“You did. And then after we met, I bought the house. I made a deal with her to collect the rent so you wouldn’t know.”
“You controlling son of a bitch!” she shouted. She turned around, grabbed a lemon from the bar, and chucked it at me. She missed and grabbed another. She kept throwing fruit at me until the bowl was fucking empty.
“ENOUGH!” I shouted as I rubbed my head. “That fucking hurt.”
“Good! Get the fuck away from me before I start throwing bottles at you.”
“Grace—” I started when the front door opened and in walked James Doherty, big as life.
“Don’t piss off the bartender, King.” James laughed as he walked toward me. He turned to look at Grace and stumbled. “Fuck me.” James stared at Grace, and she glared back at him.
“Is there a problem?” she asked.
James didn’t speak; he just continued to stare at my woman until I stepped in front of him. “That’s my old lady you’re eye-fucking.”
A woman with dark hair walked up beside him and smiled. “He’s not eye-fucking her; he’s just stunned by how beautiful she is.” She smacked James on the chest. “Stop staring,” she hissed.
“Sorry.” James shook his head, then turned to look at Shane Keller. The two men had a silent conversation before Shane turned around and walked back outside.
“Something I should know?” I growled. I didn’t like the reaction James had toward Grace, but I was thankful I’d pissed her off before they walked in, because she was even angrier now. And an angry Grace was a hell of a lot easier to deal with than a scared Grace.
“Hi, I’m Donna. I apologize for my old man’s rudeness. You look a lot like someone we used to know. Are you from Nebraska?” Donna asked.
“Arkansas,” Grace answered. Donna smiled, and a throat cleared behind James. I turned to look, and I felt the blood drain from my face. I was staring at a fucking ghost. I took a cautious step forward, and when I was close enough, my fist shot out and clocked him in the nose. The crunch of bone echoed in the room.
“You motherfucker!” I growled as Chasm stumbled back into another man. I heard Grace gasp out my name, but I turned on my heel and stormed into church. I paced the room, my anger boiling inside me. I knew he was alive. Banshee had seen him. Aspen and Nav had both spoken to him. But until he was standing in front of me, I hadn’t realized how angry I’d be.
“King.” Grace’s voice cut through the haze clouding my vision. She wrapped her arms around me from behind, and I covered her hands with mine. She laid her head against my back. She didn’t say a word. She didn’t need to. Just feeling of her body against mine was enough to calm the storm. She was my peace.
“I love you, Grace. Don’t ever fucking leave me.”
“I haven’t left yet, have I?”
I turned around and looked down at her face. “You tried,” I accused. “I know you want to run.”
“I do. That will probably never go away. And every time I get mad at you, I’ll think about it. Because I’ll be thinking about how I probably did something to make you do whatever you did that pissed me off. I’m always going to blame myself, King. It’s who I am. It’s who my mother was. I realize that now,” she said as she laid her head against my chest. “It’s funny the things you remember when someone is gone. The good things take front and center for years, and the bad things seem to fall away until you’re going through something big, and suddenly you start to remember things you’ve forgotten. Like how my mother used to blame herself for everything. I hadn’t realized I did the same thing until today.”
The door opened, and Chasm walked in. He stood against the wall and waited. Grace looked over her shoulder and then back up at me. “You want me to kick him in the balls?”
I barked out a laugh and kissed the top of her head. “No, baby. Go back out there. I’ll be out soon.” She hesitated, and Chasm pushed the door open until Romeo stuck his head in.
“I’ve got you, Grace.” He held out his hand, and when she took it, he looked up at me, and I nodded. I knew he would stay with her until I went back out there.
“Look at you, the big bad president,” Chasm sneered.
“Look at you, the walking dead,” I scoffed. “Your wife know you’re alive?”
Chasm narrowed his eyes at me. Morgan had always been a source of contention for us. Probably more so than Steele.
“I tried to tell James this was a fucking mistake, but he wouldn’t listen. Seemed to think you have what it takes.”
“Fuck you,” I spat. “Where the fuck have you been?”
“Do you fucking care?”
I turned my back on my best friend and slammed my hand against the wall. We didn’t need any more holes for the prospects to fix. I spun on him, my eyes full of fire as I glared at him.
“Of course I fucking care! You have no idea what I went through when you fucking died!”
