“He didn’t want to deal with my outbursts. Blaze tried, but he handed me over to Jax two days later.”
The man in question puffs out his chest as if surviving three weeks of my assaults makes him superior. “Now you know why she’s with me, you know I can’t let you keep her. Anton FaceTimes her every Saturday.”
“Why is he allowed to see you?” Koby asks, brushing my arm with his knuckles and sparking electricity through me.
Every time he touches me, my nervous system goes haywire, static thrumming under my skin and filling my lungs.
“To prove I’m in once piece. Safe. Untouched.” I inhale a deep breath. “Anton’s very... protective of me.”
“That’s an understatement,” Jax says. “He’s unstable. You should hear him talk to her. He’s... not all there.” He pats his head. “Had his skull cracked open a few years ago and his IQ dropped about a hundred points. He’s fucking unpredictable, so no, Leilani can’t stay here.”
“You’ll have to drag me out by my hair.”
“You can try,” Koby seethes, glaring at Jax. “But...spoiler alert: You lay a finger on her, and I’ll laytenon you.”
“Jesus, Koby,” Broadway groans. “At least buy him dinner first.”
Koby’s eyebrows draw together, making me bite my cheek to stop the laugh climbing up my throat.
“What?” He blinks, processing his words. “Oh fuck off, that’s not what I meant!”
Carter coughs into his fist, hiding a grin. “Next time just say you’ll break his legs like a normal person.”
“Whatever,” Koby grits out, shooting Jax a death glare. “He gets the message.”
“I bet he does,” Broadway snorts. “He just might expect a safe word with it.”
Carter turns to me, his amusement fading. “You have two options. Go with Jax or stay here, butyou’ll have to play by the rules.”
The wine in my stomach curdles.
Two options? That’s it? After everything, after clawing my way this far, I’m cornered again. Why is it always someone else drawing the lines I’m supposed to stay inside?
“Why can’t Ileave? Just let me go. You can’t possibly think I’ll let you lock me in another fucking cage for God knows how long. I have money, I can disappear.”
“You know where the door is,” Carter clips, motioning in the correct direction, his patience running dry.
Koby sits up as if getting ready for another high-speed chase down the driveway. The move enfolds me in another cloud of his cologne and this morning plays before my eyes.
Specifically, the moment his fingers brushed my cheek when he uncovered the bruise. The way he looked at it like it was his personal failure. How my skin burned where he touched and my palms turned clammy and useless.
“If you stop showing up for the weekly calls, Anton will know you’re gone, and he’ll come looking,” Jax reasons.
“We can arrange those here.” Broadway plucks the wine glass out of my grasp and reaches for a bottle. “But you’ll have togo through with them, no excuses. If he’s half as obsessed as Jax makes out, he’ll find you. The problem doesn’t go away when you do.” He hands me back my glass, refilled.
I take a sip, ignoring Koby’s looming presence. “And you’ll make my problem go away? How? You don’t know Anton like I do. He won’t simplylet me go.”
“He will when he’s dead,” Koby says.
My head whips left, eyes challenging his,hopeinstead of fear swelling behind my ribs. “You’d do that for me?”
“With pleasure, hellcat.”
My cheeks flush and stomach clenches like I’ve been caught doing something I shouldn’t... Which is pretty accurate given I’m imagining climbing him like a tree and burrowing under his skin.
The same urge burst out of me when he pinned my hands to his chest earlier. The way his muscles flexed under my palms, the way he didn’t lose his cool the moment I lost mine...
I pictured him kissing me instead of holding me back. His lips crashing into mine, all fire, teeth, and passion.
