Want Me (13 page)

He nodded. “And then I ran to the scene, joining in the hunt for…me.”

Such a twisted bastard.

“I’m a really fantastic shot,” Clark said, raising his voice. “But even a piss poor shooter would still kill this close.”

“Let her go!” Ethan yelled.

Clark shoved the tip of the gun deeper into the underside of her chin. He tugged her around a bit, moving so that they both faced Ethan. “You have your weapon, Ethan. Instead of pointing it at me, point it at yourself. Lift it up, and put it right to your temple.”

Insane.
She clawed at his hand, but he didn’t so much as flinch. Was her screwdriver still in his back?

Ethan wasn’t moving. She could see his still form.

“Put the gun to your head or I will shoot her right now!” Clark yelled.

That yell had her flinching.

And it had Ethan lifting the gun. “No,” Sophie whispered. What the hell was he doing? She couldn’t see his gaze, not in the dark. It looked as if he were staring right at her. He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t!

“You love Sophie, don’t you, Ethan?” Clark never moved his weapon.

Ethan didn’t speak.

“Let’s see how much. Either you pull your trigger or I will pull mine.”

No!

“Pull your trigger…” Clark shouted. “Or I pull mine!”

“No!” Sophie yelled. “No, don’t you do it, Ethan! He’s not going to kill me!” She was supposed to buy that this crazy freak had been secretly stalking her for years and
now
he was going to kill her in a blink? Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. He was just trying to play some kind of head game with Ethan.

No, he’s trying to get rid of Ethan. He’s trying to get rid of everyone in his way. Lex, Ethan…

Ethan had his gun pointed at his temple.

“If you do it,” Sophie shouted, “I will kick your ass!” She fully believed Clark wouldn’t kill her—okay, she thought he wouldn’t kill her right
then.
So that meant she could fight him. If he had the chance, though, hell, yes, she thought Clark would kill Ethan—and he’d finish Lex.
I won’t give him the chance.

“I knew you were trouble, Clark,” Ethan said. He didn’t sound frightened. He sounded pissed. “The first time your rich ass came into my neighborhood. You wanted drugs, and I told you I didn’t run that shit. But you saw something else that got you addicted, didn’t you? You saw
Sophie.
”

“Sophie was meant to be mine! She never loved another man, barely let any other lovers get close. She held herself back, for me!”

Ah, and now she knew just how to break free. “Newsflash, there, ADA Eastbridge. Lex got close.”

His hold slackened.

“Want to know just how close?” She made her voice go velvety, husky. Seductive. “So close that
I love him.”
Sophie drove her elbow back into his stomach and when he grunted, she lurched forward.

“
Run, Sophie!
” Ethan bellowed.

No way. She wasn’t going to run and leave Lex. She needed a weapon, she needed—

“And I…love…her…” Lex snarled.

Lex.

She looked back. In the dark, he’d risen. He grabbed Clark and threw him against the side of the car. The screwdriver hit the ground with a clatter. She lunged for it, but when she looked up, Clark was trying to aim his gun right at Lex.

“
Stop it!
” Sophie screamed. “Don’t you hurt him! Don’t!” She would stab that bastard right in the heart.

She didn’t have to.

Lex knocked the gun out of Clark’s grasp. She knew he broke Clark’s wrist because she heard the crunch of bones. Then Lex pounded his fist into Clark’s face again and again. Clark attempted to fight back, but he was no match for Lex’s fury. No match for him at all.

Sophie stepped forward, but hard arms wrapped around her. “Let him finish the bastard,” Ethan whispered in her ear. “Then you’ll never have to fear Clark again.”

Lex was in a killing fury. His wounds didn’t seem to slow him down at all. His hands struck in a blinding rush, and the thud of flesh on flesh—the crunching of bones—had her shuddering. Lex wasn’t stopping.

And she couldn’t watch him murder a man. “He isn’t you,” she told Ethan.

His arms fell away. Sophie hurried to Lex. She reached out, touching his shoulder. “No more.”

At her touch, Lex stilled instantly.

Clark slid down the side of the car, then fell, slamming face first into the cement.

Lex turned. He stared down at her. His eyes glittered.

“I’m okay,” she told him. “He’s done.”

Lex’s hand—bloody—reached out to touch her. But right before his fingers slid against her skin, his hand clenched into a fist. “I…love you.” His voice was so rough.

“I love you, too.” Saying the words wasn’t hard. In fact, it just might have been the easiest thing she’d ever done in her life. She threw her body against his, holding on tightly to Lex. “I love you.”

His arms closed around her.

Clark. Clark did this. The ADA!
She couldn’t wrap her mind around that, couldn’t understand it all, not yet. In that moment, it didn’t even matter. Lex was alive. She was alive—
that
was all that mattered.

Sirens wailed—seemingly far off.

“Someone called the cavalry.” Ethan’s voice was mild. “That usually happens when shots are fired. Tell you what…how about I kill this asshole before the boys in blue come rushing to the scene? Trust me, this ending will be better for everyone. Lex can still be your hero, you can sleep peacefully at night, and I’ll feel one hell of a lot better about the world in general.”

She shook her head, but didn’t let Lex go.

Killing like that…there had been enough death. She didn’t want it. “He killed my parents. He killed Griffin.”

“There’s not going to be any evidence to tie the guy to those crimes,” Ethan argued. “He’s slick. Hell, he’ll just toss out some insanity defense and get away with it all. So what if he actually
is
insane? He’s been hooked on you for years. You think he’s ever just going to let you walk away from him?”

She couldn’t
kill.

Lex seemed to stumble against her. Her hold tightened on him. “Help me, Ethan! Clark shot him.” She’d thought he was all right. The way he’d fought, but…

Lex was sagging. Slumping.

Ethan hurried forward. “Shit. When you’ve got bullets in you…” He slid his shoulder under Lex’s right arm. Sophie put her body under Lex’s left arm to help brace him up. “Maybe let me do the ass kicking?”

Lex grunted. “You were…busy…about to shoot…self…”

“I saw you moving behind him. I knew you just needed me to keep him distracted.” They were shuffling forward. Moving toward the flash of blue lights. “I did my part, buddy. You’re welcome.”

Sophie glanced back. The men weren’t even looking at Clark. Was he still breathing?

“Now do yours…”

Wait, had Ethan just said those words? They’d been so low she thought she’d imagined them. They shuffled forward more. The cop cars raced toward them. The first vehicle braked with a screech that hurt Sophie’s ears. The driver’s side door opened and—

“What happened?” Faith Chestang shouted. “Seriously…
let me handle this shit sometime! Don’t always fight on your own!”

Then she was running forward.

And there was a rustle behind Sophie. The whisper of clothing?

“Mine…” Such a low, furious growl. “Or…no one’s…”

Clark wasn’t dead, and, apparently, he still had a whole lot of twisted rage left in him.

Lex shoved Sophie to the side. Ethan shouted her name and the guy
jumped
on her.
What?

And—

Clark ran toward them. He had the screw driver in his hand. The screwdriver that had fallen when Lex was fighting him. Clark had that screwdriver raised and was charging forward.

But he didn’t get very far. Because Lex fired at him. Just shot with cold precision. Once, twice. The bullets sank into Clark’s chest, hitting perfectly in the heart.

“No one owns Sophie,” Lex said. His arm lowered when Clark hit the ground.

Ethan rose, moving off Sophie. “And now it’s over.”

“
Damn, damn…
” Faith ran forward. She kicked the screwdriver away from Clark’s still form. “The ADA just went batshit.”

No, he’d been batshit for a very long time. He’d just been good at hiding his dark side. Sophie was on the ground, the cement biting into her hands. Lex walked toward her, his steps slow, but not staggering. Had he really been that weak before? When he’d suddenly needed both her and Ethan at his side?

The gun was Ethan’s. Lex took it from him.
When Ethan had gone to Lex’s side, that was when Ethan must have slipped him the gun.

She shook her head.

I did my part, buddy.
Ethan had said that.

Now do yours.

Lex stared at her. “I love you.”

More cop cars rushed up to the scene. An ambulance was there. And—Dev? Chance Valentine? Yes, they were running toward Lex, too.

But Sophie hadn’t moved from the ground. Lex had just killed in front of her. She knew—with utter certainty—that Lex had known Clark would attack again. He’d waited. He’d planned that moment perfectly.

Clark had attacked right in front of a cop. Faith had seen everything. She would testify—like it would ever come to that—that Lex had fired in self-defense.

But Clark hadn’t been attacking Lex again. He’d been coming for me.

“He always would have come for you,” Ethan said softly as he leaned forward and offered her his hand. “Don’t you see that?”

She saw that Lex had killed for her. She’d never wanted that. She hadn’t wanted him to ever carry that darkness for her.

Dev and Chance were surrounding him now. Talking fast. An EMT was trying to reach out to Lex.

He was just staring at her.

Her lips felt numb as she called, “He’s been shot. Please, get him in the ambulance! Lex needs help.”

But Lex shook his head. “I just…need you.”

No, the man needed stitches. Maybe a blood transfusion. Definitely medical assistance.

“Only you,” Lex said.

“I didn’t want this,” she whispered.

Pain flashed on his face. Even in the darkness, she could see it—those too-bright flashing police lights had let her see it. Then Lex was turning from her. Letting Chance and Dev and the EMT lead him to the ambulance, and she knew that he’d misunderstood her.

Dammit.

“Sophie, you know what he did for you,” Ethan murmured.

The police were swarming the scene.

Her legs felt locked in place. “I never wanted him to do it. I never wanted anyone to kill for me.” Because
that
was her greatest fear. That someone would be pushed to the edge—for her. She kept her voice whisper soft as she said, “For years, I thought you’d killed for me. Do you know how that cut me up on the inside?” It had terrified her and made her determined not to let anyone else get close. Because she’d been afraid that she twisted people. That she took the good and put a monster in its place.

But Lex isn’t a monster.

He was in the back of the ambulance.

“What did I do,” Sophie asked, “that fucked Clark up so much?” She didn’t even remember meeting him so long ago. Had she?

“You didn’t do a damn thing. That guy always had problems. I knew it the first moment I saw him.”

Drugs. He’d gone to Ethan for drugs.

“Some men think everything should belong to them—everything and everyone. It’s about control and power. That freak was high on his power. Being ADA, he got to control life and death for everyone around him. And you—oh, Soph, I think he wanted to control you most of all.”

No one owns Sophie.
Lex had said that.

When she looked back to the right, the ambulance was pulling away.

“Staying in the hospital for a bit longer probably wouldn’t have been the worst idea in the world,” Dev murmured as he sauntered into Lex’s office with his brows raised. “But if you wanted to play superhero and act like bullets bounce off your chest, fine by me.” He didn’t bother closing the door behind him.

Lex was sitting in his desk. Very
carefully
sitting at his desk because he had plenty of stitches in his back. “They didn’t bounce off my chest,” he said flatly. “They hit my back. Actually, my shoulder and my left side.” The bullets and blood loss hadn’t been nearly as bad as the concussion he’d gotten when his head had hit that pavement. He’d lost consciousness for a few moments and woken up to absolute terror.

Sophie, in danger. Sophie, touching him…and talking to a demented bastard.

“Thanks so much for clarifying,” Dev said with an eye roll. “Point is, you should be resting. If not in a hospital, then at least at home.”

No way. When he was alone, he thought too much—about Sophie. About how he’d totally fucked things up with her because…
I killed a man right in front of her.

But Clark had been running toward her. He’d had that screwdriver up and—

Why even try to kid myself? I took that gun from Ethan because I didn’t think Clark was done, and I had wanted to be ready. If he’d come at Sophie again, I planned to kill him.

And I did.

Now he needed to find a way to fix this mess. He needed Sophie.

“So what are you going to do?” Dev wanted to know. “I heard Detective Chestang cleared you so everything is all tied up, nice and neat. The ADA was the psychotic bad guy. He was the one who took over Finn’s account. Tricky bit of business, that.”

Yes, it had been. Clark had found out about Finn’s account when he prosecuted the guy years before, and he’d taken it over, secretly. Clark had been funneling his own money into that account over the years.

Clark had wanted Finn to appear responsible for Griffin’s murder. Probably just a way to eliminate another man from Sophie’s life. Daniel’s attack on her had definitely set Clark off—severing whatever ties to reality that had held the guy in place.

Or maybe, as Faith had said, Clark really had just always been batshit. Who the hell knew what he’d been doing in his spare time over the years? Maybe there were more skeletons—and murders—still hidden in his closet.

“I heard some folks at the prosecutor’s office are even thinking Ethan Barclay isn’t the devil in disguise any longer. Clark was the one always pushing for a prosecution against him. Now that everyone knows the truth about Clark…” Dev shrugged. “Well, all of his cases are tainted. They’ll have to be reviewed. Talk about a serious nightmare for someone.”

Lex rubbed his aching temples. Since it seemed Dev had just gotten the inside scoop from the prosecutor’s office, he wanted to ask, so badly, about—

“When are you going to see Sophie again?” Dev said, voice casual.

Lex’s hands flattened on the desk in front of him. “You were at the scene. You heard what she said.” Words that had hurt far worse than the bullets.

“Yeah, she said, and I quote, ‘I didn’t want this.’
This,
man.
This,
not you.” Dev huffed out a breath. The door was still open behind him. “She was looking at a blood bath. Seeing the dead body of the guy who’d offed her parents. The woman should’ve been entitled to say anything she wanted right then, and you should have just been grateful she was still alive.”

Lex surged to his feet and ignored the pain that burned through him. “I am grateful,” Lex snapped back. “Do you know how fucking scared I was when I woke up and I could hear Clark talking to her? He was trying to take her away from me. I didn’t have a weapon, and he had a gun. I had to get the gun away from him, I knew it. But I couldn’t have her hurt.” His words were coming faster, harder. Lex couldn’t stop now. “She matters to me. More than anything. So, fuck, yes, when I got her away from that bastard, I hit him. I just kept hitting him.” Through the blood and the crunch of bones. “I hit him even when he wasn’t fighting back. I hit him because I
wanted
to kill him. I wanted her to be safe.”

Lex’s breath heaved out.
Slow down.
Apparently, he wasn’t as in control as he’d thought.

“But you stopped…” Dev put his hand up behind him—what was up with that? It looked like he was almost waving to someone out in the hallway. “You stopped then,” Dev said.

“I stopped for Sophie. She touched me, and I just wanted to hold her.” But he’d been scared to touch her with blood on his hands.

“Then why did you kill Clark later?”

Growling, he shot around the desk. “Why the inquisition? Why—”

“Because you’re sitting in here, and you’re throwing something really important away instead of running out and making Sophie listen to you. So maybe…” He backed out, retreating from the room as he continued, “Maybe I’m trying to make you fight.”

Lex blinked. Seriously? The guy had just walked out in the middle of the conversation? Dev could be weird sometimes.

But then Dev was back. Only he wasn’t alone. He was pulling Sophie with him. Her eyes were bright with tears.

Had she been outside that door, the whole time? Listening to him rant?

And bare his soul?

Lex stiffened.

“Why did you kill him?” Dev asked once more.

Sophie shook her head. “Stop. Just stop, okay?” It sounded as if she were begging.

Sophie should never have to beg.

Her sigh was broken. “It doesn’t matter why. What matters is that I pushed him that far.” She wasn’t looking at Dev. Instead, she was staring straight at Lex. “And I’m sorry. I never wanted that for you. I never wanted you to kill for—”

He had her in his arms. He had to touch her. Had to kiss her. Had to lift her up against him, and so what if he popped a stitch? Sophie was there. She was hugging him back. She was kissing him back. She was
there,
with him.

“I’ll just leave you two alone,” Dev said. The door clicked shut.

Lex didn’t let Sophie go. He couldn’t. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Sorry you had to see me like that.” With her, he would confess all. “I tried to pretend I was someone else with you. But that’s
me
, sweetheart. When your life was threatened, I reacted.” Primitive. Deadly. “I wanted you to love me, but…”

“Oh, Lex, I do love you.” Her body pressed to his. “I told you that, and I meant it. I love you so much that it scares me.”

He was the one scared—of losing her.

Sophie’s beautiful gaze searched him. “I don’t want you to ever be hurt because of me. I don’t want to push you to the edge.”

I’d go over any edge for you.

Sadness slid over her face. “Dev told you once that I was the wrong kind of woman. And he’s right. I can be—”

“He’s full of shit, and he knows it.”

She blinked up at him.

“Didn’t you notice just how much Team Sophie he is right now? He knows I love you. He knows I would do anything for you.” Lex’s voice roughened. “He knows that I was falling apart without you in my life.”

“My life wasn’t the same, not without you.” Her hand lifted and slid over the stubble on his jaw. “I couldn’t stay away any longer.”

“And I was already making plans to seduce you back to my side.”

“You were?”

“I was going to start with flowers.” That had been the first plan. “Champagne. Maybe get one of those little bands to come to your office and serenade you.”

Her lips lifted, just a little. An
almost
smile.

“I was going to do
anything
to win you back. To prove to you that we were worth fighting for.” Lex swallowed as he tried to find the right words. This moment mattered so much, and he didn’t want to screw it up.

But she nodded. “We are worth fighting for. You’re worth fighting for.” She squared her shoulders. Sophie looked so heartbreakingly gorgeous and determined as she said, “I want to be with you.”

“Hell, yes.” His instant response.

“I want to spend all my nights with you.”

“
Always.
” Excellent plan.

“I want to wake up next to you.”

Damn straight. No other man would be getting close to her.

“I want you to love me…”

“So much it hurts,” he promised her.

Alarm flashed in her gaze.

“But in that very good way,” Lex was quick to reassure her.

There it was—she smiled at him. A flash of her white teeth that made warmth in his chest. Her eyes lit up. She freaking lit him up.

“And I want you to know…” Sophie said, “that I love you, completely, totally, and I will love you for the rest of my life.”

He lifted her up, holding her tighter, and whirled toward the desk.

“Lex, no, your stitches!”

He sat her on the edge of his desk. “Fuck them,” he said.

She smiled up at him. He would
never
tire of her smile. “I’d rather fuck you.”

That could totally be arranged. He kissed her again. But not hard. Not wild. Soft. Sensual. And as he kissed her, Lex knew…
I’ll be asking her to marry me soon.

But he’d do that part right. With flowers. With champagne. And with that band that he’d already paid to go and sing at her office. They were scheduled to arrive in the morning. Maybe that proposal would take place then, too.

After all, why wait? When you found something this good—this precious—a smart man held on tight.

Her arms curled around him.

Tight.

“I fucking love you,” Lex said right before his lips pressed to hers.