Bender (The Core Four #1)(22)

“Here’s the deal.” The baritone of his voice gave me the chills. “You’re more than welcome to come here and use the facility whenever you want, but I have two rules.” Macie and I were listening intently. “The first one is, when you’re here, you’re working out. No fiddling around on the machines, and if you don’t know how to use something, just ask and I’ll help. I can’t have people getting hurt in here.” I was tempted to roll my eyes. He was speaking to us like he was standing in front of a second grade classroom giving safety tips. I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d do if I broke his rule. Spank me? I coughed, which caused his eyes to shoot toward me.

I held up my hand. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” I could feel my face heating up.

“Second.” He looked at me as though waiting for another interruption. “This isn’t a beauty pageant. Nothing chaps my ass more than seeing a girl walk in with her hair and makeup all done up. I don’t run a dating service. So if I see it, I’m going to call you out on it, understand?” That was what Dodger had said earlier in the apartment.

He had directed rule two to Macie. She scoffed, “Oh get over yourself. If I wanted to pick up a guy, it wouldn’t be some juiced up meathead whose head is too small for their steroid ridden body.”

Dodger, who’d remained quiet this entire time, barked out a laugh. His eyes were nearly sparkling at her as though she were something he’d never seen before. Camden grunted once, gave me a short nod, and walked away.

“Could your brother be any more uptight? Maybe that should be my workout of the day. Pulling the oversized steel rod out of Camden’s ass.” Macie’s face was nothing but serious curiosity.

Now it was my turn to laugh. “That would make my night so much better. Not to mention the rest of the year I’m living with him. Could make him more tolerable.”

Dodger was chuckling at our comments. “Come on girls, let’s get started.”



“I can’t feel my legs. I think they fell off on the stairs coming up here,” I said as I plopped down on the couch.

“My ass is jello. Like, I definitely think I understand why people get their asses massaged,” Macie mumbled, face down on the loveseat.

Dodger had just dropped us off at the apartment after he’d nearly killed us. I had quit at least fifteen times through the two hour workout, but he’d tell me he wanted more. I’ve never pushed so hard in my life. People actually paid him to torture them? I was baffled. They needed their heads examined. Yep, I was convinced that people who go to the gym and push themselves to the point of losing a limb were certifiable.

“I need a shower,” I groaned.

“I need a wheelchair.”

I giggled. We were pathetic. I slowly pushed myself off the couch, almost falling on my face in the process, when the front door opened. Camden came in like a man on a mission. His eyes were trained on me, and I swallowed hard at their intensity. When he kicked the door shut he moved toward me but stopped when Macie cleared her throat. He must not have seen her.

“What the hell?” she wondered, just as confused as I was feeling.

He pointed at her and ordered in an authoritative voice, “You…out.”

“Excuse me?” She was taken aback by his tone.

“I need to have words with Keegan, and I’d prefer you gone.”

She was about to say something that probably resembled a death threat, but I held my hand up and said, “It’s fine, Mace. Just go, and I’ll call you later.”

Macie kept her eyes pinned on Camden. “You sure? He looks like he’s about to blow a gasket.”

I nodded my head but didn’t speak. I wasn’t sure. In fact, my pulse was thrumming, and my hands were slightly trembling. I squeezed them into fists to hide it. Macie stared a minute longer before she conceded and pulled me into a tight hug. She spoke loud enough for Camden to hear. “If he hurts you, I’m going to need your help moving the body.”

I smirked at her silliness, but I had the distinct impression she wasn’t kidding. When she walked out Camden took two deliberate steps in my direction. “What the hell was that?” he asked, his voice calm and yet not, all at the same time.

I tilted my head to the side questioningly. “What are you talking about?”

Another step. “You know what I’m talking about, Keegan. I’m extremely pissed off right now, so I suggest you answer the fucking question.”

The way he said my name made my body shiver. “No, I really have no clue. And I can tell you’re mad.”

He was still advancing toward me. He seemed to take a deep breath and blew it out. “Let me tell you a little something about me. I like to have control. I control every single facet in my life. It keeps things running smoothly, and there are rarely any hiccups. It appears you didn’t listen to me earlier. I told you what I didn’t want to happen and yet, it still did. Now I want to know, did he ask you out?”

Oh, now I knew where this was going. But even still, why did it matter? He couldn’t possibly think he could control me, or what anybody else did. That’d be absurd! About an hour into my workout a good-looking guy with longer blond, shaggy hair approached me and struck up conversation. I was a disgusting, sweaty mess and never once had it occurred to me that the guy had been flirting. His name was Luke. He had walked over after lifting some free weights and asked me what my name was. He’d commented that he’d never seen me in here before. I was polite, despite my huffing and puffing. He’d flashed me a dazzling smile and chatted away while I lifted my legs and stretched my arms, keeping a steady tempo on the elliptical. I’d noticed Luke in the far corner when I had been scouring the place to see if anybody was watching me. And not like, watching me watching me, but looking at me like I didn’t belong. Luke’s eyes had locked on mine, and I had looked down blushing. I’d never fathomed that he would have approached me. When he had been mid-conversation telling me that he was a graduate student, I’d felt a pair of eyes boring into my back. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I had goosebumps despite it being hotter than Hades. My eyes shifted from Luke’s, and I locked eyes with dark brown ones that were staring at me warily through the mirrors. Camden looked pissed. It must have been only ten minutes into us chatting, err…well him talking to me since I couldn’t really breathe, let alone talk, that he asked me to go out with him sometime. I told him sure and puffed out my phone number. He blew me away with a beautiful smile and said he’d be calling soon. After he’d walked back to the weights, I looked back up to see if Camden was still watching, but he was nowhere to be seen. Now, standing here with the prowling beast of a man taking slow menacing steps toward me, I wished I were able to speak. Unfortunately, cat got my tongue.