“Yeah, I heard you.” I lean forward and point at my front door. “You have a key to my house that I never gave to you.”
“That shit doesn’t matter. Now, tell me what the fuck you were thinking keeping that from me.”
“No, you tell me how you think it’s okay to take a key to my house that I never gave you.”
“You think I don’t know what you’re doing?” He points a finger at me and a vein in his neck begins to pulse. “Answer my question before I take you into your room and spank your ass,” he roars, and I take a step back.
“Do not threaten me,” I hiss.
“Do you know what can happen to you? Do you understand the guys this kid and his father are involved with drug women until theyhave no idea what they're doing and put them on the street, only letting them quit when they are broken and can no longer make them money? Do you want to be one of those women? Do you think I want to come looking for you, only to find out you have been kidnapped and sold into prostitution?”
“Stop,” I whisper as tears fill my eyes and my bottom lip begins to tremble.
“Do you think your family will understand that it happened because you were so bullheaded?”
“Please stop,” I tell him, taking a seat on the couch. “I didn’t know, and he looked scared. I didn’t want you to go after him.”
“That is something you could’ve said when you talked to me about it,” he says quietly.
“He looked scared,” I repeat, lifting my eyes to meet his. “I don’t know what happened to him, but he looked terrified, and I could tell he didn’t want us to get hurt.”
He nods and gets down in front of me, taking my hands in his. “His dad owns Mamma’s Country. It was one of the first places me and my boys started going to when we moved to town. His dad is a good man, but over the last couple months, he’s gotten mixed up with some bad dudes. We don’t know what’s going on, but my guess is he owes these guys money.”
“Can you help them?”
His eyes search my face then he mutters a quiet, “Fuck,” as he pulls his hands from mine, stands, and runs his palms over his head.
“He’s been bringing me dogs, even if they’re on their last leg. I know the person running the fights isn’t telling him to drop them to me, so that leads me to believe he’s a good person.”
He gets back down in front of me and swipes away a tear I didn’t know had begun to fall.
“Me and Jax are looking into what’s going on. If I can help him, Iwill.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re a pain in my ass,” he says, shaking his head, but the words are soft, and so is the look in his eyes. I take a much-needed breath and then remember we were fighting about the key before he somehow turned this around on me.
“So, how did you get a key to my house?” I ask, and he stands back up and crosses his arms over his chest.
“I took it off one of your key rings.” He shrugs.
“Do you think that’s something I should maybe give to you willingly?”
“How long do you think it would take for you to give me a key?” he asks, looking down on me, so I stand up, wanting to have every advantage I can get. Even if the advantage is just a couple feet.
“I don’t know.” I shrug. I don’t even know why I’m arguing with him about this. It doesn’t even matter he has a key. I would have given him one if he asked me to. Even if we have only been an us for a few days this seemed like something bigger then I could ever even understand.
He looks me over and his eyes drop to my mouth. I cover it with my hand and he smirks.
“We’re back there, huh?” he questions, taking a step towards me. I take a step back and my knees hit the couch, and I fall to my ass on the soft cushion. “Now you’re caught.” He smiles, putting his fist into the couch on each side of me.
“What are you going to do to me?” I question, and his eyes heat as they roam over me.
“I can think of a few things, but you’re gonna need to uncover that hot mouth of yours.”
“We need to eat,” I tell him, uncovering my mouth and placing my hands on his shoulders.
“Eating is definitely on my list of things to do.”
