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His hands went for my throat. “Watch your mouth.”
“No,” I blocked him, swiped his legs out with a kick and slammed him to the ground, pinning him down. My fingers dug into his neck. He choked, eyes bugging like a fruit fly. “You watch your mouth. I understand that you care about her, but don’t assume my intentions are to harm that woman.”
“Get… off.”
I put more pressure on his windpipe. “Listen closely. I won’t repeat this twice. Angel is not just a nice pair of tits to me. She’s someone I want to protect and the only reason I’m not snapping your neck at this moment is because the stunt you pulled allowed me to spend more time with her. Do you understand?”
He squawked.
I released my fingers. “Nod if you understand.”
He did.
I stood. “Get some sleep. I’ll ask Miguel to take you to the mainland tomorrow.”
I took a step toward the hallway when Humphries yelled at my back, “I’m taking her with me.”
My steps faltered.
“Angel’s not staying here. Don’t get any ideas,” he added.
My shoulders tightened. Angrily, I returned to my bedroom and crossed over to Reid’s crib. Through all the commotion, the fights and the shouting, he slept peacefully. Unbothered. Content.
One of us might as well be.
I glanced at the clock.
Angel would leave soon. Humphries had been smug about it, flaunting it in my face. He knew there was nothing I could do to make her stay.
I sat up as an idea popped into my head.
Not unless I made one.
17
Angel
I was too keyed up to sleep so I spent the night shifting between anger at Humphries and anger at myself.
When it came to Humphries… well, it stung to learn that he was really a colossal jerk. No, more than a jerk. He acted like a stalwart man of God, a true believer.
It was how we’d gotten close.
We connected over our shared history of Sunday school and youth group politics. We spent hours in the teachers’ lounge swapping scandalous church camp stories and sharing our favorite verses.
But it was all for show.
He’d lied to me just to get me into a hotel room.
I’d call him a hypocrite, if I had any right to judge.
Which I didn’t.
Not after my wild night with Deacon. In fact, now that I was cooling off, I wished I hadn’t snapped at Humphries like that.
Sure, I would have blamed him if my mom had heard I was missing and got hurt, but she hadn’t. No one had lost their minds or their lives because of what happened today.
I’d come close to losing my sanity, but that wasn’t Humphries’ fault. I’d jumped on Deacon at the first opportunity like a wasted frat girl with the most popular jock. No sense of self-worth or value or common sense.
