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When I did, he stood up straighter but didn’t let me go.
I opened my eyes from where I’d had my face buried in his neck and turned my head, blinking at the steel gray eyes of the man that’d slammed his hand down on the hood of my van earlier.
He didn’t look pissed anymore.
In fact, he looked…tortured.
“You okay, honey?” Wade asked, pushing me away slightly so that he could see my face.
I gave him what he wanted and looked up into his eyes, smiling sadly at him. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I’ve had a really bad day.”
The dog’s snarls hadn’t abated, and in fact, had ramped up to terrifying as more people had come closer to his cage.
“What’s this one’s story?” Wade asked, dropping a kiss on my mouth.
I returned the kiss for the few seconds that he gave me to enjoy it, and then turned in his arms to stare at the snarling dog.
The man at our side came closer, his eyes taking in the dog right along with us.
I looked over at him. “I’m sorry for nearly killing you.”
He looked at me and grinned. “I didn’t realize you had a dog in the back of your van making this kind of racket, or I would’ve understood.”
I swallowed hard.
“Baby, this is Hoax. He’s the one we told you about that’s Delta. He’s here for a few weeks on leave in between missions,” Wade explained. “And you almost killed him?”
“I was distracted,” I admitted, gesturing toward the dog. “And I pulled out without clearly checking my mirrors, though, just sayin’, you were driving really fast in a residential neighborhood. You probably should stop doing that.”
Hoax snorted. “Yeah, my cousin sent me a text saying the same damn thing as I was leaving today.”
This Hoax character was nice…now.
Then, when I’d almost killed him with my vehicle, he’d been a hell of a lot scarier.
He looked a lot like Wade—at least in build. But he had pale skin and gray eyes compared to Wade’s lightly sun-bronzed skin and green eyes. Hoax also had a really bushy beard whereas Wade’s was trimmed due to the regulations he had to abide by to be a Bear Bottom Police Officer.
Honestly, the more I looked at Hoax, the more freaked out I got.
He was a seriously scary individual—even if he wasn’t pissed off anymore that I’d nearly killed him.
“Anyway, I’m sorry I was such a shit,” he said apologetically. “I was in a recent motorcycle wreck and it’s put me in a perpetually bad mood.”
He held up the arm that was farthest away from me, and it was then that I saw he had a black cast underneath his leather jacket.
“Wow,” I said. “I’m sorry. That makes me feel even worse.”
Wade let me go to move toward the cage, and suddenly, the dog’s snarling just…stopped.
I gasped.
“I’m sorry to be a bother,” I heard from behind me. “But do you mind moving the van so that it’s not blocking my half of the driveway?”
I stiffened.
“It’s not blocking your driveway,” Hoax grunted. “It’s obstructing half of Wade’s half of the driveway.”
I swallowed hard, unsure what to say to the woman.
In all technicality, she was right. My van was blocking half of the driveway, but only because all the other parking spots were taken by various trucks, cars, and motorcycles. There was literally nowhere else to park except for the driveway itself—which I wasn’t going to do seeing as it wasn’t my home.
“True,” the woman agreed. “But technically we share the driveway, and with you parked in my half of the driveway, I need to be able to utilize his half of the driveway.”
Hoax growled and turned on his heels, stalking toward his bike.
Seconds later, he was rolling it backward onto Wade’s half of the driveway and then leaning it back to rest on the kickstand once again.
“Happy?” he asked when he stalked back over.
It was then that I saw that the dog was staring at Wade—who’d gone up to the cage—with cautious eyes.
Hoax came to stand beside me, and we both stared as the two alpha males stared at each other.
“Do you want to…” the neighbor continued.
“Listen, Mags, we’re a little busy right now. Do you think you can leave us alone?” Wade asked without once taking his eyes off the dog.
This “Mags” chick huffed and turned on her toe to walk away.
Neither man watched her go, but I did.
I also saw that she looked over her shoulder to see if either man had looked—they hadn’t—and her eyes met mine.
She hesitated on the threshold of her duplex and narrowed her eyes.
I didn’t look away, knowing that I couldn’t or I’d risk losing ground—at least in her eyes—and waited her out.
It didn’t take her long before she was rolling those beautiful eyes and stalking inside her place.
The door shut with a loud bang, which still didn’t cause either man to look up.
