I’ll kill him.
Annabelle wasn’t sure how she managed to keep her smile in place, but she did. Then when she was back in the van, she screamed.
“You’re a dead man, Gelderman!” Starting the engine, she inhaled and exhaled several times before pressing down on the gas.
How fucking dare you!
The journey didn’t take long, and by the time she was driving through the gates of the small airfield and towards the hanger where Ethan kept his bird, rage had made a red mist form over her eyes. She saw his Bronco and pulled up beside it. Anger was clouding every thought in her head, anger and pride. How dare he do this to her? How dare he give her money and say he’d sold her car! A small part of her somewhere in the back of her head knew that what he’d done was a seriously generous thing, but at that moment all she could think about was her pride and the hammering it had just taken. He’d given her money of his own, and had she not spoken to Roy then she would never have known that she now had a debt to repay.
God, how was she going to repay it?
Annabelle heard music as she approached, loud rock that made it impossible to hear anything else and suited the rage inside her.
The hanger was big, and right in the center was the large helicopter she had flown in. Annabelle wanted to kick it…hard, but that wouldn’t achieve anything accept a sore toe, so she’d kick the large Texan who owned it instead. She found Ethan Gelderman the Fifth by his workbench, head bent, hands braced. He appeared to be reading something. He was wearing old, worn jeans that even her enraged mind acknowledged looked nice across his taut butt, and on top a worn gray t-shirt, seemingly oblivious to the cooling weather.
“You’re an asshole!” Annabelle snarled, storming towards him.
He turned as she approached. In his hands was clenched a white card embossed with silver writing.
“The look in your eyes would suggest this is not a friendly visit, Annabelle.”
“You lied to me!”
“Which time?”
His words simply fueled her fire as they were accompanied by a slow smile on his handsome face.
“You didn’t sell my car! You gave it to Roy, your doorman, and then you handed me your own money.”
He didn’t try to hide it or look guilty; he simply leaned that big, beautiful body back against the bench, crossed his legs and nodded.
“Yup, I did.”
“You had no right!” She pitched her voice to rise on the last word. She felt betrayed, as if everything she had fought hard to become was changing before her. For so long pride had been the only thing Annabelle had to hold on to, and she’d held it tight with both hands when everything around her had threatened to implode. This man had taken a swing at that. He’d taken away her choices and stomped all over them.
“How was Roy?”
He was deliberately taunting her, and Annabelle saw red. Taking a step towards him, she lifted her hand and swung. He caught it and spun her so her back was pressed to his front. Both his arms came around her and the card fell to the floor at their feet.
“Let me go!”
“Not until you calm down. I have no desire to go a few rounds with you anywhere but in the bedroom.” The words were growled into her ear and suddenly Annabelle was surrounded by him, his body trapping hers. She could feel the strength inside him, in the muscles in his chest and arms as with little effort he immobilized her.
“Never! I’d rather sleep with a skunk!”
“Aww, honey, you don’t mean that really, my body keeps you awake at night?”
“I’m going to kill you,” Annabelle gritted out as she fought him, but he simply tightened his grip.
“Settle down and listen to me.” Ethan gave her a shake, his voice suddenly serious.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Annabelle hauled in a breath and tried to calm down. She’d always been like this, react first and listen to reason second. Over the years she’d learned this wasn’t the way forward, especially when she was in charge of two boys, and had taken steps to learn how to control herself, but if anyone could make her forget reason it was this man.
“I saw how upset you were that day, Annabelle. I saw that something had gone down, and the reason you had decided to sell the car was to get money fast. I have money, lots of it, so I gave some to you under the guise of selling your car because I knew you wouldn’t take it any other way. I’m sorry you found out. That was never my intention, but now that you have, we need to move past it.”
“How? I want to rip you apart! Damn you, Ethan, now I have to pay you back and…and…” God, how was she going to do that? “And quickly.”
“I know you think you have to, but you don’t. Here’s the thing, Annabelle, and I’m not telling you this because I want to brag, but I have so much money I will never in this lifetime or the next use it. So what I do is use it when I think someone needs my help. You were that someone that day, Annabelle, a friend who needed my help, so I gave it.”
