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There’s a deep chuckle that I can feel beneath my hand splayed across her abdomen. Then she’s peeling it away from her body and pushing out of my hold.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t,” I say, but I know the moment has passed and she’s going to clam up now. She also seems anxious, eyes flicking around the street and behind me, and it’s clear that whoeverheis, isn’t someone she wants here. I already have a pretty good idea who theheshe mentioned is though thanks to Tripp’s info, but I don’t remember there being anything about a Charlie.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, putting the questions back on me.
I point behind me. “You know, working.” Now I point to the bag in her hand. “You been to the precinct? Everything okay?”
She lifts the bag a little, looking briefly at the contents before looking back to me. “Yeah, had to give my statement,” she says with a frown.
I step forward. “What’s going on?” I reach out a hand, fingers beneath her chin and raising it so that she’s looking at me. “Kenzie, if you’re—”
She bats my hand away, stepping out of my reach, a grim determination on her face. “I told you, I don’t need anything from you, Asher.”
I step forward, forcing her to accept me into her space as the large shrub behind her stops her from running. Damn, this back and forth is messing with my head, and I’m in a constant state of confusion. My dick on the other hand has no such confusion. It’s so fucking hard for this woman no matter how many times she shuts me down.
“I don’t believe you. I think you’re in trouble and that’s why you came back here. I also think you’re lying to yourself about not wanting anything from me, Kenzie.” Her eyes scan over my face, pupils dilating with my every word. “Your pulse is thrumming, your breaths are shallow, and I bet if I was to slip a hand inside those tight as fuck little shorts of yours, you’d be so damn w—”
A hand lands on my shoulder and pulls me back, cutting off the rest of my words. “Get your hands off her!”
I swing round, shrugging his hand off me. “Who the fuck are you?” I shout, as he steps in front of Kennedy, blocking her from me.
“All you need to know is that she’s mine, so get fucking lost.” Kennedy shoves past him, and he grabs hold of her arm.
No fucking way is he touching her like that. Before I can think better of it, I grab the front of his nicely pressed shirt.
“Get your fucking hands off her, right now.” He releases her, but she immediately tries to break my hold on him. There’s no way I’m letting him go just yet. “Touch her again, and you’ll be leaving here in a wheelchair,” I grit out between clenched teeth.
“Asher, stop. Let him go. It’s okay,” she implores, tugging at my hand fisting his shirt but that I wish was his face.
I don’t take my eyes off him as I say, “It is not okay, Kenzie. Never fucking okay. I don’t give a shit who he is.” His eyes are wide as they watch mine. I can see the rage in them. He’d love to lay me out, but he wouldn’t stand a damn chance. He’s maybe a couple of inches taller than Kennedy, who is around 5’6, but I have almost half a foot on him and a good few pounds too.
“I’m her boyfriend,” he announces, a smirk turning up the corner of his mouth. He seems to think that will save him from a mouth full of knuckles. It won’t.
“You’re not my anything anymore, Owen,” Kennedy says, tugging at my hold again. I finally relent and release him just as I sense someone else arriving. From the corner of my eye, I see Jackson, and he moves into position next me, the both of us moving behind Kennedy, standing like centurions. “I told you yesterday we were done, so what the hell are you doing here?”
Owen is straightening his shirt and smoothing down his jacket as he says, “I came to talk some sense into you and bring you home.”
My eyes snap to Kennedy when he says home. They’re living together? Tripp’s intel didn’t mention that.
“You should have saved yourself the journey. I’m not coming back. And even if I was, it wouldn’t be with you. Just leave, Owen.”
Now he looks between the two of us, eyes narrowing as his mind begins to put two and two together.
“A little over a week and you’re already screwing around with another guy, huh?” he sneers, trailing his eyes up and down her body in disgust.
I want to hit him so fucking bad. Maybe I will just for the hell of it. It will make me feel a damn sight better.
She snorts. “At least I had the decency to end things with you before I fucked someone else. Shame you can’t say the same,” she snaps back at him.
He laughs. “You think that was the first time I screwed around behind your back? Please, don’t flatter yourself, Kennedy.”
I don’t even think about the consequences and just let my fist do the talking. Striking out before he can even register the fist flying toward his face, I land a punch right on his nose, and there’s a definite crack as I make contact.
He lets out a wailing cry as his hands come up to cup his face. “You son of a bitch! You’re going to pay for that,” he barks, and it’s hard to take him seriously when he sounds like someone stuck a peg on his nose, but the swing coming my way is convincing enough even though he doesn’t even come close to landing it. Jackson catches his hand and shoves him back a couple of steps.
“Enough!” Kennedy shouts, and several people have stopped to watch. I can picture the rumor mill already. “You need to leave,” she says. But I’m not looking at her, my sight is firmly fixed on the piece of shit in front of me, so it takes me a second to realize that she’s talking to me.
