Page 6 of Drax (Iron Thunder MC 3)
While she spoke, she appeared suddenly less defensive. More vulnerable. I saw flashes of the Mary-Beth I used to know, the girl I had fallen for, so hard. The girl I could wake up next to in the morning and talk to. She used to be a good listener before things got bad between us.
And now it seemed like the last thing she wanted to do was hear my voice.
“You’re telling me that I should leave your brother alone? You think I’m the one causing all this shit?” I growled at her.
She shook her head like she couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe how petty I was being. This wasn’t child’s play. Someone needed to get that into her head. None of this was a joke.
“Let’s not play the blame game right now, Drax.”
“I don’t have to. If you bothered to find out the real history of this war, you’d know the answer is pretty crystal clear.”
While she stared at me like that, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if I took her up to my room right now. What if it was her lying naked on my bed instead of Sylvia and Amara? What would a real relationship feel like? I hadn’t experienced one before I met Mary-Beth and I was determined never to face another one again.
I wasn’t built as one piece of a pair; I was built to survive alone.
She drew in a deep breath, snapping me out of my daydreams.
“This is what you always do, Drax. You find a way to turn things around on the other person. You are never willing to claim responsibility for your actions.”
This was fuckin’ frustrating. She sure knew how to get under my skin. Under any other circumstance, if she was anybody else, I would have kicked her out of this room a long time ago. I didn’t usually care what anyone else thought of me.
But it was hard for me to admit I did care what she thought of me. I didn’t want her to go on believing that her lunatic brother was a saint or dependable.
“Crash flipped one of my guys. He bribed him into helping him steal a shipment from me. That is how this whole thing started.”
She was watching me carefully. For a moment, I thought she was going to crack. She’d come around. She’d see what I was talking about. But Mary-Beth shook her head.
“If you have any respect for me or for what…we…for our relationship— even though it’s in the past now—you will leave my brother alone. Just end this, Drax.” Her lips quivered a little as she spoke. What the hell was she talking about? I couldn’t just end it.
I didn’t have magic in my fingers that I could just snap.
I rubbed a hand over my face in frustration and grumbled under my breath.
“You. Have. No idea.” I stepped toward her; sure she could see the anger on my face. It was slowly starting to go redder. I was losing my shit. This was fuckin’ ridiculous. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She held my gaze. She wasn’t about to look away. Mary-Beth never looked away. She was so sure of herself, thought she knew everything.
But she didn’t.
“You shouldn’t even fuckin’ be here. Do you know that?”
“Yes, I know, being here is a touchy subject with my brother…”
“No. When I say you shouldn’t be here. I mean, you really shouldn’t.” I took more steps toward her with every word. I was growling at her, but she held her own. “You have any idea what you’ve put yourself in by coming here? What your brother is capable of doing if he finds out you’ve been talking to me?”
In response to that, Mary-Beth said something that proved just how clueless she was. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Oh, come on, Drax…Crash would never hurt me.”
My first instinct was to grab her by her shoulders and give her a good shake. How could she be this naive? My next instinct was to kiss her. Hold her. Protect her. She had no idea who she was dealing with.
“I hate to break it to you, MB, but your brother is capable of a lot of things you don’t know about.”
I saw the way her jaws moved in anger while she kept her mouth firmly pressed together.
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
She challenged me with her burning eyes.
I could tell her. I could tell her exactly what Crash was capable of. What he had already done in his career as President of the Silver Knights. In fifteen minutes, I could shatter the persona he had created.
But what was the point? It wasn’t like she’d actually believe me.
When I remained silent, she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Nothing. You can’t give me any evidence that he’s in the wrong here.”
