“I love you, baby, still, no matter what, yougottaknow that,” he said into the phone quietly.
“Weirdly, someone chokes me, hits me, spits on me, and kicksme, that is something I do not know.”
“Drop the charges and we’ll get through this.”
We’ll get through this?
Was he crazy?
“Leave me alone, get your brothers to leave me alone, and Imight not hate you until the day I die,” I countered.
“Rosie—”
“We’re done.”
“Rosie, baby—”
“You’re one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever seen,” Iwhispered the God’s awful truth.
He clamped his mouth shut again.
“And you made me happy, so unbelievably happy.”
His brown eyes lit and warmed.
“And then you didn’t.”
Despair flickered in his gaze before he dropped his head.
“Do you know one of the reasons why my father never joined aclub?”I asked.
He lifted his head but said nothing.
“He wasn’t a man to be tied down, but that wasn’t all therewas to it,” I shared something I’d told him before, but at this juncture, areminder was deserved.“Most clubs expect you to put club before everythingelse, including your family, your old lady.And he just was not a man who coulddo that.”
“I’m not your daddy, Rosie,” he said gently.
“I know,” I replied, put the phone on the hook decisivelyand watched his face falter.
That was the last I gave him.
I got up, dragged the silver chain of my purse over myshoulder, and walked out.
The minute I went through the door, I stutter-steppedbecause there was a tall, exceptionally good-looking man built like alinebacker leaning against the wall of the hall outside.He had a badge on hisbelt and his whisky-brown eyes turned to me the minute I exited.
I’d never seen him in my life but I still sensed his gazewas apologetic.
The door swung closed and those whisky eyes shifted acrossthe hall, taking mine with them, and that was when I stopped altogether.
Snap was there, hidden by the door but now revealed.
“Thanks, Nightingale,” he muttered half a second before helatched onto my hand and dragged me down the hall, turned and hauled me downanother one, through reception and out the front doors.
He wasn’t done lugging me around because he then rounded onme and started forward, forcing me to walk backward, until my hips hit therailing at the side of the steps up to the station.
He then bent his neck so his face was an inch from mine andI saw his snow-blue eyescouldbe chilly.
Wintry cold with icy fury.
