“I guarantee that I won’t. I want my key back.” I hold out my hand, waiting for him to comply, and he does, grumbling as he fishes it out of his soaked suit pocket.
He throws it on the ground nextto Hayes. “I’m sure your dog will need it.”
Hayes smiles menacingly, and Elliot starts backpedaling off the patio in a flurry.
When he steps to go after him, I stop him with a hand to his chest. “Down, boy.”
He looks at me in surprised amusement. “Funny.”
Suddenly, my feet are swept out from under me as I’m tossed over his shoulder.
I have to blow my hair out of my face as it dangles around my head, and I see Elliot staring at us in open-mouthed shock.
“Say bye to your ex, you’ll never see him again,” Hayes states seriously with a hearty slap to my ass, making me squeak. He doesn’t give me an actual chance to respond before he’s gliding effortlessly back into the cottage.
The entire backyard disappears from view, along with my ex-fiance, as I’m taken into the kitchen.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Hayes
As soon as I set her on her feet, she’s pacing the length of the small kitchen, getting more heated with every pass. I don’t know if she’s going to wring my neck for manhandling her ex or manhandling her.
“What the fuck was that?”
“You didn’t want me to beat him to death. I had to make it hurt somehow.” I rub the palm that just slapped her ass, wishing I could have enjoyed that feeling a little longer, but I know I was out of line.
“You do realize that your actions have consequences, right?” She doesn’t give me a chance to respond. “You keep promising that you’re going to stick around, but the second someone scorns me, you’re begging to be thrown back in jail.”
“I can’t stand by and let someone disrespect you.”
She digs her fingers into her hair. “But I don’t care. Don’t you understand? Elliot can be as nasty as he wants, but it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter to me anymore.”
“He had his ring on your finger, Olive.”
“So?” She stares at me with furrowed brows. “Oh, I see. This isn’t about him being mean to me today. You’re madthat he had me and you didn’t.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting the anger building up. “Of course, I’m mad. He got everything! He got your heart… Your trust. He got to touch you… And, I hate him for it.”
“Well, clearly I shouldn’t have given him my trust,” she scoffs.
“What the hell did you see in him, Liv?”
“Really? You want to blame me?”
“No. I want to know why the woman who could have any man she wants chose some douche bag with a trust fund.”
She shakes her head and starts pacing again.
“Tell me!”
“Because he was nothing like you!”
I stare at her in shock.
“Do you think I could look at anyone with blonde hair and blue eyes and see anything but the boy I loved and then lost?
“I tried finding someone else. Someone better. I dated my way through my college campus and law school. Do you know how many men asked me out?”
