She presented her cheek all expectantly and I pecked it for her, before reminding her, “You’re the best.”
“I know it,” she sang, with all seriousness before wiggling her nose and heading off for the house.
Chapter Twenty-One
Stiletto Threats
Anthony
Sleeping off a beating like that was unreal. It never failed; I woke up feeling worse than when I closed my eyes. Somehow, I did it though. I was a little relieved to be driving the van, because sitting upright on a bike would have been a new realm of hell.
I couldn’t sleep worth a damn knowing I was going to see her tomorrow, but I tried.
“So help me, if he doesn’t answer I’m filing a missing person’s report,” Daisy mumbled under her breath, before making her displeasure known against my bedroom door.
I laid there and let her do it. A gentle grunt and smile taking hold before I sleepily called, “Enter.”
The doorknob twisted a few times before she got a good enough hold on it to open the damn thing. She’d asked me to fix it twicethis month. It’d probably take all of five minutes, but I just kept forgetting.
“I didn’t expect you to answer,” she admitted, poking her head inside.
I’d successfully avoided her, hoping the swelling went down around my eye before she got a look at me. I could finally open it. So, I guessed it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
The way her eyes rounded and her lips pinched, I knew it wasn’t on the mend quick enough.
“They did that to you because of me,” she whispered.
“Huh?” I squinted at her with my good eye and drew my arm under my head to prop myself up a little.
“They beat the shit out of you because I called Mark a no-good prick who drags everyone into his dirty business.”
My brows didn’t finish climbing before every muscle in my face froze against the urge to laugh.
I’d have paid good goddamn money to have seen his reaction to that one.
“Well,” I cleared my throat, and regarded her without getting up, “if it was his ass you were chewing, why was it Monty’s face you were tearing off?”
Her glare dropped and she eyed me with open warning.
“I've been in a lot of situationships, Aunt Daisy, but you know,I ain’t never had a chick try scratching my face off like that. What is it about him that gets you so–?”
She whirled around and slammed the door before I could find the right word, “—fucking heated.”
I laughed and shook my head.
It was noon, so I took my time showering, shaving, and getting my vibe together once Daisy’s pain tablet kicked in. I normally didn’t help myself to her medicine cabinet, but damn. I wasn’t trying to be looking crazy and gimping around in front of Crystal.
I hoped to be able to get down on one knee and treat her all romantic like. I could tell she soaked that stuff up, and it made me feel good to see her doing so.
I liked being able to tell that I treated her better than anyone ever had.
That’s what it felt like anyhow. She’d more or less said that.
I was sure of it!
I felt like I was on top of the world. I even gave Daisy the courtesy of, scribbling out a ‘Hold Your Fire’type note. I wasn’t sure it would save Montana or Mark from another ten rounds if she got a wild hair up her ass, but… It was an effort, right?
I whistled down the drive and fired up my bike.
