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His gaze roamed over her, the places where her dress was crumpled and her swollen lips from what she’d been doing just minutes earlier on the balcony.
“You ruined my fucking life,” he hissed, and he did look harrowed compared to the cocksure, confident piece of shit who lived in her memory. “Who the fuck are you?”
Violet spluttered.
“I bring you back because you’re a stuck-up little bitch who wouldn’t just have a good time with us. Mikel fucking Davis talks me out of claiming you. Now, we know why.” He sneered the words pointedly. “And now, the motherfucking alpha is breathing down my ass over why I brought you here.”
Violet’s heart stopped.
“Told him you were just some bitch from the club, but the next day, my bike still got destroyed parked outside Mack’s. Two days later, he’s back again like there’s something about you I’m not telling him. I don’t even fucking know you!”
He took a step closer, and Violet stepped back. People were starting to give them a wide berth as Jason got louder. “You ruined my life and for what? Obviously, you don’t have an issue putting out.” He went to grab her, and Violet shoved him back.
“Get the fuck off me. I’ve got nothing to do with whatever’s going on in your pathetic little life.” Her temper roared and rattled its cage.
She’d been cooler the last few weeks and part of her had attributed it to growing up, settling down, but now, faced with the douchebag who’d planned to bring her back here to rape her, she decided she’d just not been properly motivated. “Of course, I didn’t want to fuck you,” she spat.
Jason’s jaw set, and Violet squared herself for impact. Then, something moved past her shoulder, and he was gone, up against a wall six feet away with two hundred pounds of snarling Mikel pinning him.
“Don’t. Ever. Touch her.”
The eye contact they held was loaded. Jason’s face got progressively redder the longer Mikel’s thick forearm was locked against his throat. The street was still around them, quiet while people watched.
“You put your hands on her once, and I let you live. Won’t make that mistake again,” Mikel promised. A beat later, he released Jason with a rough shove. Jason stumbled and barely kept his feet.
Violet didn’t feel bad for him. Mikel took her hand and led her to the truck that was sitting in the middle of the road, driver’s door still open and waiting.
Chapter Ten
“VIOLET.” SHE GLANCEDup at Mikel where he was sitting at a bench running sandpaper over a spire of wood. The sunrise through the shop door cast him like bronze. “Stay here today, if you want,” he said. “I’m painting this afternoon and then plotting out a course for felling the moon wood tomorrow.”
She finished zipping up her boots. “Why wouldn’t I go with Red? According to you, everything’s fine.”
It was a childish remark. They’d hashed and rehashed the situation all weekend after the Jason incident. He’d listened to her perspective, but he just didn’t put the pieces together the same way. He still refused to believe Kane was interested in her for reasons other than that she washis.There was no compromise to be had so they’d agreed to disagree, talked about her safety, then made up, vigorously, multiple times; yet she still caught herself irritated with him.
The engine of Red’s BMW rumbled into the driveway.
“Hey.” He caught her when she turned to leave, searching her face. “I didn’t say everything was fine. I agree we need to be careful; I just don’t agree with you on why.”
He was trying so hard to be cool, being soreasonable, and it irked because she was sure he was wrong.
“Okay.” She tried to turn away again, but he kept a gentle hold on her.
“You’re frustrated because I don’t agree with you?”
She sighed but eventually nodded.
“If you don’t feel safe—”
She cut him off. “That’s not the issue. I don’t love that Kane’s asking after me, period. But what I hate more is that I don’t think this is just going to go away, or settle down, or whatever you’re expecting to happen once I’m here long enough, and neither of us wolf out. Mrs. Bard—”
“Is an elderly woman who’s confused.”
Violet gritted her teeth. He huffed out a long breath through his nose.
“Violet, my mother is dead because she meddled in the same things you want to meddle in. I’ve lived in the Bluff my whole life. I know this looks like some big conspiracy to you, but it’s not, and it has the potential to get you hurt or worse.”
The mention of his mother melted the worst of her annoyance. It was so easy to get hung up on him being hard-headed and forget he was probably scared for her too. He stepped a little closer and stooped to catch her gaze.
