RAPIST.
And the blood from his label slowly leaks into his hairline, into his ears. Into his eyes when I wipe my fingers across the raw edges and flick them to create crimson spatter.
Vale snarls as Evie lets go, stepping away. “You’ll regret that when I pass my information to the police.”
“Better check a mirror first,” I say, laughing in his face as I stand. “See how you go telling the police about my supposed crimes without having to explain your own.”
My arm goes around Evie’s waist, making sure she’s well away from Vale as he struggles to his feet. His face is an array oflumps and bruises pressing into each other. The cuts spill bright trickles of blood.
It’s not enough. It could never be enough to make up the damage this man inflicted on my family. That my father chose him rather than Addie fills me with despair.
“Will he tell?” Evie asks as he staggers away to his car. “Should we invent a plausible alibi?”
“I doubt it.” I spin on my heel to face her, brushing the hair away from her face and examining it closely to see where he inflicted damage. “If he spills his guts about one client, the others will all get nervous. In his line of business, that’s a larger threat to him than it will ever be to us.”
Her hands creep around to link behind my back as the sun sinks near the horizon. “My apology got kind of derailed.”
She leans forward, bumping her forehead against my chest before tilting her neck back, revealing her wide smile. “Well, you bust down a door to save me, so I’m happy to accept that in lieu.”
“I’m so sorry.” I close my eyes to better feel the softness of her body. The way her curves fit so neatly against me, my hands finding natural resting places anywhere they touch. “You deserve so much better than how I treated you.”
“Thank you.”
I wait for the ‘but’… for the pull back… for the sympathetic smile as she disengages and waits for me to get the message and leave. But she stays inside my embrace, warming me so the icy tendrils never stand a chance.
“We should probably do something about the door,” she finally says, not moving. “Before Ant gets home and starts yelling.”
“He’ll have to come through me if he wants to shout at you.”
She gives a shrug, then wrinkles her nose. “Between you and me, he’d welcome that. He hasn’t forgiven you for whatever youtold him down at the clinic and me moping around for the past few weeks hasn’t helped.”
“You were moping?”
“Oh, that’s what you heard, was it? Not the bit where my brother will tear you limb from limb before you even know you’re in a fight?”
She laughs, then tilts her head to the side, frowning. “Do you hear that? It’s like a bleat or something.”
“Oh, shit.” I turn, sweeping her up into my arms while she shrieks and grabs fistfuls of shirt in her hands. “There was a present, but the landlord wouldn’t let me bring her inside.”
“You ordered me a threesome? And people say you’re not thoughtful.”
“You’re so far away, it’s not even funny.” I round the corner, then stand there, appalled. “Ah… so you know how you once mentioned you’d like to own a goat?”
“Yeah?” She twists around to look at the car, then gives a cry of excitement, slapping me until I set her down. “How are you, little cutey? Oh, my god, Maddox. What’ve you been feeding her?”
“We’ve only known each other for a few hours. I haven’t had time to take her for a meal.”
“Open the door.” She slaps her palm against the window, half collapsing with laughter, then growing more worried. “Hurry! She’s eating your seats.”
I rush over, unlocking the doors to survey the damage. “That’s practically cannibalism. Goats aren’t allowed to eat leather, are they?”
“Look up the nearest vet,” Evie orders, gathering the animal in her arms and awkwardly climbing into the passenger seat with her. “That’s definitely not meant to be on her diet.”
I follow her guidelines, finding the closest vet surgery and obeying the GPS directions until we reach the parking lot. “There are a lot of other things I still need to say to you.”
“Which can wait until we make sure this poor girl isn’t in pain or poisoned by whatever keeps your seats looking so shiny and smelling so good.”
Five minutes later, as we turn into the vet’s carpark, she turns to me with a confused smile. “Where were you thinking of keeping her?” She pauses for a long second, biting her lip. “I hope you’re not taking her home to your dad.”
