I shove a hand in my front pocket and yank my phone out. I find Cy’s number and press the phone icon before lifting it to my ear. I meet Katrina’s eyes and hold them as Cy answers on the third ring.
“What’s going on, brother?” he asks in greeting.
“Need you to look into a guy named Carl,” I say and ask Katrina, “You know his last name?”
“It’s Riggs,” she says, narrowing her eyes while also crossing her arms. “Why are you asking someone to look into him? I didn’t ask you to.”
“Look into Carl Riggs. He’s a realtor,” I tell my brother. I’ll get to Katrina and explain why as soon as I’m off the phone.
“Sure, but you know I gotta ask now that I heard your woman saying she didn’t ask you too.” He snorts out a laugh, though in the background I hear the sound of his fingers flying over keys.
“Someone broke into Kat’s studio, trashed the whole place,” I tell him.
“Dagger,” Katrina snaps. “You need to stop talking before I kick you. This isn’t anyone’s business but mine.”
That’s where she’s wrong.
“I’ll dig into this and get back to you. You go handle your woman.” Cy chuckles.
“Right,” I grunt and hang up, shove my phone back in my pocket, and close the space between the two of us, hooking an arm around her waist once again. “You being mine makes what happens here my business. I don’t give a shit about the money you make or how you do it. What I do care about is that while you’re here, you’re safe. No one, and I mean no one, fucks with you and gets away with it. Whoever was behind this will get what’s coming to them.”
Fury rages in Katrina’s eyes, but I don’t miss that there’s something else in them. I get she’s not used to having someone at her back, taking care to see that she’s good. That’s not in me, though, to let her handle things on her own. It just wasn’t happening. She can do things her way, but I was gonna have her back, and she’d know I was there to see that she could do what she loves without thinking twice about it.
“I can handle this. All of it. I won’t be intimidated by them wrecking the place. I don’t care who is behind this because they’re not worth me thinking twice about.”
I can’t help but stare at Katrina as if she’d grown a second head, thanks to her logic. She needs to be careful about who was behind this shit. “You could have been here when they did this. Could have been hurt.”
“But I wasn’t here. I wasn’t hurt. Whoever did this, did it because they knew they could get away with it. I wasn’t here, so they saw an opportunity and took it,” she snaps and wraps her arms around herself. “They didn’t want to get caught destroying this place, so they wouldn’t have done it with me here.”
“You don’t know that for certain.”
“Dagger, this isn’t the first time someone has threatened me in such a way. It won’t be the last. People think they can use force to get what they want. Threats don’t work on me. I won’t bend to anyone’s will, not even you.”
“I didn’t want you to bend to me. I simply want you safe. I want you in a safe place where you can do your thing. I didn’t suggest you move. Or demand you leave. All I’m doing is watching your back and seeing to the potential danger.”
“And what you think is Mr. Weasel-Dick is a threat?” she scoffs.
“Could be.” I nod. “Could be the people he’s working for. That’s why I’m having him looked into. We don’t know, and it’s best to find out what we’re up against than sit on our asses and wait for them to show their faces.”
“This isn’t yours to worry about,” she protests, shoving against my chest.
I hold firm, keeping her close and slide my free hand up her back and into her hair. “You need to get this, Katrina. You’re mine. You and this baby both are. Being mine, you’re a part of the club. I’ve claimed you, and there’s no going back. The club protects what’s theirs and sees to it that those who have our protection stay safe. Meaning, we’re gonna find who did this andmake them pay for it. They’re gonna pay in blood and money for the damages and threats they’ve left behind.”
“Dagger . . .”
I don’t let her speak further. I couldn’t, there was no way I could handle fighting further about this. Not when I know what’s at stake here. I’ve witnessed many times already, and I wasn’t about to do it again.
Kissing her seemed the best course of action in the moment. I kiss her deeply, turning from a hard, firm kiss to a heated and hungry one. If I didn’t have her soon, I was going to die of blue ball syndrome. But taking her here at the studio, with the way it was fucked up, is not where I’m fucking get it. It’s going to have to wait until later when I get back to the house and in her bed. The very same bed, I’ve held her every night for weeks.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Katrina
He’s going to drive me up the wall into insanity.
Totally and completely.
I don’t get why he is so determined to help me with all of this.
