Yes, I was a possessive prick. How the hell did I get to be so goddamn rich? I’d toppled over everyone else to get the accounts I deserved. I’d never been that way in my personal life, believing I didn’t deserve the riches of love and happiness. But I was going to make an exception, because neither did AJ Streets.
Doc had given that asshole’s name to my insurance company as a person of interest in the necklace’s disappearance. Earlier today, I had decided to stay out of it, only concerned with Bess and her health. But now, as nighttime fell dark and heavy, things were different.
With Bess gone, I was no longer chasing forgiveness. I wanted retribution.
I made a quick call to Doc, pretending to ask a question related to Bess, and a little chitchat was all it took for him to reveal Anthony Jon Streets’s full name to me. All I had to do was ask, “Hey, Doc, refresh my memory, who was it you told the insurance company was at Bess’s house today?” And he ran right down the list. I already knew everyone involved except forhim.
The fucker who’d been inside Bess.
The man who wanted to lay claim to the woman I had fallen for.
The piece of shit who I was going to set straight.
The glow of the GPS and the annoying woman’s voice did little to calm my nerves as Jake drove without a word. His silence bought him freedom from my wrath. We were fucking identical twins, so he knew how to deal with me. We’d been through it all together—birth, the death of our parents, wet dreams and puberty, college—we knew all of each other’s hot buttons. And since Jake knew when to shut the hell up, he didn’t disappoint as he drove me to my destruction.
As we barreled up a gravel road to nowhere, a huge house came into sight. So the motherfucker apparently had money, which let him buy a new life. But that wasn’t going to help him now.
Jumping out of the passenger side while Jake rolled to a stop in front of a three-car garage, I didn’t wait for him to shift into park. I ran up the set of stairs to the impressive wraparound deck and threw open the screen door, then pounded my fist against the front door.
“Open up,” I yelled.
The door flung open, banging backward into the wall with a thud.
“Who the fuck are you?” he growled.
I was fit, but AJ Streets was big. The guy screamed blue-collar tough in flannel with his oversized muscles flexing through the thick fabric.
Oh, fuck it. I can hold my own.And I had Jake.
“That doesn’t matter,” I bit out with my hands balled into fists at my sides. “I’m here for the necklace we all know you took from Bess. And while I’m here, I’ll warn you—stay the fuck away from her. You don’t deserve to be in the same goddamn country as her.”
We were in a standoff. I was on one side of the threshold, him on the other. Neither of us gave an inch, both of us with our chests puffed out, staking a silent claim.
He let out a snort. “Oh, I should’ve known you were that guy. The rich fucking prick, the asshole who thought he’d swoop in with his money and expensive sweaters and take my girl,” he said, a little spittle running out of his mouth. The dude reeked of nicotine and booze.
He grabbed a handful of his own shirt and slurred, “This is what real men wear. Flannel. Not cashmere, you fucking pussy.”
I grabbed his neck and pushed him back into the wall behind him, entering the hallway of his house. It was fucking freezing in there; all the windows were open, the cross breeze running the length of the house, howling.
Leaning into his face, I spit out, “I don’t need to know what to wear, buddy. I don’t need any lessons from you unless you want to tell me how to break a young girl’s soul, you lying sack of shit.”
I only broke hearts.
He pushed me off him and I went flying into a table. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jake step into the foyer, ready to jump in at any moment. I righted myself and motioned for my brother to hold back. I didn’t need him to wade in and rescue me; this son of a bitch was all mine.
Rolling my shoulders, I stalked forward. “Well, I know who the fuck you are—Bess’s so-called sponsor who seduced her while you pretended you were being her goddamn support. Fuck you, you lousy drunk bastard.”
I had a good hold of his flannel shirt this time and I whipped him into the wall. A trickle of sweat slid down the center of my back as adrenaline surged through me. “So you go over there and fucking torment her some more until she passes out, then you fucking run away ... you coward!”
Lifting my knee, I caught him off guard in the belly. The balls would have been too obvious, although I wanted to cut those fuckers off.
AJ bent over to catch his breath and gagged. Smelling the contents of his stomach as they came back up, I quickly sidestepped out of the way before he emptied a gallon of cheap liquor on his floor.
“Asshole,” I muttered as I kicked him all the way down to the floor.
And then the sorry excuse for a man started crying like a baby. “Shit, I’m a mess, man. Don’t you see that? Been clean for coming on a decade, but your girl messed with my head. I thought she wanted me, cared for me. Maybe she did, but then you stepped in with all your fancy-ass shit, and now I’m all alone with a bottle of Jim Beam.” He rolled over to his side, allowing me to stare at his back.
Running a hand through my sweat-soaked hair, I caught my breath. God, I’d never been a violent person, yet I wanted to kill this guy. If he hadn’t gotten sick, I probably would have kept going.
