Mystery Man (Dream Man #1)(81)
“I’m in love with you, Gwen,” he whispered, no hesitation, he socked it right to me and I sucked in breath and didn’t respond, just stared at my lap experiencing the pain that shot through my heart. “Honey?” he called when I didn’t speak.
“I wish you would have told me,” I whispered back. “But I can’t say what would happen if you did but now… now, I can’t deal with this, Troy. I love you, I think the world of you but I have a man in my life. I don’t know where it’s heading, all I know is that what he makes me feel scares the f**king hell out of me and I need to focus on that.”
“I know why he scares you, honey,” Troy replied gently.
“Why’s that?”
“Because he’s got Scott Leighton written all over him.”
I sucked in an audible breath.
“Troy –”
“You do that. You’ve always done that. The good-looking guys that think their shit doesn’t stink and walk all over you.”
Oh God.
Troy went on. “It hurt enough when Scott wore loafers. How’s it going to feel like when the guy wears combat boots?”
“I’m not sure he’s like that.”
“I met him once, didn’t know him at all and he didn’t hesitate with what he said to me in front of you, Trace and whoever the f**k those guys were. He didn’t give a shit about me. What makes you think, he’s got something to say you don’t like, or he plans to do something that’ll hurt you, he’ll give a shit about you?”
“I think I know him better than you do, Troy, and he’s not like other people. He actually thought he was doing you a favor.”
“Well, Gwen, he thought wrong. You and I, we’ve always been close and now we’re having this conversation. That’s what he did. He might have told you he was doing me a favor but that guy is the kind of guy who pisses in corners. You’re territory and he saw me infringing on that so he drove in that wedge. Don’t think it was anything else.”
“I don’t want to hurt you any more, babe, but I don’t think he thinks of you as competition,” I said gently.
A beat of silence then quietly, “Right.”
“Troy, don’t do this to us.”
“I didn’t, Gwen, Rambo did.”
I opened my mouth to speak but got more dead air.
I flipped the phone shut, stared at it and then, again, hissed, “Shit!”
And again it rang in my hand.
I flipped it open immediately and put it to my ear.
“It’s not nice to hang up on –”
“Babe,” Hawk cut me off.
“Hawk?”
I was surprised. I thought he was incommunicado.
“Give me a good reason why you’re callin’ Ginger.”
I sat frozen then realized he knew everything about me which must include monitoring my calls.
“Hawk –”
“You don’t know her.”
“Hawk –”
“You don’t know someone, you sure as f**k don’t talk to them.”
“Hawk –”
“You talk to her and someone’s monitoring her communication, they hear you, they find you or they make assumptions.”
Okay, something new to add to my list of why Hawk could be annoying and that was when he was right.
“I saw her name on my contact list and got a wild hair,” I admitted.
“No, you saw her name on your contact list, it reminded you you’re worried about your sister and you phoned her,” Hawk laid it out.
“Well, kind of the same thing.”
A sigh, then, “Babe.”
“I thought you were occupied,” I changed the subject.
“I was but base got the ping on your phone, Mo called Jorge, Jorge is at my back and he’s not occupied like me. He gave me the message you’re contacting your f**kin’ sister and I got unoccupied.”
“Oh,” I muttered.
“Gwen, baby, do me a favor. Trust me enough to do what I can for your sister. And trust me enough that I can deal with the emotional fallout we find there’s nothin’ I can do for your sister. Yeah?”
I looked from my lap to his books to his CDs to his lair.
“Gwen, you there?” Hawk called.
He got unoccupied. For me.
He wanted me to trust him with emotional fallout.
I stared at his lair. It still gave me nothing.
Even so, I knew Troy was wrong.
“I’m here,” I said quietly, “and I’ll do you that favor.”
“Thanks, Sweet Pea,” he said quietly back.
“My girlfriends are coming over later, is that cool with you?” I asked.
“Yeah, babe.”
“Elvira has decided she’s my girlfriend,” I shared.
“No surprise,” he replied.
“Do you need to get reoccupied?” I asked even though he wasn’t giving me an impatient or preoccupied vibe but I was guessing if he was forwarding his calls, he did it because he was in the middle of something important that required his full attention.
Attention he shifted for me.
Shit.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Okay, I’ll let you go.”