Daniel finally looked at his daughter, rose colored lenses shattered and he looked back at Luke. “Over my daughter.”
“You’ve been running your mouth since you got here,” Knox snapped.
Luke’s gaze cut to Pip. I stepped slightly in front of her before he could even finish the look.
He smiled then, not the public one. Not the easy family-friend version everyone had trusted for years. This one showed teeth.
“This isn’t over,” he said quietly.
I stepped closer before he finished breathing the threat, all pretense gone now, every polite mask I’d worn for her family left somewhere behind me the minute he called her a bitch.
“Let me make this clear in a language even you can understand.” My voice stayed low, but it carried enough thatthe driveway went still around us. “Everything about me should scream not welcome.
Luke’s jaw tightened.
“No more cornering her. No more scaring her. No more touching her. No moreher.”
“What is he talking about?” Ryker asks him, but I’m not finished.
“I don’t give a fuck about old friends, history, or whatever twisted little fantasy you built in your head because people let you hang around long enough to mistake access for ownership.” I stepped in close enough that he had to look up at me, close enough for him to feel every inch of the height difference between us. “I exposed you today.”
His eyes flicked past me toward the Bennett men and there it was. The panic under the charm.
“I’m letting you walk away once. Right now. With whatever dignity you can scrape off the road.” My voice dropped colder. “But if you so much as breathe in her direction again, I’ll end your ass.”
Pip’s fingers grabbed the back of my shirt.
Luke’s jaw worked once, then he turned and walked toward his truck, posture loose like this had been his choice, like he hadn’t just gotten thrown out of a family yard he’d clearly believed belonged to him. The truck door slammed hard enough to echo. Gravel kicked up beneath his tires as he pulled away too fast, leaving smoke, tension, and every unasked question hanging in the driveway.
Nobody spoke for a second.
Then Kellen, because apparently survival instincts skipped him entirely, muttered, “So… ribs?”
Knox smacked the back of his head.
The absurdity of it cracked the silence just enough for people to breathe again. Conversations restarted awkwardlyaround the edges. Kids whispered. Daniel stared down the road long after Luke disappeared. Ryker’s eyes stayed on Pip, then me, then the spot where Luke had stood like he was trying to reconstruct a crime scene from scraps nobody had meant to drop.
Pip still had her fingers twisted in the back of my shirt.
I turned toward her and she let go immediately, like she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t.
I hated that.
My cheek throbbed. My knuckles burned. There was blood on one of them, probably his, maybe mine. I didn’t care.
She looked at my face and went pale. “You’re bleeding.”
“So is he.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It wasn’t a joke.”
Her eyes flashed, angry now, which was better than afraid. “You’re impossible.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I did not say thank you.”
