Dead Drop (The Guild #2)
Tate James
1
The cold press of steel against my throat and the familiar sting of my skin breaking woke me with a shock. My body remained frozen, deadly still, but my eyes snapped open to confront my attacker. Only to find Leon staring back at me from just inches away. His green gaze held mine, steady, unblinking, unmoving, until the trickle of blood down my neck broke the spell he held over me.
“Leon,” I whispered, my voice a little rough with sleep. He’d gone to get us snacks so we could fuck like bunnies, but had taken so long I’d fallen asleep. And now here we were. With his knife at my throat as I lay naked in his bed.
“Danny,” he replied, still not blinking. Like he was worried I might disappear if he closed his eyes even for a split second.
I swallowed, feeling the blade cut me a little deeper with that motion. “What are you doing?”
His gaze dropped from my eyes to the knife he held at my throat, then to my mouth, where he lingered a moment. “I was thinking about killing you,” he admitted without even a trace of guilt in his voice.
Damn. Here I was holding out hope that it was a sex kink. Guess weapons during sex was just Kai’s thing.
“That’s unfortunate,” I replied, assessing my next move. Leon was a tech bunny, a hacker. He couldn’t take me on now that I was awake, surely. “I’d probably prefer not to get murdered right after sex, but maybe that’s just a me thing.”
The corners of Leon’s lips twitched like he was fighting a laugh, but I wasn’t sticking around to wait for him to follow through. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and jerked it sharply to the side, dislodging the knife from my neck but taking a deeper slice in the process.
Not that it slowed me down. Leon grunted in surprise at my strength from a position of such weakness beneath him, and I rolled to get free of his weight. Thank fuck I hadn’t bothered pulling the blanket over me when I fell asleep, or I’d be tangled up like a burrito by now.
“Danny,” he barked, rolling to his feet and shifting his hold on the knife. “Don’t fucking play with me right now.”
“Me?” I shrieked back, scrambling to the other side of the bed to keep the mattress between us. “If I hadn’t woken up, were you going to cut my throat?”
Leon gave a one shoulder shrug. “Probably. But you did wake up.”
I ran a hand over my face in horror. Not at the situation, though it was unbelievable at best, but at my own shocking choice in men. Seriously? First Kai who was honey trapping me right back, and now Leon who apparently harbored secret murder tendencies? Fuck me, I needed professional help. Or a better vibrator.
The warm rivulet of blood from my neck trickled down my chest, and Leon watched it with pure fascination, making me seriously question how the hell I’d missed the red flags with him all along.
Pointing a finger at him, I hardened my glare and tried to ignore the way he was looking back at me. “Stay the fuck away, Leon. Don’t make me kill you to get out of here.”
Hell, if I’d had any weapons within reach when he’d woken me up, he’d be dead already. The only reason I was trying to be reasonable was that he held the upper hand. For now.
“Where do you think you’re going, DeLuna?” Leon asked in a dangerously calm voice as I made a move toward the closet.
I scowled. “To get dressed, Marx. No offense, but I’m not sticking around to get murdered in my sleep, and I’m not going out in the snow while I’m naked.” Gritting my teeth, I took the gamble that he wasn’t going to kill me right now, and turned to grab clothes out of the closet—until the tip of the dagger slammed home in the wooden door a scarce half inch from my face.
“You’re not leaving,” he announced.
Fury and outrage rolled through me, and I wrapped my hand around the hilt of the knife, yanking it free of the wood. “Stupid move, Leon,” I informed him with a chuckle, spinning around to face him. The blade was still stained with my blood, the setting sun seeming to amplify the red inside Leon’s bedroom. “Do you seriously think you can stop me?”
An ice cold smile crept across his lips, and his eyes flashed with the challenge. “I don’t think, DeLuna, I know. Just try me.”
Well shit, if Leon had a death wish, who the fuck was I to talk better sense into him? But I certainly wasn’t going out of my way to kill him… I just fucked him, and if I was honest with myself, my crush had turned into full blown infatuation that not even this little hiccup had fully quelled. So rather than coming at him with the knife, I just shook my head dismissively and crossed straight to the door. Fuck getting dressed, I would grab a coat and snow pants downstairs.
Leon moved with surprising speed, intercepting me before my hand could even touch the door handle. I lashed out, swinging the knife at him and twisting out of his reach with practiced ease… but when my eyes locked on him once more, a cold sense of dread crept down my spine.
“You’re not just a tech bunny, are you?” I asked in a resigned whisper.
He gave a low chuckle. “Just? No. No, I’m not. And to be honest, DeLuna, I’m a little disappointed it’s taken you this long to notice.”
His gaze flickered from my face to the knife in my hand, then to my tits. He licked his lips, and a ripple of potent arousal shot through me. Damn it if I wasn’t more interested now that he was peeling back the façade.