The Love We Hate

CHAPTER 8

Trey blinked a couple of times, wondering if he had actually had enough to drink to cause a hallucination. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been thinking about the woman too often to be considered mentally healthy. But this seemed next level to insanity.

Danielle Marvick had haunted his dreams and thoughts insistently. Had his brain been a computer, it would have crashed from the corrupted data overload. But thanks to the complexity of the brain, his brain hadn’t crashed, but a mental breakdown and hallucination was a possibility. Trey wondered if he should have taken Gabriel's offer to have his head checked after all.

He shifted on his feet and adjusted his line of sight. After a few beats, any doubt he held that he had misidentified another woman as her was lost in the sweat stench atmosphere of the club. Trey was certain he wasn’t mistaken. Weeks of staring at a picture of her had ensured he knew her features almost as well as he knew his own. Definitely creepy, but sadly true.

In a daze, he moved away from the bar. His need for water was forgotten and all he could think about was to get a better view of her. From his new position he could now see her entire body perched on a bar stool. Trey’s eyes hungrily crawled over her lean body before he cleared his throat and abruptly looked away. Feeling a little flushed and uncomfortable with his own reaction, he scanned the rest of the club. Not only to check if anyone had noticed him staring like a creep, but also in the hope to clear his head for a few seconds.

The latter was going to happen, he immediately realized. Especially not when he saw that the tight mini skirt and sexy red top and heels attracted the attention of every man that looked her way like moths to a beam of bright light. Trey didn’t like it and he didn’t even know why. Or rather, he wasn’t ready to go down that rabbit hole of self analysis. He just wanted to blind every man that looked at her like she was a piece of meat. In the process, his own eyes were dragged back and he was staring again.

The bartender refilled her glass, and Trey watched as Danielle downed half of it in one swallow. Damn, he thought. The woman seemed determined to drown whatever was on her mind. And he thought he could hazard a guess what some of those things on her mind might be.

Before his brain could register what he was doing, Trey’s legs moved, and he was approaching her in confident, slightly drunk steps. He was already standing right behind her before she became aware of his presence.

She turned with the expression of a woman about to tell an unwanted disturbance to f**k off. But then her eyes landed on him and she froze like a deer caught in headlights. After a beat, she schooled her expression, but not before Trey saw the flash of recognition in her eyes. Ms. Marvick knew exactly who he was.

Something that suspiciously felt like smug joy instantly flowed through him. Why he was happy about it, he had no idea, and it wasn’t exactly the time to figure it out because Danielle Marvick was now frowning at him.

The beat of the music and every other body dancing and drinking in the club seemed to fade away. Not even the young woman seated next to Danielle dared grab his attention away from her.

Still acting like a man possessed, Trey leaned forward and spoke directly against her ear to be heard above the music. “I almost didn’t recognize you without a gun pointing at my chest.”

A beat passed. Danielle double blinked. For a few seconds, her fingers tapped against her half empty glass on the bar counter. Trey could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Then the air changed around her and an amazing transformation took place.

Danielle straightened her back and sat taller. Any sign of shock or hesitation was gone. She regarded Trey with a neutral glare. “Do I know you?” she asked evenly, but loud enough to be heard above the new beat playing through the speakers.

A few seconds ticked away without a response. He was too perplexed to find his voice. Finally, Trey arched an amused brow. “Impressive. I almost bought it.” He really almost did, but Trey couldn’t be fooled. She knew who he was. It was in her body language.

Her eyes nervously darted away from him to the woman she was with, then to the rest of the club. She looked like she was hoping a bomb would go off somewhere so she could get away. When nothing seemed to happen, she had no choice but to turn back and face him.

“Look, sir. I don’t know you or what you are talking about.”

“Sir?” Trey chuckled and rubbed the five o’clock shadow on his cheeks. That word made him tingle in all the wrong places. He was either still riding the high wave of intoxication or he seriously needed a mental check-up. Trey didn’t know which it was and didn’t care at that very moment.

He looked at her friend, who was watching them with obvious curiosity, before she too darted her eyes around the club as though scared that something bad was about to happen. Trey didn’t pay her much attention, though. He was more interested in Danielle Marvick. He hadn’t expected to run into her, but now that he had, he just couldn’t let her brush him aside like an irritating house fly.

Just then, Danielle slid off the stool and tried to step around him. Trey’s reflexes were still sharp. He shot out his hand and grabbed the bar counter behind her, effectively caging her in with his body.

Danielle drew a sharp breath through her clenched teeth. “Move,” she growled at him.

“Not happening, sweetheart. We need to talk.”

“I don’t know you.” Danielle looked away, refusing to meet his eyes. “You are harassing me. Get out of my way or I will call security.”

Trey knew for a fact that was a bluff. Danielle wouldn’t want to draw the attention of the club security just as much as he wouldn’t either. “Danielle, stop pretending you don’t know who I am.”

At the mention of Danielle’s name on Trey’s lips, her friend stepped closer, as though she was ready to scratch his eyes out to defend her friend.

Trey took a step back and raised his hands in a show that he meant them no harm. But before he could say more, Danielle took advantage of the distance he had created and took off as though the hounds of hell were chasing after her. Even her friend seemed shocked by the sudden exit.

Barely a handful of seconds passed before Trey recovered from his shock and stormed out after her. He would not let her get away, not after she had haunted his mind day and night. He did not know why, but he just had to talk to her.

The slap of cold air that hit his face when he stepped out of the club was a welcome relief. He drew in deep breaths, as though hoping it would clear out the last of the alcohol still flowing through his body.

Instinctively, he walked towards the car park. He was certain Danielle would have gone that way, unless she had grabbed a cab off the street.

Trey stood still and contemplated the possibility that she was already gone, but quickly dismissed it. He had been right on her tail. He would have seen if she had jumped into a cab, he reasoned. So, he continued towards the car park.

Danielle stood next to Khandi’s car. Her body trembled, both from the chilly night air and the adrenaline that pumped through her muscles.

God-dammit! She cursed silently. Of all the shitty luck she could have had, she couldn’t believe she had run into Trey. The very man she hadn’t killed. The man whose family was responsible for the death of her brothers and father.

She was going through a cocktail of emotions more potent than any alcohol she could have drank in the club. It left her head swimming and her heart racing.

“We need to talk, Danielle.”

Danielle closed her eyes and colored the night air with enough curses to make a sailor blush. Of course, he had followed her. She should have expected it.

Reluctantly, she turned and faced him. Her slim shoulders squared as her back straightened. Danielle reminded herself that she was a Marvick and that meant facing an enemy without showing fear or doubt.

“We have nothing to talk about, Mr. Trey.”

Trey smirked and stepped closer. “At least you are not pretending you don’t know me.”

Her jaw clenched. “I know your entire murderous family.”

“Point that finger at yourself, little girl,” Trey suddenly snapped, pointing a twirling forefinger at her. “Your family is the one that went around killing innocent people. The Marvicks started it. You came looking for trouble and we simply dished it out nice and hot.”

Danielle glared at him. “You belong to the same dirty underworld, so don’t go pointing out pots when you are a kettle, and just as black.”

A dry chuckle fell from his lips as he took another step closer. “I never claimed we were saints, but we are not the devil’s personified demons. Your brothers and father were.”

It was Danielle’s turn to step closer. She was fuming with anger. She knew he wasn’t telling any lies, but his words still irritated the hell out of her. Danielle had never been blind to her family’s evils. However, she wasn’t going to stand there and allow him to insult her family.

“I should have put a bullet between your eyes,” she spat out with enough venom to convince him she meant it.

Trey blinked. He went tense and looked at her for a moment. Then his voice dropped to a flat note. “And that is the million-dollar question, sweetheart. Why didn’t you?”

Danielle instantly frowned and looked away. She hadn’t wanted to visit that question even though it sat at the back of her mind every day. She had questioned her decision and went back over the brief conversation they had over and over again, as though she would somehow learn something new that would put her mind to rest.

So it was no wonder that her mouth opened and closed without a single word making past her lips. When she looked back at him, she could see he was really waiting for an answer, but she had none to give.

Instead, she clenched her jaw and snapped, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Just thank your stars and leave me alone.”

But instead of leaving her alone, Trey looked at her up and down, making Danielle very conscious of the mini-skirt and red top she had on and how it made her look sexy. She fought the urge to fidget on her feet or try to pull the hem of her clothes down to cover her exposed skin.

“This particular gift horse seems to be wild and agitated,” he said after a couple of beats.

Danielle’s chin immediately came up in defiance. “It kicks and bites as well.”

Trey’s brows went up into his hairline. “Oh, kinky.”

A frustrated humph escaped her. And then she tried to step away from him. She had to find Khandi and get the hell out of there. A wave of apprehension had her stomach in knots already. She had a bad feeling running into Trey was going to be the genesis of a whole can of ugly, stinky worms.

But before she could get more than a step away from him, Trey grabbed her elbow and stopped her. His mouth opened to say something. Danielle was ready to fight him, but just then, she looked over his shoulder and her eyes popped wide with terror.

Noticing her sudden change, Trey began to turn around to check what had just made all the blood leave her face. Before he could even get a glimpse, something hard hit his temple and blinding pain radiated through his head. His vision went bright white before darkness floated in from the edges.