Page 142 of The Best Shot

I said nothing.

“She’s good at that,” he said. “Taking one bad moment and turning it into a whole damn tragedy. By the time she’s finished telling it, she’s innocent and everybody else is a monster.”

His grin widened.

“You think you’re different? Give it time. You’ll say the wrong thing, hurt her feelings, and she’ll turn you into the villain too.”

My hand curled once at my side. Then I opened it.

When I still didn’t give him anything, his eyes went past me to the bikes.

“Big man out here,” he said. “With all these boys watching.”

“I don’t need them. I said what I came to say.”

I turned toward the bar.

“Wow,” Annie said behind me. “Yaz was right. That baby really is better off.”

Shit.

I turned back.

Shaun had already shifted toward her. “The fuck did you just say?”

Annie smiled, all teeth. “Didn’t stutter, my guy. Want me to say it slower?”

“Annie,” I warned, already moving.

She stepped closer to him instead.

“That baby,” she said, drawing out each word, “is better off without you.”

A small tilt of her head.

“Deadbeat.”

Shaun moved.

Fast. Faster than a man his size had any right to.

And he didn’t come for me.

His hand shot out and closed around Annie’s wrist, yanking her forward. She made a sound, small and swallowed.

Her knee came up toward his groin.

She missed.

Shaun shoved her backward.

And I wasn’t cold anymore.

41

“IT’S TEXAS. DON’T ACT BRAND-NEW.”

HALE