He reached out, grabbed hold of my wrist and jerked me back down to the bench. My bracelet tightened and twisted in his grip and I could feel the charms biting into my skin. “I’m not leaving without that ring.”
“Xavier,” I snapped. “Stop it.”
“Stop being such a bitch and give me the ring.”
A shadow fell over the table and a hand yanked Xavier up by the shirt. “Let her go before I rip your fucking arm off.”
“What the fuck—” Xavier dropped my hand as he scrambled to his feet, Noah still looming over him. “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are but—”
“Go back to the table, Shay,” Noah said through clenched teeth.
I stumbled away from them, bumping into market-goers and picnic benches as I went. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t bring myself to look back at Noah and Xavier until I’d fished the engagement ring out of the coin pocket in my wallet. I pressed it into my palm, unrelenting metal and stone, and allowed that pain to carry me back to the man who’d never wanted me, never cared for me, never respected me. The man I had to face one last time before I could drown myself in the shameful truth of his words.
When I reached the table, I found Noah glaring fire and daggers at Xavier. For his part, Xavier stood with his arms crossed over his freshly rumpled polo shirt and his body angled toward the exit.
Noah held out his arm, barring me from getting any closer. “You’re staying out of reach,” he growled. “I’ll handle it from here.” I dropped the ring into his palm. To Xavier, he said, “You will never touch her again. If you see this woman coming, you’ll turn around and walk in the opposite direction. You’ll stay the fuck away from her. You will never speak to her again. Am I making myself clear? Not a call, not a text, not an email. Not a goddamn word from you.”
Still staring at the exit, Xavier said, “Yeah. Fine. Whatever. It’s not like I give a shit. I just want my property back.”
“You’re running your mouth to the wrong person,” Noah replied. “As far as property law goes, an engagement ring stops belonging to you when you intend to give it as a gift and then carry out that intention, and finally when it is accepted as a gift by the recipient. Unless you have documentation proving otherwise—and I have it on good authority that you didn’t draw up a prenuptial agreement—this ring belongs to Shay.”
A shaky smile pushed at my lips.
“You might have had a leg to stand on if she had been the one to break off the engagement, but in this case”—Noah gave a low whistle—“you did that all by yourself, didn’t you?” He held the ring between his fingers and frowned at the severe edges of the princess-cut diamond. “But if you’d rather sort this out in court, you should know I’ll be representing Miss Zucconi and I have all the time in the world to fuck you over. I will find all the skeletons in all of your closets. I’ll dig them up if I have to. I’ll bury you in legal proceedings and court fees. I’ll make it impossible for you to move more than an inch without triggering an avalanche of lawsuits. I’ll end you. Do you understand me yet?”
One last thing to know about Xavier was that he didn’t care whether his business dealings were aboveboard. He didn’t mind taking cash under the table or claiming residency in a tax haven or fudging some of the documentation. I didn’t know many of the details on these gray dealings—though I really, really should’ve listened to Jaime when I had the chance—but I knew enough to recognize when Noah hit him where he was most vulnerable.
Xavier took a step back and held up his hands. “Crystal clear.”
Noah set the ring on the table, the ring I’d forced myself to love. It wasn’t round—as I’d mentioned was my preference—and the band was yellow gold—which looked terrible next to my skin—but it was big and I’d led myself to believe that meant something. It meant nothing at all and I should’ve known better but I was the fool who ignored all the signs. Every last one of them.
Noah tapped a finger on the table. “Get the fuck out of here and never come back.”
chaptertwenty-nine
Noah
Students will be able to hover.
“It’s fine,”Shay said when I kneeled down beside where she was seated on an ice chest behind the Little Star table and reached for her wrist. “It’s just a little scrape.”
“I want to see it.” How I managed to say this without roaring was a mystery to me. Hell, I didn’t know how I managed to function. All I could see was the moment when that asshole grabbed Shay’s arm and yanked her down like he had a death wish. The precious seconds it took me to cross the market had felt like hours, days. I didn’t see how I’d ever get over that. “If it’s scraped, you need it cleaned. Some antibacterial cream too.”
With a sigh, she leaned back and pushed up her sleeve and—that fucking bastard was going to pay in blood and bone—her entire wrist was already swollen and bruised. A thin scrape circled the base of her wrist where the chain had bitten into her skin. A number of small cuts in the shape of her charms were dotted with blood. For a moment, I could only stare at her skin while a snarling breath huffed out of me. I should’ve punched that guy when I had the chance. I’d never punched anyone but this seemed like a perfectly justifiable reason to start.
“Show me that you can bend your wrist,” I said as I unhooked the bracelet and dropped it into her other hand. “Move it side to side.”
“It’s fine.” She rotated her wrist though I wasn’t convinced we didn’t need to make a stop at the urgent care clinic. “Please don’t worry.”
I ripped open an alcohol swab from the first aid kit I kept with the market supplies. “This will burn but it will be quick.”
She winced when the alcohol met abraded skin though she was quiet while I tended to her wrist. These injuries were minor yet that didn’t make them any less enraging. The fact she was injured at all was a problem for me. I knew I should’ve shut down sales and accompanied her to meet that fucker. I should’ve been there.
“Whatever he said to you,” I started with as much calm as I could find, “is bullshit. It’s all bullshit and I need you to believe me about that.”
She blinked at me, her eyes glassy and distant. She was somewhere else, just the way she’d been when she arrived in Friendship all those months ago. I needed her to wake up and come back to me. Ineededher. Especially in the weeks to come when Gennie and I left to visit Eva and—with any luck—came home unscathed. I couldn’t do this all on my own. Not anymore. Not now that I knew what it was like to have someone by my side.
“Wife,” I said sharply, “tell me what he said.”
