Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(39)

The burly, overbearing man strode for his truck, which was parked at the curb. He opened the passenger door and held it open for me.

“Thank you,” I muttered.

Ollie only answered with a tight dip of his head. His entire demeanor was rigid as he climbed into the driver’s side and started the old, rambling engine.

I swore, that old truck only shook us up more as we traveled the short distance back to his building.

My lungs squeezed almost painfully when I attempted to draw in a breath.

Everything sharp and too tight.

He pressed the button to open the sliding door that led to his garage. Slowly, we entered into its darkened depths.

The garage door dropped behind us, and it felt as if it closed off the rest of the world.

We disappeared into it.

Into a place that was only Ollie and me.

Anger and attraction and regret.

God. It was so hard sitting at his side and feeling like that was exactly where I was supposed to be and knowing those thoughts were nothing but foolish.

I couldn’t allow him to affect me like this.

He parked in the mess of all his metal, his collection of cars and motorcycles just as powerfully beautiful as the man.

He came around and helped me down.

I said nothing, just headed for the old warehouse elevator that had been restored with the rest of the place.

I felt as if I was stepping into a cage as Ollie slid the restored metal gate closed.

Prisoned.

Oh God.

His brutal energy hammered through the confined space, radiating from the walls, slamming back into me. Fed by the flashes of light that blipped through the bars as the elevator clanged and churned and rose.

The elevator jerked as it came to a jolting stop at the top floor, and I stumbled. Ollie’s hand darted out to steady me.

Burning on my hip.

Fire flashed.

I sucked in a breath, pinned by that sapphire gaze.

His exhale was close to pained as he opened the gate where it dropped us right at his door. We moved out into the enclosed hall, and he unlocked the door to his loft, stepping in behind me.

Sunlight streaked through the big windows and poured into the rambling space, stretching for all the darkened, shadowy corners.

Anxiety clawed across my chest.

I wasn’t ready to answer his questions about Brenna, even though I could feel the weight of them from the harsh pants he exhaled through his nose.

Dropping my head, I started for the hallway that led to the bedrooms.

Needing to escape.

“You gonna tell me who you were sitting with?”

His voice came from right behind me.

Heated chills streaked across my skin. As hot as the sun.

“A friend,” I told him.

“A friend?” It was all a challenge, and I whirled on him, ready to put him in his place. Because I didn’t owe him a damned thing and he sure as heck didn’t have any right to question every single person I spoke to.

Ollie was right there, dipping to get in my face. I swallowed around his blistering potency.

“That girl was terrified of me, Nikki, and I’m pretty sure I know your friends, considering all your friends are mine.”

“I don’t owe you an explanation.”

“Bullshit,” he spat. The force of the word pinned my back against the wall. He only backed me further into it by taking another step forward.

Towering over me, his teeth ground as he issued the words a breadth from my lips. “Tell me what the fuck is going on. I know whoever that girl was is linked to what happened at your apartment.”

I tipped my head up so I could meet his stare.

Black sapphire. Hard as steel.

“I already told you, there are some things you can’t know, Ollie.”

He tugged at his hair, agitation thick, eyes pinching before he loosed an uncontained growl as he flew around as if he couldn’t stop himself.

A punch landed against the opposite wall.

I shrieked and flinched.

Fear tumbled down my spine.

Not for my physical safety. Just for the sheer ferocity of the man.

Ollie unhinged.

Losing it.

Hanging on by a thread.

He roared and whirled back around before his words dropped so low they seeped from between clenched teeth. “I know you’re hiding something from me. I know it because I know you.”

He slammed that same fist into his chest, right over his heart. “And I can’t protect you if you don’t let me in.”

I shoved at him, unwilling to allow him to do this. Unwilling to let him look at me as if I was the center of his world.

His gravity.

The only thing that kept him anchored when he continually kept me adrift.

“You don’t get every part of me, Ollie. Not anymore.” Hurt bled with the words.

I stormed for the bedroom I’d so stupidly begun to think of as my own. I had to get the hell out of there. I couldn’t stay a second longer.

Seth had told me to stick close, but I didn’t know how to do that, not with Ollie affecting me this way. I had no clue what I was going to do or where I was going to go.

All I knew was I had to leave.

I banged into the door.

The breath jerked from my lungs in another shriek when one of those big hands snatched my wrist and tugged until I was spinning around.

Before I could make sense of it—before I could process it—he had me pressed against the dresser that sat against the wall.