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"What?" she whispers, turning wide, startled eyes in my direction. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Didn't want you worrying about some piece of shit who isn't worth your time."
"So why is he tagging me now?"
"He's claiming that the two of you were sleeping together, Kenz," Madden tells her. "When he found out you were stealing content, he broke up with you. You've been harassing him for the last year, so he threatened to expose you. In retaliation, you fabricated a bunch of evidence against him, trying to discredit him."
"What?" she cries, jumping to her feet. "That's not true! None of it!"
"I know. Everyone who knows you knows it isn't true."
Her expression falls. "But people who don't know me believe it."
"Some of them."
She gets quiet. Too quiet, seeming to fold in on herself.
"This wasn't supposed to happen, angel baby," I swear to her. "He was supposed to come after me. That's what he was threatening to do." That's what we thought he'd do, retaliate by following through on his threat to press charges. With his business already out there, there was nothing stopping him.
"He was threatening you? How?"
I hesitate, reluctant to answer.
"How, Zion?"
"He was threatening to press charges, claiming I threatened his life."
"He was going to have you arrested?" she growls. "And you were going tolethim?"
"I've been in worse places than a jail cell, Makenzie."
She stares at me for a long moment as if she doesn't know what to say to that. It's the truth, though. I've been to hell and back, and for less reason than this. A night in a jail cell wouldn't even rate on the list of the worst places I've been. Was I looking forward to it? Of course not. But I wouldn't have regretted it either.
There's not a single fucking moment of protecting her that I'll regret. When someone comes for her, their targets are supposed to find my back. That's how this shit works. I stand in front of her so everything hits me instead of her. Not because I'm her bodyguard. Not because it's my job. But because my life only started making sense the minute she burst into it like a comet.
She owns me, heart, mind, body, and soul.
"I want to see the video."
"That's not a good idea," Madden says. "You don't want to see him spewing that bullshit."
"You're right. I don't want to see it, but I need to see it. It's the only way I'll be prepared for whatever is coming at me next," she argues, her voice soft. There's a thread of steel in it, though. This woman has more courage in her pinky finger than most men I know.
"We'll watch it together."
Madden curses but doesn't try to interfere. "I've already got my lawyers working on it," he says. "The video will be down soon. And he'll be slapped with a restraining order by the end of the day."
"Thanks, brother."
"Thanks, Madden," Makenzie whispers.
I disconnect, dropping the phone onto the bed to drag her into my arms.
"I want to see the video, Zion."
"We will, not we're not watching in our bed. Wrap around me, angel baby." I wait until she hooks her arms around my neck, and then scoop up the phone, depositing it on her belly. I stand in one fluid move, carrying her into the bathroom. It's not the most comfortable place to watch the video, but I can't think of a more fitting place to deal with a piece of shit like Lyle Taggert.
His fucking video makes my blood boil. He plays the earnest little schoolboy well, staring into the camera with his hands folded. He pretends as if he's blindsided and deeply hurt that she'd do this to him as he rattles on about how much he tried to help her.
