Able 28 - Miami crush by Don Pendleton

Author:Don Pendleton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The room felt different somehow. Tension hung in the air. It was as if the atmosphere had been changed by Lyons's awkward pronouncement.

Julie turned slowly and looked in his direction. For many long moments she gazed at him without speaking. Then finally she broke the silence, her voice flat and toneless.

"That's not necessary, Carl."

Puzzled, he responded. "It's what I feel. I'm just not too good at saying it, I guess."

She looked quickly away from him. When she spoke again, her voice was uncharacteristically harsh.

"Don't ever lie to me, you bastard."

"What?" Amazement showed in his voice.

"I don't care what you feel like you ought to say. Just don't ever lie to me. Especially not to save my feelings. I'm a big girl, goddamn it, and I can't stand to be patronized."

Lyons looked at her, stunned.

Of all the possible reactions he might have imagined—had he considered them before making his spontaneous utterance—this was not one of them. His face burned with the anger and humiliation of rejection. He felt slightly queasy, like he'd taken a boot in the guts.

He stared at her, wondering if he had really heard her say that or if it might be some sort of psychotic fiction.

She still sat with her back against the headboard, arms hugging the bedclothes against her abdomen. Her head was turned resolutely away from him, so that she was facing the opposite direction. Her body shook as if she were crying.

Fuck, he thought, what had he done? What raw nerve had he touched, what bloody wound exposed?

Lyons was torn, his mind drawn and quartered in a brutal emotional conflict. Part of him wanted to go to her, to comfort her, to hold her. He'd take it back. He's say whatever she wanted to make her not hurt. He'd…

Then he realized that would be doing exactly what she asked him not to do. In addition, his awkwardly blurted statement happened to be true.

It wasn't something he just said for convenience or to get into her pants. It was the truth.

The other part of him wanted to lash out, to defend himself by attacking her.

Hurt and anger welled up. To hell with you, he thought. I'm not a bad guy, and I meant what I was saying. You bitch, do you think you're just some piece of ass to me? I'm not like that, goddamn you....

Sure, I'm older than you are. Sure, I've been married and divorced, sure I'm not perfect. But I treat you nice, partly because I'm a good guy—I'd treat any woman that way—but also because I love you. And if that's not good enough for you, hell, if I'm not good enough for you, then fuck you, I'm outta here.

Half of him said stay, talk to her. The other half said split, get out of there.

The latter part won.

Without a word Lyons collected his clothes and got dressed. Seething in anger, slow-burn all the way, he glanced around the room, deliberately avoiding looking at Julie.

Most of his stuff was already packed, at least whatever was out in the main part of the room.

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