One of the guys barked with laughter, but no one else seemed as entertained.
“Tough crowd,” I murmured.
Caleb slid his arm around my waist as he came to stand at my side. “When you guys are done throwing your temper tantrum, I’ve got an explanation.”
I peeked up at him. “Are we going to tell them all of it?”
“You fucking better,” the man in front of us snapped.
“Then back up, Flame,” I hissed.
He snarled. “Fangs.”
I waved my hand in the air. “They’re both just as pointless.”
A couple of girls giggled and that made me a bit more comfortable. Knowing that I wasn’t the only woman in the room meant that I wasn’t standing alone, even if I felt like it.
Even if I did have Caleb on my side.
“Look,” he said as he tightened his grip around my waist, “I’m helping her get away from her husband. It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that he isn’t signing her divorce papers. He’s controlling, manipulative, and he’s stalking her. Her and I were in the parking garage of her place heading out for a ride when he stepped right out of the shadows after watching her. Telling that man that I was her fiancée was the only way I got him to back off her.”
An absolutely gargantuan human being stepped out of the shadows and reached around me to clap Caleb on the back.
“Good on you,” his deep voice murmured.
Caleb shook his head. “This Blake guy? He’s an absolute asshole. The lowest of the low. He thinks that just because he’s married Rose here that he can dictate what she does, how she does it, what she wears, who she hangs out with.”
“I fucking hate people like that,” Fangs hissed.
“And now you see why I said what I said,” Caleb finished.
“So, you’re not actually engaged,” a man in the corner said.
Caleb looked over at him. “As far as anyone is concerned, we are actually engaged. Anything less, and it won’t work.”
“Sorry, you said Blake?”
A curvy woman donning a sweater and skirt peeked her head between a couple of the guys.
“Yeah? Why?” I asked.
She tilted her head. “He wouldn’t happen to be a Blake Reeves? The prosecutor?”
I was so stunned that this woman knew my husband’s name that Caleb had to answer for me.
“Yes, that’s him,” he said.
“Shit,” one of the guys glowered.
“What? What is it?” I asked.
“Spit it out, Goose,” Caleb said.
The man known as a bird, I guess, raked his hands through his hair. “Reaper, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me right now. You’re going up against that stupid motherfucker at a time like this?”
“You really gotta tell me how you got that nickname,” I whispered.
Caleb squeezed my waist. “I don’t expect anyone here to understand why I got involved. But at one point in time, Rose was my best friend. She was the keeper of my secrets, my tears, and my frustrations. We’ve been friends for I don’t know how long. Since high school, really. And as far as I’m concerned? She’s my family, and I’ll protect her how I see fit.”
