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I planned on gently prodding her on why she seemed to believe that Danton wasn’t as into her as she was him, because it was clearly getting her down. It probably wouldn’t be easy to get her to cough up the answer. Cat tended to keep her own counsel, but it was more reflex than anything else. She was used to holding what she thought and felt inside. Which, given her family situation, was pretty understandable.
A little wine might help loosen her tongue. Then again, she seemed to have a high alcohol tolerance, so maybe not.
I exited the car, locked it with a button on the key fob, and then began making my way to the—
“Izzy?” a male voice tentatively asked as a figure came out from behind an SUV.
My step faltering, I had to fight a snarl. Unreal. The bloke was un-bloody-real.
I’d known that there was a chance Ryland would return to my building. I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t let him get a rise out of me. But it wasso hardto keep that promise when it would be oh so satisfying to kick him right in the balls.
No. No, I wasnotgoing to react. At least not in the way he hoped for.
Instead of stopping, I kept walking toward my building and shot him a blank look. “You should go.”
“It wasn’t me who talked to the journalist, Izzy, I swear.” He rushed to me, blocking my path. “After I left the Vault last weekend, I went to a friend’s house, got blitzed, said a little too much … and he twisted the whole thing to make it juicy for the journalist.”
“He’s not much of a friend, then.” If said friend even existed. Which I doubted.
Ryland sighed. “Can we talk? Please?”
“I don’t have anything to say to you that I haven’t already said.”
His shoulders drooped. “Look, I know I fucked up. But Genevieve—”
“I don’t need to hear it, none of it matters now.”
His eyes went hard. “Because you spent some private time with Cole Delaney?” he asked a little bitterly.
“No, becauseyoudon’t matter.”
Ryland winced.
“See ya.” I rounded him and made a beeline for the entrance to my building.
The little sod kept pace with me, saying, “He’s dangerous, Izzy. Have you not seen the guy fight? He’s like a fucking machine in the ring. He can flatten a person with one punch.One.”
“I know. It’s impressive.”
“Impressive?” Huffing, Ryland rolled his shoulders. “I heard something about him. Heard he smacked around one of his ex-girlfriends.”
I barely hid my surprise.
“You don’t want to be the next woman he hurts.”
I found it incredibly difficult to believe that Cole would ever put his hands on a woman. Abusers were good at hiding what they were, yes, but my gut told me that Ryland had pulled that claim right out of his arse. Rather than getting into a dispute with him over it, I merely said, “Don’t you worry about me, I can take care of myself.”
Ryland’s eyes flashed. “So you don’t care if he’s touching you with hands that beat up another woman?”
“You said youheardhe did it, you didn’t say that yousawit. False information floats around about people all the time. You and I know that well, don’t we?”
“I had nothing to do with that article, I promise you.”
“Thanks for letting me know.”
His hand snapped around my upper arm, yanking me to a stop. “Goddammit, Izzy!”
Rage simmering in my blood, I glared down at the offending hand.Don’t slap him, don’t slap him, don’t slap him.“You need to let me go, Ryland, and you need to do it now.”
