“Are you denying it?” she countered.
Oh, she’d definitely be reprimanded for her impertinence.Breathing hard, he came to his feet and gave her a hard dose of truth. “I would absolutely follow you if I thought you needed me. I would dog you day and night to keep you safe.”
Her voice emerged, equally low and mean. “I don’t needyou.”
“And Ididn’tfollow you.” Knowing he had to get control, he stiffly paced—from one end of the room to the other, then back again.I don’t need you.The hell she didn’t!
Now more than ever, she needed him. She was straying off the path, becoming embroiled with hillbillies, and growing far too lippy. “I thought you had been hurt. I feared you might have died.”
Deadpan, she quipped, “Well, obviously, I’m not dead.”
Blood thundered in his ears and heat scorched up the back of his neck. “Don’t even say that.” Rasped out around the constriction in his suddenly tight throat, the words were faint, scratchy. “Don’t you ever say that. I couldn’t live without you. You’re a part of me.”
“No, I’m not—and I never will be.”
She was wrong, and he’d prove it to her. She’d beg for him. He only hoped she wouldn’t wait until it was too late.
He heard a faint grumbling before she continued. “I was hurt, Mike. I have two fractured ribs, a torn rotator cuff, and a lot of colorful bruises.”
There went his legs again. “Jesus.” Macabre scenes filled his imagination. His Glory, broken and bruised. “Baby, what can I do? How can I help?”
Without thanking him for the offer, she said, “I don’t need your help. I only called because I wanted to know if it was you following me. That’s why I went off the road. I was spooked by a car tailing me. I was watching the rearview mirror and then a dog ran in front of me, and when I tried to swerve, I lost control.”
“No,” he breathed. Hearing it from her was even worse than hearing it from Kirby.
“I hit a tree.”
And she could have died. “Glory...”
“The person following me—you, I assumed—took off.”
New rage coalesced, cinching his muscles and burning his eyes. It was a good thing the little witch wasn’t here right now to suffer his temper. How dare she malign him like that? “You actually think I would do that?” He sounded pissed and didn’t care. “You think I would watch you crash into a tree and then just drive away? Do you fucking know me at all?”
“Don’t curse at me.”
Emotion exploded from him. “I love you! I would never leave you like that. You’re my life, Glory, a part of me. My soulmate. We belong together.”
Oddly, his anger worked to calm hers, leaving her tone flat. “We’re nothing to each other. I’ve told you that numerous times now. We were never together and we never will be.”
Shaking his head didn’t clear away the fog of her denial. “You don’t mean that. We’re meant to be. You’re mine.”
The sound of two slow, strained inhales came through the line. “I mean every word. Go back to your life and forget about me. As soon as I end this call, I’m blocking you again and that’s the end of it.”
“Don’t you dare—”
But she’d already disconnected.
It took everything he had not to smash the phone against the wall. Only the very strong belief that she would come to her senses and call again kept him from the violence. Glory needed him, whether she realized it or not.
Forcing his hand to slowly loosen, each finger peeling away, he was finally able to drop the phone to the table.
He knew what he had to do. Kirby, the one who left herthere broken and bleeding, would have to die. He’d take pleasure in killing him, so that Glory would understand: He would always protect her.
Shara might have to go as well. She’d proven herself useless.
But first, before he disposed of them, he’d make use of them one last time. It was the least they owed him.
And then he’d stop playing with Glory.
