“Mia, be reasonable,” Eric pleaded.“What are you going to do?Throw away three years for… for him?”He jerked his chin at me with naked disgust.
“This isn’t about Oktober,” Mia replied.“This is about you and me.And there is no ‘you and me’ anymore.”
Eric’s expression hardened.“Really?You’re choosing this over everything we built?Over your career?Do you think Dr.Williams would approve of you hanging around with men in gangs?Think of your professional reputation.This will ruin you in elementary schools.”
The threat was obvious.I’d seen men like Eric before.The privileged pricks liked to weaponize their connections when they couldn’t get their way.I took a step forward, but Mia’s sharp glance held me in place.
“Are you threatening me?”Mia asked, her voice dangerously quiet.
“I’m trying to protect you,” Eric insisted, but the venom in his voice betrayed him.“These people are dangerous, Mia.You have no idea what you’re getting involved with.”
Mia laughed, a short, bitter sound that surprised me.“And you do?The only danger to me has been standing in my life pretending to love me while fucking my best friend.”
Jade sobbed harder.“Mia, I didn’t --”
Mia cut her off.“Both of you need to leave.Now.”She took a breath.“Please.”Not sure why she added the please other than it seemed rather like something an elementary school teacher would say.Which almost made me smile.
Eric’s face flushed an ugly red.“Not without you.I’m not letting you throw your life away over some misguided rebellion with this -- this thug.”He gestured at me again.
I smiled thinly, enjoying how it made him take a half-step back.“Careful, Eric,” I said, my accent thickening as it often did when my temper flared.“The lady asked you to leave.I suggest you respect her wishes.”
“Or what?”he sneered, though I noted how his eyes flicked nervously to my tattooed knuckles.“You gonna hit me?Maybe I’ll get pictures and send your ass to jail.Huh?”
“Eric,” Mia said, her voice steadier than I’d heard it yet.“Get in your car and go.You’re not going to the cops, and Oktober isn’t going to hit you.”
“Yeah?Maybe I feel threatened.You should be too.Guys like him share their women.You’ll be a whore living in a filthy clubhouse.”
“I know he won’t hit you because I asked him not to.If I ask him to, he will.I’m not asking him to because you’re not worth the consequences to him.”She took a step closer to Eric and her gaze turned hard.I’d seen the same look several times on Hannah’s face.Hannah, the president’s old lady and the daughter of one of the deadliest MC presidents on the planet, had never been a woman any of us trifled with.My woman brought that same don’t-fuck-with-me attitude straight to Eric.“Now, I’m asking you to please leave the premises.Take Jade with you.Neither of you approach me again.”
“This isn’t over,” Eric warned, jabbing a finger at her.“When you come to your senses, don’t expect me to be waiting.”He turned his glare on me.“And you.You have no idea who you’re fucking with.”
I merely raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.Men who led with threats rarely had the spine to back them up.
“Come on, Jade,” Eric snapped, turning toward the car.
Jade hesitated, her tear-stained face twisted with genuine regret.“Mia, I’m so sorry.”
Mia said nothing, her body rigid as stone as they retreated.Only when they reached the car did I move to her side, close but not touching, giving her the choice.
She swayed slightly, and my hand found the small of her back, steady and warm.Eric watched from the car, his face a mask of fury as Mia leaned into my touch.
“You OK?”I asked softly.
She nodded, though I could feel the fine tremor running through her.“I will be.”She turned to me.“I’m going to be petty right now.Please don’t think I’m always this way.”
Before I could question her, she pulled me down to kiss her.And I let her, kissing her back like I knew I always would.I kept my eye on the silver sedan, making sure he left and didn’t try to hit us.He backed up, tires spitting gravel, then gunned the engine as he pulled away, a petulant display of impotent rage that made me shake my head.Men like him were dangerous in their entitlement, in their certainty that the world owed them whatever they desired.
The sound of the car disappeared around the bend, and Mia ended the kiss.“Thank you.For not…”
“Going caveman on his ass?”I finished with a small smile.
She laughed, a fragile sound but genuine.“Yeah.That.But also for having my back.For letting me…” She blushed.“Letting me make my own scene for them to think about tonight, like I had to think about seeing them.”
“Don’t thank me for basic respect,Kätzchen.”I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.“Though I won’t lie -- it took restraint.”She gave a small giggle like I’d hoped she would.“As to the other, I’ll put on any show for them you wish.I’ll also be willing to take you to bed and make you forget everyone but me.”I tried to make it sound like I teased her, but in reality, I wanted to beat the shit out of both Eric and Jade, then take Mia to bed and keep her there until she forgot every other lover but me.
She pressed her forehead against my chest.I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her breathe against me, the storm of emotion still working through her system.
I thought they were gone, but ten minutes later, the silver sedan came roaring back up the gravel drive, dust billowing in its wake.Mia and I had barely made it inside her cabin when I heard the car doors slam.She froze midway through pouring us coffee, her hands trembling slightly.
