Blind Fury Read Online Free PDF Page A

for her to help him up. She’d never seen him this sloppy drunk before, not even at one of Rob’s parties.
    She wrangled him into her old Volvo and got behind the wheel. He leaned over, his warm breath feathering her neck. “You smell good,” he said.
    She shoved him away. “You smell like a brewery. Stay on your side.” Focusing on the road would be hard enough with him in the car, but if he kept breathing on her—beer breath or not—she’d probably crash. And that thought was enough to break the spell.
    Without looking at him, she pulled out of the parking lot. She followed the road to the freeway entrance, unable to decide if she was mad, disgusted, or sympathetic. Maybe all three.
    “I’m sorry for being such an asshole,” he said, his playfulness gone. “I’m supposed to be taking care of you , not the other way around.”
    She glanced at his handsome face, all angles and shadows in the dim glow from the dashboard. Where had he gotten that idea? “Why? I’m a grown woman.”
    “No mistaking that,” he said, speaking so quietly she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. Then louder, “I promised Rob I’d watch out for you if anything happened to him.”
    Her throat tightened with the all-too-familiar need to shed tears, but she blinked them back. Rob had always been an overprotective brother, even before their parents and Jimmy died. Not that he’d stuck around to keep watch over her in person. He’d had his own demons to battle.
    But he shouldn’t have pawned her off on Mick. She didn’t want to be anyone’s obligation.
    “He should have made you promise to take care of yourself. I don’t need a protector. In fact, I absolve you of all duty to me,” she said, wiggling her fingers at him as if performing a spell. “After the funeral tomorrow, you don’t ever have to see me again.”
    “Is that what you want?” he asked, his gaze hot on her face.
    Was it? No. What she really wanted was to take him home and show him that she wasn’t the straight-laced schoolmarm he thought she was. Not on the inside. Her blood ran just as hot as any of those floozies who kept him company.
    The problem was she wanted romance and love, not a roll in the sack and a note on her pillow. And she was never going to get her chance at forever if Mick was always there in the background, making every other man pale in comparison.
    Still, when Mick wasn’t in the room, she always found herself wishing he were there. How dumb was that?
    If she could be sure he was out of her life for good, maybe she could finally meet a nice, stable man who didn’t throw himself in harm’s way just to feel alive. A man who could be happy with one woman. A man who stayed around longer than three weeks.
    It ripped her heart in two to say it, but she forced the words out.
    “Yes, that’s what I want.”

    Mick tried to stay awake for the ride home, but the hum of the vehicle’s engine and the sweet fragrance of Jenna had a drugging effect. He succumbed to the sandman before they reached the freeway.
    The thud of a car door brought him out of it, followed by Jenna’s irritated voice. “You’re going to have to walk. I can’t carry you.”
    He half-slid, half-fell out of the car, letting the door prop him up. Jesus, he was an idiot. She already thought he was an unreliable, womanizing mercenary—all true—but her opinion still mattered, and he was making a complete ass of himself. Why the hell had he called her?  
    Because he’d wanted to see her. Simple as that.
    “I’m sorry I’m such a pain in the butt. You have enough on your plate right now without having to deal with me.”
    She gave him a look that said, “Gee, you think?” and propped herself under his shoulder to help steady him. At which point he realized they weren’t outside his high-rise condominium in Fairfax. “Why are we at your house? I thought you wanted to get rid of me.”
    They made it up the eight or so stairs to her front door, where she left him