Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

“Good news is you’re not a fugitive anymore.”

He couldn’t hold back a grin as her eyes lit up. She wasn’t going to like the next part, though.

She plucked her bottom lip with her teeth, worried. “And the bad news?”

Chapter Thirty

“The bad news is you’re dead.”

“Dead,” Thea repeated. “I don’t understand.”

“As of last night, Thea Gale was officially listed as one of three fatalities in the Colby tornado.”

“So I’m not Thea Gale?”

“You’re Thea Gale. And you’re dead. Doesn’t make much sense, seeing as how your body is right here with me.” Nik grinned as he reached out and trailed his fingertips along her knee. She sidestepped beyond his reach, forcing him to lift his teasing eyes to her questioning ones. “Do you remember what I said the night you so sweetly accused me of being a serial killer?”

“If you wanted to kill me, you would’ve made it look like the tornado had.”

“God, you really are quick, smart.” Nik sighed as his visual appraisal slid down the length of her body. “So fucking sexy.”

“And dead, apparently,” Thea stated flatly, reminding him to stay on track. Admittedly, his focus had wandered back to the curve of her inner thigh and was heading on a due north trajectory at an accelerated pace. With a hooked finger, she caught his chin and lifted it until his eyes met hers again. “Why would someone want people to think I’m dead?”

The sex haze fizzing in his brain cleared a bit at her directness.

“Good question. If it were me, the answer would be a simple one. If everyone believed you’d died in an accident, then I could kill you anywhere, any way, any time I wanted.”

She swallowed. “How comforting.”

Nik gathered her back into his lap without resistance. As much as he enjoyed holding her close again, he hated seeing Thea defeated. He dropped a kiss to her forehead. “No one is going to kill you, Tigger. You’re with two SEALs, a Leo, and an attack dog. I’d say you’re about the safest woman in America right now.”

“A passed-out attack dog, a passed-out SEAL who kind of hates me, and another one who hasn’t slept in three days. I don’t feel very safe.”

“Ouch. You’re just being mean.” He had to laugh at the honest assessment though. “I guess we’ll count on Leo then. He’s kind of badass in his own, non-lethal way. If you call getting in a cage and beating the shit out of people for lots of money and sports drink endorsements badass.”

“Someone wants me dead. I’m glad you find it funny, but this scares the shit out of me.”

The worry hanging over Thea’s features turned Nik’s gut.

“I’m sorry. I don’t find it funny. I’m confident in your safety. Death and death threats have been an everyday part of my life for a long time. They might be a part of yours, too. I have a theory, if you’re willing to indulge it?”

“What does a dead girl have to lose?”

“Everything. Which is why I want to test my theory.” As much as it pained him to say it, he told her, “Put some pants on. You’ll need them for where I’m taking you.”

While Nik thoroughly enjoyed the body-conscious yoga pants Thea had returned in after brushing her teeth, they wouldn’t be nearly warm enough in the high country at night. “Come with me. You’re going to need to bundle up more than that.”

He soon had her buried under an oversized white ski coat and shell pants. She looked like an adorably sad Stay Puft Marshmallow Man who’d had gastric bypass. His cock didn’t care. Thea’s soft, curvaceous body awaited it under all that billowing Gore-Tex.

She grimaced as she slowly descended the stairs in the oversized snow boots one of Nik’s smaller-footed friends had left behind. He led her through the walkout basement and paused at the armored door as his fingers tapped out the appropriate sequence to unlock it. With a shove, the heavy door opened inward as the automatic lighting flipped on. Walls of guns and knives glinted in return. “Welcome to my Red Room.”

“It’s black,” she said, noting the paint color of what little of the walls could be seen behind all the gun racks and ammunition shelves.

“From the book or movie, the guy… Grey has a red room? It was a popu… Sorry, forgot about the memory loss thing.” Nik tossed his jacket onto the table.

“Does his room have all this?” Thea asked as she slid her fingers from a FN PS90 with halo sights to a Mossberg 590 to the FN Scars and AKs.

“No. His has leather shit, ropes, and whips.”

A hint of recognition flashed over her features, but all she said was, “Sounds like a tack room.”

The image of a ten-year-old Thea riding a horse broke through his thoughts and he wondered how long before she’d remember how happy they made her. For now, her focus was solely on the guns, specifically an M4. “So, you brought me down here because you have a hunch I know how to use these, right?”

“Yes. At least some of them. Like with the German, you may not realize it, but it’s there. It’s in your muscle memory. You easily took out the camera at Animal Control. A damn good shot and you didn’t even take time to aim. When you pointed your Glock at me, you stood correctly, would’ve been a perfect kill.”

“I didn’t even know it wasn’t loaded.”

The corners of Nik’s mouth dropped. Self-deprecation wasn’t a good fit on her. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

She flashed a knowing grin. “Or what? You’ll spank me?”

* * * *

I caught the muscles bulging in Nik’s jaw—a spank-me flex?—as he ground out in that gravelly, all-man voice of his, “Don’t tempt me.”

I probably would’ve let him. His jaw tic did crazy things to my body, but I was still kind of overwhelmed at the sight of his stockpile of weapons and the reason why he was showing them to me in the first place.