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And the second Dani slipped off the back of his bike, I ripped that bloodied bottle neck from her hand.
“What the ever-blessed hell were you thinking?”
I watched her eyes widen as she leaned against Rupert’s bike.
“You were reckless at best. You disobeyed my order, and you almost got yourself killed for it!”
I slammed the bottle neck into Rupert’s chest and thumbed over my shoulder. Commanding him to take it into the house and dispose of it.
“You used a weapon that could’ve left evidence behind for police. You almost killed a man tonight with your reckless actions. You almost got yourself killed, you almost got me killed, and you almost created a scene none of us had the capability to clean up! Do you even get how bad this was, Dani?”
I saw the fear in her eyes. I saw the reflection of my fury in her big, doe eyes, and the only thing I could do was pat myself on the back. Good. If that’s what kept her from ever pulling a stunt like this again, then so be it.
Because if I lost Dani due to all of this, I wasn’t sure I’d ever forgive myself.
“When I give you an order, I expect you to be like my men. You follow it to the letter, and you don’t deviate for any reason. You hear me? If I needed you, I would’ve called you. Simple as that. But I didn’t need you. I had things under control. There’s a reason I had you call Rupert. There was a reason, you get that?”
&n
bsp; I expected her to start crying or shaking. Or turn away from me and run until she couldn't run any longer. But instead, the fear in her eyes turned to anger. They narrowed into slits and she balled her fists up at her sides.
“Are you done yet?” she asked.
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
She took a step toward me. “You heard me. Are you done yet?”
I slowly peeked over my shoulder and saw Rupert standing on the porch. With my brother. The two of them were sipping beers while watching the show.
Fucking hell. “What could you possibly have to say right now?”
She snickered. “Well, I can start with the fact that I saved your ass.”
“You what?”
“You know I did, and yet you’re angry about it. If I hadn’t intervened with those guys, who knows what would’ve happened?”
I gritted my teeth. “You would’ve gotten hurt. That’s what would’ve happened.”
“Except it didn’t.”
“Well, it could have. And that’s the fucking point.”
“No, the fucking point, Max, is that I didn’t listen. And you don’t like that. I don’t listen to your every word and take it as gospel, and you take issue with that. Which sounds like a personal problem to me. You’re not fully healed. At your best? Yes, you would’ve been fine. But tonight, you weren’t. And Rupert wasn’t going to get there on time.”
“You don’t know that.”
She nodded. “Yes, I do. I was on the damn phone with him, Max. Watching you get pounded by two dudes who wouldn't stop coming at you.”
I glowered. “We’re going to talk about this later, you and me.”
“No, we’re going to talk about it now. You want to know why?”
I heard the guys chuckling behind me and I wanted to slit their throats.
“Fine. I’ll tell you anyway. We’re going to talk about this now because you warned me this might happen. And now that I’m all in on this, you’re the one with cold feet? You’re the one telling me to stay out of trouble when I just told you back in that damn club that I was with you, come trouble or high waters? Fuck you, Max. Fuck you for wanting to control me. Because you should know by now that you can’t.”
She went to brush by me, but that shit wasn’t happening. I gripped her arm and spun her around, with my body now facing the guys on the porch. Her eyes glared up at me. She wrenched away from my grasp. But I didn’t care. No one talked to me like that.
