CUL-DE-SAC (On The Edge Book 1) (4 page)

CHAPTER 3

Catalina was used to sophisticated people
and sublime things. She didn't bat an eyelash while talking to those holding
important offices and wielding considerable power. Yet now she found herself
blinking incredulously at the half naked barbarian.

She had exactly zero experience with
someone of his ilk.

Since she was in his world now and didn't
know what was acceptable and what wasn't, she decided to adapt the rules she
knew well.
"Thank you for your concern but I am not lost. I was actually leaving so
if you will excuse me..." She decided to act as if he didn't utter the
second question at all, giving him a chance to take a proverbial step back and
hold a civil conversation.

A chance he ignored.
"Nice try, but not so fast," he protested, taking a hold of her arm.

She sight softly, only slightly
disappointed. She was not surprised in the least he didn't give up so easy.

He was a
fighter
after all, Cat
reminded herself.

But it still grated that he was expecting
her to explain herself. And all just a moment after she congratulated herself
for not raising any suspicion, she mocked herself inwardly.

She wanted to curse, almost able to see
with her mind's eyes a frown furrowing the distinguished line of Florence
Bennett's brows. It was usually something akin to a red sign for Cat, working
as effectively as a warning when all the others had failed her. It worked this
time as well, helping Catalina to maintain the unruffled facade and act with
dignity.

As if
the fact she found herself on the
scene of the underground fighting was an everyday occurrence in her life.
As
if
being caught red-handed with her camera pointed at Mister Tall-Dark-and-Irritated
didn't faze her in the least.

The truth was it did, but the mass of
people flanking them was giving her some sense of security no matter how
misleading concept it was.

He let go of her arm as fast as he gripped
it, but she didn't delude herself in thinking she was free to go. He was
standing before her bigger than life with his arms folded on his muscled chest.

Still bared muscled chest, she noticed in
passing.

She could almost see the thoughts running
through his head. The silent way in which he was assessing her,
judging her
,
making all kinds of assumptions the way people tended to.

Catalina was not aware that her chin moved
slightly up as if she was inaudibly daring him to categorize her.

Categorize and dismiss her as nothing more
but a porcelain doll. A doll he had already called her, she remembered with
aversion.

The proud stance was an unconscious act on
her part but he read the challenge in her gaze without the slightest problem.

Now she was speaking his language, Xan
thought and it didn't matter she didn't say a word. He looked at her more
intently, trying to solve the puzzle her presence was to him.
"My name is Catalina." She extended her hand to him but he ignored
the gesture like everything else, not taking his eyes off her.
"I'm listening," came his answer.

She breathed out in relief when he took a
step back, allowing her to regain some of her personal space. But she refused
to feel grateful for something that was her undeniable right. The little
movement simply reassured her that he was capable of acting in a civilized
manner after all, when a moment earlier she could have sworn he didn't know the
meaning of the word alone.

She smiled slightly, with less strain than
before but not relaxing an inch, still maintaining the distance she always
placed between herself and the rest of the world.
"I thought it was pretty obvious what I was doing here." She laughed
quietly pointing at her camera in a self explanatory gesture. "I find the
scene irresistible and didn't think there was anything wrong with taking a few
snapshots. I had no intentions of offending anyone." She looked at him
through the veil of her lashes, wondering what her next step should be because he
seemed highly uncooperative.

He didn't allow even the smallest smile to
soften the hard line of his lips this whole time.

Xan was wondering what kind of a game she
was trying to pull him into and he was surprised she didn't choke on the lie
that slipped from her lips so readily. Because it was obvious to him she was
lying, sadly for her she wasn't as adept at it as she thought herself to be.

Apparently everyone took him for a fool
tonight, he thought angrily. First his boss, now this slip of a woman before
him. What the hell was up with that?

If he wasn't so riled up he might have
chuckled at her blatant effort to feed him the line about how compelling
underground fighting was to her. As it was Xan gnashed his teeth and gazed down
at the camera she held in a protective grip.
"No matter how flattering your interest is..." His tone suggested it
wasn't at all. "... I didn't give you a permission to take pictures of
me."

He kept looking at her as if trying to get
inside her head and see every thought passing through her mind. His words
assured her he didn't buy a word from her desperate attempt at explaining her
presence in this place. But Catalina was determined to stick to her version no
matter his doubts and not so subtle ways of placing her somewhere between a fan
and a stalker.

She had never been particularly good or
comfortable with lies which should be considered a good thing, making life so
much the simpler. Unfortunately it usually tended only to further complicate
most situations.
"I promise I won't do it again." She tried to pacify him without
having high hopes it would work.

It was hard to withstand his penetrating
gaze and when he just kept boring into her eyes with his own, she had the
sudden urge to admit to everything and be done with it.
"I want them back.
Now
." He was adamant about it.
"You can't be serious..." She started but Xan's head snapped up and
he looked somewhere way above her head.

Cat felt tempted to see for herself what
took his sudden attention but she wasn't willing to look away from him, the
same way she wouldn’t take her eyes off a rabid animal placed in front of her.

It didn't do her much good because she was
completely unprepared when a moment later he grabbed the belt of her camera and
used it to pull her closer to his body.

She felt a spike of alarm sneaking up her
spine, trying to reduce her thinking capacity.
"Hey!" Cat started to struggle, her cheeks instantly heating up at
the inappropriateness of the situation when she was pulled toward his naked
chest.
"I am very serious Doll. I don't have time for this bullshit." He
informed her.

Before she knew it, he took possession of
her camera and she understood that was his intention all along.

Xan was still sweaty and dirty from the
fight but he ignored it as everything he didn't want to acknowledge.

He roughly pulled her even closer ignoring
her protests until their bodies connected. Perhaps he would have stopped
himself from it, but the fact she seemed so pristine pushed him to it, he
justified his action.

An instant later he let her go and Cat felt
naked and more vulnerable than ever.
"If you want to get your camera back meet me here tomorrow night." He
told her, already dismissing her and turning to walk away.

Shock nearly doubled her over but she
grabbed his bicep before she could talk herself out of it.
"I will, but not here." She told him and he was a bit surprised at
the decisiveness in her tone, but he liked the fact she seemed to have a spine
to go along with the pretty face.

He had something she wanted, so it was
obvious she had to come to him and she would, Xan thought, judging by the
determined look in her eyes. But he decided setting the meeting elsewhere was even
better plan.

She didn't need to know that though, and he
made sure she understood to what lengths he was going by agreeing to it.
"Fine. You will owe me one. Monsoon Café. Tuesday noon. Better be
there." He sent her a chilling look, glancing down at his arm where she
grabbed him and Catalina let go instantly.

He decided it was much better plan to meet
up elsewhere indeed since he had exactly zero intentions of returning her
camera. The probability of him making an appearance in the cafe was doubtful at
best as well.

Yet it was another thing the Doll here was
unaware of and he felt like chuckling, but Tony gave him a sign he was awaiting
him in his office and he had much more pressing things to take care of than the
woman before him along with her unclear reasons.

One way or another it didn't matter any
longer. Not after he had her camera and whatever the plan she had for the
pictures was now null and void.
"See you there." Catalina said, swallowing further objections back
since it was obvious she would just waste her breath.

He turned away from her without any additional
word, as if everything was said and done and her agreement was not required at
all. She was left in the middle of the crowd which was oblivious and
indifferent to her anguish.

She just stood there humiliated, helplessly
watching him go and holding her camera hostage.

Cat's gaze dropped down and she looked at
her leather pump discovering a splash of blood on it. If Xan was a reigning
champ of the arena, she felt on the side of defeated tonight as if it were her
blood that was drawn.

Finally, she managed to collect the debris
of her pride and made her way out of the damn club toward her car. She should
have never accepted the job offer in the first place, she thought bitterly.

It had bad luck written all over it from
the get-go.

***

Xan's mood improved slightly after
retrieving the camera from the woman and possibly averting the potential
disaster her pictures could turn into.

What he considered a small victory over
tricking her minutes before was just an additional bonus.

Perhaps he should have felt ashamed by
using his physical strength against someone so much weaker. Maybe his sense of
a fair play would suffer because of that.
Maybe
, Xan agreed, if only he hadn’t
decided a long time ago that fair play was overrated.

But when he was climbing up the stairs to Tony's
office, the small quirk to his lips disappeared giving his face a solemn look
once more. He was not looking forward to having the second round with his boss
about the same thing. It was tiresome and he preferred not to talk about things
at all over being lied to.

His knock was perfunctory at best and when
he entered Tony's domain, a woman slid off the other man's lap, hastily fixing
her short dress.

Xan wasn't surprised in the least.

Women were his boss' drug of choice. They
were his obsession at times, addiction always.

Some could say after three divorces the Cul-de-sac's
owner should have learned his lesson, but at the age of forty eight he remained
carelessly unaffected by his earlier failures. Stubbornly reopening the same
door and falling in love all over again.

In love, or rather in lust, Xan thought
cynically, but it was not his problem, only something to be occasionally amused
over.

Tony was an average looking guy. At the
first glance, there was nothing specific about him that could distinguish him
from any other Joe out there. But first impressions were misleading as often as
they were correct, Xan thought. It was enough to look into his dark flinty eyes
to understand he meant business and he was known for not taking no for an answer.
"You wanted to see me?" He asked him now, not bothering to apologize
for interrupting the
tête-à-tête.
If people waited for Tony to be alone without any chick on his arm, nothing
would ever get done around here, Xan decided.
"Yes."
"We will continue this... later Tony." The woman purred, sending him
a coquettish look over her shoulder, completely ignoring Xan's presence.
"We sure will, Sugar!" Tony agreed with a wide grin and did not speak
until she left, closing the door behind herself.

Music from downstairs was cut instantly;
only the slightest bass vibrations could be felt in what Tony liked to call his
'den'.
"Great job tonight, but it's hardly surprising."
"Thanks." Xan shrugged.

As much as it was the truth, he knew he
wasn't called in here just to hear praise alone. Nothing was as easy as that in
life.

Everything had its price.

Everything and everybody and it was
something he had learned the hard way.
"I wanted to make sure we are on the same page, Xan."
"Aren't we always?" He folded his arms which reminded him that he had
yet to take a shower and pull some clothes on, but something or someone kept
interrupting him.

A grin wanted to tug at his lips when he
shoved his hand into the pocket of his Martial Arts pants and found the camera
there, but he nipped it in the bud, not wanting to explain the whole situation
to Tony.

But he was curious to see how the pictures
she took looked like.

He already knew he was going to see himself
on them, still suspecting that she might have been a journalist attempting to
write a story about their club. Certainly wouldn't be the first one to try
that, he thought.
"You are like a son I've never had Xan," Tony said, but his eyes were
hard and calculating.

Bullshit
, Xan thought but knew better than
to voice his opinion.

There was a time he saw Tony as his savior,
but over the years he understood he was nothing more to the man than a useful
tool. It didn't bother him as long as he could benefit from this relationship
as well.

They were connected in ways they didn't
talk often about, but it was there all the same.
"Am I in trouble?" Tony smirked when Xan remained silent.

"If we are back to this... you know
where I stand."

"And I told you it was just an
incident. Drugs are not part of our club." Tony folded his arms on his
chest looking at him expectantly.

He was lying, Xan thought.

After more than a decade, he knew him well enough
to recognize it and it pissed him off more than the dealing in the first place.
“It’s your business.” He said only, because after all that was the truth.
“You are not exactly a Boy Scout yourself Xan.” Tony reminded him sharply.
“And I’ve never pretended to be one. I just told you I don’t want to have
anything to do with this side of the biz.”
“I remember the time when you were not as… particular.” Tony noticed.
“Yeah, well, I was young and naive once.”
“Naive my ass! You were young though, I give you that much,” Tony said.
They both chuckled and just for a moment it felt like old times, Xan thought.
“I will make sure this…
issue
will stay under wraps,” Tony added and no
matter how hypocritical it was on his part, it was all fine and dandy with him,
Xan decided, nodding in acknowledgment.
“I am done for tonight,” he said and turned away to leave.
“I’ve heard we had another problem tonight?” Tony’s words stopped him.
“A problem?”
“An enigmatic woman with more luck than common sense taking pictures?”

Xan couldn’t stop himself this time and
just grinned remembering the cool look in the almond-shaped blue eyes, the hot
imprint of her slender body pressed tightly against his own.

She wasn’t so remote then, he thought.

His thumb stroked the leather belt once
before pulling the camera out of his pocket and he let it swing in his hold.
“There is no problem,” he said shortly and Tony laughed.
“This is why I need you Xan, we are a team you and I,” came his parting words.