“So?”

“That’s it.”

“And?”

“Well, I think, should you happen upon our rescue vehicle after we’ve been kidnapped, considering all that, it should get to be me who rides away on the back of your bike with you, not Lanie.”

I saw the white flash of teeth surrounded by his dark goatee indicating he was smiling and got another squeeze before he whispered, “Jealous?”

Um… hell no.

So hell no, I was so pissed, I managed to yank straight out of his arms and I rolled. I got to my feet beside the bed righting my bra as I went in search of my underwear and shorts.

“Babe, get back in bed.”

“No, I’m going home.”

“Unh-unh, you’re gonna stop bein’ stupid and get your ass back in my bed.”

Uh… what did he just say? Stupid?

Hell no again!

I found my shorts and panties, separated them and started to tug my panties on. I did not succeed in this endeavor because Tack’s fingers jerked them from mine and he tossed them across the room. I watched their lightness flit through the dark and settle. I straightened, turned to Tack and then his fingers closed around my wrist and he jerked again, me this time. I went sailing, landing on him. He rolled us to our sides, his hands went into my pits and he hauled me up the bed then he rolled on top of me.

“Get off me, Tack.”

“Like I said, stop bein’ stupid.” He didn’t have to repeat the get back into bed part since he planted me there.

“Get off me.”

“Red –”

I lifted my head an inch off his pillow and hissed, “Do not play my best friend against me. That is not cool.”

This was met with silence and even though I was angry and felt I had a right to be, his silence was angry and it was scary.

Then he spoke. “No, Tyra, what is not cool is you thinkin’ for one f**kin’ second I’d do that.”

“You yourself just taunted me with ‘jealous’,” I mimicked his low, gravelly voice on the last word and the scary angry vibe ratcheted up about twelve levels on the scary and angry scale.

“I was teasin’ you. I didn’t think you actually believed I’d do somethin’ that f**ked up.”

“Okay then, what’s the deal with you taking off with her?”

“The deal with me takin’ off with her is the reason you and your aunt got taken was because of her. They didn’t want you. But these guys are lethal, serious as shit. They do not mess around, they do not care about collateral damage and they’ll take every advantage they can get and suck it dry. They didn’t want you but they would have used you if they needed to. Not gonna f**kin’ happen. I told you this shit leaks and it leaked. So for your protection, and hers, she needed to be locked down. I locked her down.”

I had a lot of questions, including what the heck “locked down” meant but I prioritized them quickly and out of my mouth came, “Do you mind explaining to me why it was you who needed to lock her down?”

“Do you mind explainin’ to me why you’re questioning why it was me?”

This was a good question I wasn’t prepared to answer. And the reason I wasn’t prepared to answer it was because it hit me just then that he was right even though he’d been teasing. I was jealous. I was jealous of my own best friend. And acting like a moron. Acting like a moron in a variety of ways including the fact that I’d just had sex with Tack again. I didn’t even think about it, not that he gave me a chance, but even so, I didn’t think about it. I just did it and I liked it… a lot.

What was going on with me?

Having been kidnapped and having used Tack and how I felt about him as the way to keep my head straight while said kidnapping was happening and having just had sex with him, I felt it was time, finally, to figure that out.

Therefore, I ventured cautiously, “Um… perhaps we should discuss our relationship.”

“Yeah, we’ll discuss it by me tellin’ you you’re pretty f**kin’ lucky right now seein’ as I just came and came hard ‘cause ‘a you and that greedy pu**y of yours so I’m feelin’ patient,” he stated, not sounding patient, not in the slightest. “So, since I’m feelin’ patient, I’ll take the time to explain even more shit to you. And the shit I’m gonna explain is that you do not tie a man like me down. You do not do that, Tyra. You try that shit, you’ll find yourself cut loose.”

It seemed pretty clear when I ventured cautiously, I didn’t venture cautiously enough.

Therefore, I ventured even more cautiously when I told him, “I’m, um… uncertain what you mean by tying you down.”

“Givin’ me that shit about playin’ you and your friend, askin’ me to explain myself. I do what I do and you gotta trust that I’ll do right by you. You tie me tight to you so I can’t breathe, I’ll find a way to get loose.”

“Am I…” I found the need to swallow, so I did and tried again. “Am I tied to you?”

“Not yet and I gotta tell you, with this bullshit, I’m rethinkin’ the hold I got on those strings.”

Uh…

Ouch.

That hurt. It hurt so much I felt my chest jerk back into the bed like he’d dealt a body blow. But even as my body responded to his verbal strike, my brain didn’t recover.

Yes, that’s how much it hurt.

I was venturing cautiously. Things were weird and wild and confusing and happening too fast and they needed to be sorted out.

Tack was definitely not venturing cautiously. Tack was being Tack, laying it out and being honest about it, brutally honest.

But he’d never been intentionally brutal to the point of being mean.

And no woman needed mean no matter if it came with honest.

Therefore, I whispered, “I want you to get off me, Tack.”

“I’m not gettin’ off you, Tyra. I’m pissed and you’re… whatever the f**k you are and we’re talkin’ this shit out. You’re not gonna hide away, lick your wounds and think up more shit, that, mind, is pure shit, to hold me back.”

“I’m not sure you get this but I’m not certain I want to hold onto your strings either,” I said quietly.

“Right, that you just came twice?”

“Pardon?”

“Babe, I asked, you didn’t hesitate to spread wide for me. I told you that mornin’ you started workin’ for me, I touched you, you’d spread wide and you did. You give attitude, darlin’, I enjoy it. It works. You got a way of dishin’ it out that makes me go hard and part ‘a the reason I go hard is I know, I get in there, it’s gonna be worth puttin’ up with your mouth but what I do not enjoy is this cat and mouse bullshit you got goin’ on.”