Krista turned around and rested her hands on Brock’s chest. Her scent filled his nostrils, and his body immediately calmed. She motioned for him to take a step back, but he didn’t move a muscle, not when his woman, his child were still within arm’s reach of Slade.
“Brock,” she said through clenched teeth, “let’s not make a scene. We should probably just go home.”
“You stay thefuckaway from Krista, you got that?” Brock said through his own clenched teeth, his voice a breath above a whisper.
Myles’s mouth drew up into a sinister grin. “Let’s not forget who has the law on their side. You come within ten feet of me, and I’ll shoot your fucking face off and get away with it … you gotthat?”
Brock stomped and motioned to lunge at Myles, his arms coming up as though he was ready to start swinging.
Krista pushed against Brock’s chest, determined to get him to move. “Just stop!”
Myles chuckled. “Fucking Neanderthal … ”
Brock’s entire body was in flames.
But before he could do anything, Krista was spinning back around, her finger right up in Slade’s face. Brock could barely hear her over the thrumming of his own pulse, but he did.
“We’re on to you, Myles. And we’re coming for you. I’m sure Ingrid wasn’t your first, and she definitely won’t be your last, you sad, desperate prick. Watchyour back, because you’re mine.”
Slade’s pupils dilated, and his pallor slowly changed to a greyish green as her threat sank in.
“You are a disgusting piece of shit, and if I find out you’ve drugged other girls, I will take you down.”
Her shoulders were high, and her ribcage expanded rapidly. She was just as tightly wound as Brock. They needed to get out of there before one or both of them took a swing at Myles. Then shit would really hit the fan.
Blinking once, twice, three times and shaking loose the homicidal feeling inside of him, Brock grabbed Krista’s elbow. The woman vibrated.
No longer with concrete in his feet, he ushered them both to the door. Her elbow was on fire in his touch, and the way her nostrils flared told Brock that this woman was seconds away from blowing. He had to get her out of there.
The truck door slammed shut, and on instinct, Brock hit the lock button. He’d gone through loads of training on bringing his heart rate back to rest within seconds and switching his focus from one target to another. He was already calm, cool and collected again. The same could not be said for his date. The woman was like a jungle cat who’d just chased an antelope through the savannah for an hour. Her chest heaved, a sexy vein along her delicate neck pulsed, and the way she bunched her fists made her knuckles glow a bright white in the darkness of the truck. She was wound as tight as a top.
Brock did the only thing he could do. He hauled her petite frame across the center console and into his lap, holding her, absorbing her anger and letting each shake and tremble of her muscles flow into him and disappear. She didn’t say anything, didn’t even really acknowledge where she was or that she was in his lap, she simply stared out into darkness of the trees and shrubs and trembled in his arms.
He willed her to calm down, to settle. He ran his hand down her back and murmured shushes and other reassurances.
He could only imagine how she felt right now. Probably much like he did. Itwas never a thrill, never a good or empowering feeling standing up to a bully like Slade, threatening them and letting them know you were on to them.
And yet, he probably would have done the same thing. They couldn’t just let Slade get away with it, let him drug that poor woman or any other woman for that matter. The man was scum and deserved to be treated as such.
“What can I do?” he asked softly, weaving his hands gently into the hair at the nape of her neck and lightly turning her head to face him.
She blinked a few times as if not really seeing him, her blue eyes dark and more pupil than iris.
Her lip wobbled. “I hate him.”
“Me too.”
“This doesn’t feelgood.”
“I know it doesn’t.”
“Instead it feels as though I have opened up this giant can of flesh-eating worms and they’re getting ready to wriggle and squirm their way into everyone’s lives, destroying and demolishing souls and bodies as they go.”
Well, that was graphic.
She shivered in his arms. He felt gooseflesh rise across her skin.
Shit, they’d left so abruptly, they’d forgotten to grab their coats. The truck was freezing. Her teeth quickly began to chatter. He had to get her warm. Get her home.
