And two, the FBI agent—he didn’t look surprised at all to see Ethan standing a few feet away. In fact, Victor turned to look at Ethan and said, “And the predators are already closing in…See, Ms. Shay, I told you that you’d be hunted.”
Ethan smiled, a chilling sight. “I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of a formal introduction, and I don’t really fucking want one. What I want is for you to step away from my fiancée.”
His what now?
“And I want you to go back to whatever government hole you crawled out of. Carly doesn’t concern you, and you need to stay away from her.”
She could practically feel the tension rolling off the agent. His gaze cut to her, and the smile he gave her was obviously forced. “You’re going to need a friend soon.” Victor handed her a card and forced her fingers to curl around it. “When you realize just how much danger you’re in, call me.” Then he leaned in toward her and said, “Because the last thing that you want to do…that’s trust him. Ethan Barclay is a threat to you, and if you’re as smart as I’ve been led to believe, you’ll realize that. And you’ll come to me as fast as you can.”
“She doesn’t like it when strangers touch her.” Ethan was just a step away now. “So either get your hand off her, or I will be removing it.”
The agent’s hand slid away from hers. He nodded to Carly and said, “I hope I hear from you soon.” Then he was gone. Heading down the street with a confident, determined stride.
She still held his card in her hand. And Ethan— “Fiancée?” she murmured.
“It sounded good to me.”
It sounded terrifying to her.
“Let’s go inside, baby,” he told her gruffly. “Because we have seriously got to talk.”
The last thing you want to do…that’s trust him.
Oh, hell.
***
She was afraid of him. Not surprising, really. Ethan knew that most people were afraid of him, and with good reason. He didn’t make for a good enemy. In fact, becoming his enemy was usually a fatal mistake.
Carly’s hands were shaking as she shut her door and secured the lock. He was inside, she’d let him in without another argument, and his gaze slid around her home. It was odd. He knew Carly had been living there for about six months, but there weren’t a lot of personal touches in the place. It still had that “decorator” look, as if Carly didn’t want to change anything that had been there before.
Carly had once loved bright colors. Bold art. She’d laughed freely and danced—
He cut off that thought. Hard. Because he’d once seen her dance when he should not have seen that show. When no one should have seen it.
“The FBI knows that I—”
He lunged toward her and in one, fast move, he had his hand over her mouth. Her soft lips pressed against his palm even as her blue eyes flared wide with fear. I hate for her to fear me. Fear was good, as long as that fear came from anyone but her. Ethan brought his mouth close to her right ear and whispered, “The FBI was waiting outside of your building. I don’t trust those guys.” Not when he knew how badly they wanted to nail his ass to the wall. “There could be a listening device in here.” The whole place could be wired. So the last thing he wanted her to do…“No confessions, baby,” Ethan ordered, his voice a bare breath of sound.
She gave a slow nod.
His hand fell from her lips. Her scent—sweet and sexy and all Carly—wrapped around him. He knew he should step back, but he didn’t. He kept her pinned there, trapped between his body and the door, and Ethan thought about all the mistakes he’d made in his life.
The biggest one? Letting her go.
I won’t do that again.
“You should pack a bag and come with me. I have a suite in town. We can talk there.” Talk, fuck, whatever she wanted.
She wasn’t seventeen anymore.
Two consenting adults—and he’d never wanted anyone more than he wanted her.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Carly said.
Pity. But he hadn’t expected things with her to be easy. He had a whole lot of ground to make up.
“That agent—Victor—he just said I was being hunted—why? Why would anyone want to hunt me? How does anyone even know about my connection to Quincy?”
She wasn’t getting the whole listening device bit. Sighing, Ethan caught her wrist in his hand and he said, “Come with me.”
Then he pulled her down the hallway and opened the door on the right. He headed into her bathroom and shut the door behind them.
“What are you doing?” Now her voice had cracked a bit. “Why are we in the bathroom? How did you even know this was my bathroom?”