Chapter Eleven
Ava
“Well, that wasanticlimactic,” I sighed as I led the group into my house.
The home across the street had been empty. Rhiannon long gone.
Honestly, it pissed me off that she avoided capture again. She might not have my strength, but the witch was definitely cunning. If she wasn’t such an asshole, I would have admired her initiative.
“I take it she wasn’t there,” Savannah said, coming out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand.
“No, she wasn’t,” I answered. “Please tell me you made a whole pot.”
Savannah smiled and handed me the cup. “I did.”
“Thank the Goddess for friends like you,” I breathed, taking a large sip of coffee.
“I also called Harrison,” she stated.
I blinked at her for a moment, uncomprehending of her meaning. “Oh, shit! The shop. It’s probably a mess.”
I followed her when she turned and walked back into the kitchen. “Nope. Harrison said he handled the clean up. Apparently, his pack is dealing with the repairs as well since you can’t exactly make an insurance claim.”
“I can take care of it,” I argued.
Savannah laughed and continued pouring coffee for everyone else. “It’s too late for that.”
I stopped arguing and sipped my coffee, my mind going back to the house across the street. Rhiannon had definitely been there. In fact, she’d left a note.
See you next time.
It had been a giantfuck you.
While Macgrath had cursed and stormed around the house, looking for clues or things she left behind, I stood very, very still and focused on my breathing. I didn’t have the luxury of losing my temper.
The last time I had…I still couldn’t remember that time without a crushing sense of guilt and shame.
I couldn’t let my control slip for even a moment. One slip, one moment of loosening my grip, and the powder keg of power within me would ignite and lay waste to anything or anyone in its path. I couldn’t risk destroying people with my anger as I had once before.
Once I knew I had control over my emotions, I took one last cleansing breath and decided to spend some time on my yoga mat this afternoon. I needed all the serenity I could muster.
I felt the weight of eyes on me and knew before I lifted my gaze that Macgrath was watching me. Our stares clashed and I schooled my face, giving nothing away.
I’d let my guard down with him. Not completely, but too much. I didn’t think he was my enemy any longer, but he stirred long dormant emotions in me. Emotions that I never remembered experiencing before.
Once, I believed my heart was made of stone. That there was no room for love in my life. Then I met Savannah and grew to love her as though she were my daughter.
But romantic love and the sexual intoxication that accompanied it? Never. Sex was fun and it felt good, but it never seemed vital or compulsive, as though Ineededa man’s touch as much as I needed the air in my lungs or the water I drank.
The feelings that Macgrath stoked in my belly were dangerously akin to the necessity for oxygen, food, and water.
I couldn’t allow that. At least not with Rhiannon watching, waiting, and scheming. Her machinations would be carefully planned, even if they appeared chaotic. Such as the explosion at the coffee shop.
What did that accomplish? Sure, we might have to closeThe Magic Beanfor a few days for repairs, but it would be as good as new within a week and back in business.
Unless destruction wasn’t her plan.
Macgrath straightened from where he’d leaned back against the cabinet and I realized I’d been staring at him as my mind worked.
