so did she. “You promised to stay here tonight, and it’s too late for you to leave.”

After some cajoling and pleading on her part, Alex reluctantly agreed to sleep in her room and on her bed. Admitting he could use some rest, he disappeared in her bedroom, shutting the door.

One problem was out of the way.

Damian didn’t become more talkative once his twin had shut himself in her room. He sat on the recliner with his head propped against the top of it, his eyes shut. She felt so badly for him, even more than bad. She ached for him. He’d had such a terrible night, and he truly believed his brother would hurt him. Not wanting to disturb him, she pulled out the sofa couch and made it up, silently.

She glanced up at him and his eyes opened, although he looked dazed. “I’m sorry. I think I fell asleep for a moment. I would have helped you make your bed.”

“That’s all right.” She felt a gentle smile crossing her face. His golden hair was mussed and he appeared so boyish and vulnerable. “Look,” she said, stepping up to him and taking his hand, “Sweet, I want you to sleep on the sofa bed. I’ll use the recliner.”

He looked ready to protest, but she cut in.

“You’re too tall to sleep on the recliner, and we can’t sleep together. Miles will wake up—if he sees us together—we’ve been over this—he’ll get his hopes up. I’ve fallen asleep on the recliner before.”

“Me too. I just did—”

“But you won’t be able to do it all night. Humor a worried ex-wife and sleep on the sofa bed.”

“I wish to hell you could sleep with me.” Damian’s tortured eyes rested on her.

How she wanted to sleep with him, enfold him in her arms, have him hug her back, wake up to him in the morning, but her son…

“We can’t.” She watched his tormented face and melted. “Babe—we can’t.”

He stood and took her in his embrace. “I need you tonight. More than I ever did.” His head lowered and he kissed her, his intensity and passion both arousing and disturbing. His lips were rough and insistent one hand fisting in her hair and his free arm grasping her around her waist. She couldn’t have pulled away if she’d wanted to. And she didn’t want to. When he pressed his erection against her abdomen, she wanted to rip off his clothes and make love to him.

Instead, she restrained herself and let him lift her in his arms, still kissing her, and lay her on the mattress of the blanketed sofa bed. He climbed beside her, still refusing to break the frantic, desperate kiss.

His arms cradled her body as he lay atop of her. His lips moved back and forth on hers, as he moaned and shoved his lower body down as hard as he could.

The folds between her thighs instantly dampened. She wanted him more than ever, and longed to wipe his sadness away by becoming one with him. At long last, he lifted his lips, breathing hard, heating her face, staring from close range into her eyes. She marveled at the long curl of his lashes, the bright aqua color of his eyes that burned straight through her. “I couldn’t have lived through this night without you,” he said, in a husky whisper.

Shivers racked every cell of her body, from the top of her skull to the tips of her toes. She grabbed the bottom of his hair as her other hand roamed to his firm buttocks. “You would have lived,” she said, trying to lighten his somber mood.

“Maybe.” He gave her another kiss, sticking his tongue in and out, teasing her a little, and then he spoke over her mouth again. “It’s so much easier with you here. Everything is.”

She hugged his head to her chest and feathered soft kisses in his hair. She wanted to tell him not to leave her, if he felt that way, but didn’t want to pressure him on a night that had been so unpleasant.

She felt him climbing off of her, and then he rose to his forearm and slowly pulled off her soft short-sleeve red sweater, stopping to gaze at her breasts. She hadn’t put a bra on today and he whistled in appreciation. “Babe, you have the best tits. They can wipe away the worst of days.” He lowered his head to suck on first one, and then the other and she gasped, tensed, and groaned, her fingers raking his back.

“No fair,” she mumbled. “If I take my shirt off, you do too.”

“Let’s both get undressed,” he mumbled, his teeth still clutching a stiff nipple, waves of pleasure heating her aroused body.

She arched and sighed. “Clothes can be inconvenient.”

As they gently and slowly unclothed one another—shirt, jeans, socks—he looked intense and his eyes burned with his arousal, but he never even hinted at a smile. When they both wore nothing but their warm flesh, she fixed her gaze on his long, thick, hard erection. The folds between her thighs throbbed, ready to grasp his cock, as she watched it with heated longing. “Damian, when we make love,” she whispered, quivering, “it really is making love. That’s why it’s so good.”

He nodded soberly. Although he usually amused her when they made love, with sexy, seductive words, tonight he didn’t. When he slid between her thighs and swirled his tongue in between her wet curls, she bit back the urge to scream, thinking about Alex in the other room and Miles in his bed. How would she handle this without making noise? How…

His tongue flickered against her folds and she was gone. When he licked her stiff nub with his clever, teasing, roughened tongue, her entire body jolted as if struck by lightning, and then tremors grabbed her again, harder the next time. She threw her head back as stars flashed behind her lids and fireworks exploded inside of her. And somehow she laughed softly and wept to herself, but, as she rode the clouds to paradise, she actually didn’t make any noise…

He pushed himself up until he lay beside her, stroking her face. She swore his eyes had never glowed such a luminous shade, almost the color of a swimming pool shimmering under sunlight. “Was that good, babe?” he asked, in his cool, seductive voice.

“Yes.” Her breathing was so erratic she could barely croak the one word.

He still didn’t smile. “I enjoy giving you pleasure. I love to watch you come.”

Casey broke her hold around his neck and gently pressed her breasts flush against his solid, hard, fuzzy chest, enjoying the feel of his rock-solid muscles and warm flesh. “Lay on your back, babe. Please.”

He kissed her, his wicked tongue driving her insane again, then rolled to his back, arms cradling his head. Didn’t say anything. Blinked as he stared at the ceiling, obviously still in a somber mood. She hated this dark side of him, a side he rarely showed in the bedroom.

Casey lowered her lips to his neck and tasted his salty flesh and bit his skin while he groaned and sighed. A streak of mischief hit her. Should she give him a hickey? She hadn’t done anything like that since high school, but she started sucking on his neck and he actually laughed.
Laughed!