Page 19 of Decker

Chapter Eight

Decker was still cursinghimself when he walked into Eidolon. He’d kissed her hair for God’s sake, that hardly screamed friends with benefits did it. He had no idea what had made him do it. He’d been surrounded by her scent, seen the look of utter exhaustion in her eyes, and lost his God-damned mind it seemed.

Pushing through the door for the kitchen, he saw Gunner making himself a ginormous sandwich and scowled. Gunner had always been a good man; he’d known that even when everything had pointed at him being the opposite. Decker had stuck by his profile and had been right. He’d never been so happy to be proved correct. Now since marrying Lacey he was even more settled.

“What crawled up your designer ass?”

“Nothing,” he bit out trying hard to maintain his usual grip on his control.

Gunner chuckled and lifted his chin as he bit into the delicious-looking baguette.

Decker grabbed himself a water from the fridge and took a long drink. He’d never had trouble keeping his emotions out of the casual hook-ups that consisted of his sex life. He had no use, or more importantly want, for them but now it was like all his icy control was slipping away.

“So, she got a name, or do I have to guess?”

Decker looked up, raising his brows, and stared down his nose at Gunner with a look that would obliterate other men, trying to intimidate the man from furthering that sentence, but of course, Gunner wasn’t most men. He was in no way as big as some of the other Eidolon men, but Decker worked out every day and was as a good a fighter as any of them. He was lethal and he knew it and could take just about any man in a room to his knees with a few well-placed blows, and that was if he had to get physical. Mostly it never came to that, his persona alone was enough. He cursed that it wasn’t working this time, but he’d helped shape these men to become hardened to threats of any kind and they knew he’d never be a threat to them. Their loyalty to him, and his to them, was the one good thing in his life.

After Susie, he’d become so cold, so dead inside it had been easy to remain remote, to show the outside world the monster he’d become inside. His world had been stripped away leaving only pain so debilitating that he’d locked all his feelings away just to survive. Yet Eidolon had shown him he could shed some of that mask and allow friendship in, but never again would he risk loving someone so much.

“Deck, that shit might work with people who don’t know you, but you can cut that shit out with me. I’m not afraid of you.”

No, the fucker just laughed harder.

“Asshole.”

Gunner slung his arm around his shoulders and led him toward a chair. “Come on, tell uncle Gunner all about it.”

“Tell him about what?”

Deck groaned when Mitch walked in the room with Autumn, her radar almost certainly picking up on gossip.

“Decker has lady problems.”

Deck gave him a sharp look. “I said no such thing,” he denied hotly.

“You didn’t not say it.”

“Oh, what’s her name?”

Autumn sat opposite him, and he knew he was sunk if he stayed there. He stood abruptly and shot the three of them a stony frown. “For the last time, I do not have woman trouble.”

He strode to the door as Mitch said behind him, “He totally has woman trouble.”

Decker sucked in a lungful of oxygen through his nose and went toward his office. The last thing he needed was them getting up in his business and making this worse. Sitting at his immaculately clean desk, he powered up his computer. He had this under control, and he’d simply reacted to Savannah because she was tired, and it was a leftover reaction from what happened with her ex-asshole last night. He’d felt sympathy for her—yes that was it. He was merely showing empathy to a friend.

Yes, this was all good, he had control. With that in mind, he picked up the phone and called Aubrey. He needed to make sure Andy Farr was still in custody. That’s what friends did, they looked out for each other.

“Hey, Aubrey, it’s Decker.”

“Hey, Deck, how are you?”

“Fine, fine.” He didn’t have time for small talk or distractions right now but needed to remain polite. “Listen, can you tell me if Andy Farr has been charged and what with?”

“Yes, he was charged with assault, endangering life, attempted manslaughter, and medical negligence.”

“Is he still in custody?”

“No, he was bailed after his hearing this morning.”