“Taylor, be quiet. They’re leaving now. Just let them go.” It was Grant. Grant had grabbed her and was pinning her to the ground.
Then she heard furious footsteps pounding on the sidewalk. Cliff was running towards her, holding her cell phone in his hand, face flushed with rage as he looked at Grant lying on the ground tangled up with her.
“What the hell is going on here?” he shouted.
She shoved Grant off her and rolled away. Before she could say anything, Cliff shifted and lunged at Grant.
Chapter Sixteen
James and Truman shifted at the same time and lunged at Cliff, blocking him from attacking Grant.
Taylor scrambled back out of the way as the three wolves circled each other, snarling and snapping.
“Cliff!” she shouted furiously.
He shook himself, froze where he stood, and shifted back into human form – stark naked now. James and Truman did the same.
“I swear to God, if you actually think I’m with Grant…” she snapped at him.
Cliff shot Grant an angry look. “No. I know you wouldn’t say yes to his pathetic attempts. But tell me he didn’t just attack you and try to force himself on you – or I will kill him right here on the spot.”
“Me? Force myself on a woman?” Grant looked amused. Anyone else would have been terrified.
Taylor shook her head. “He was preventing me from going after Jerrold. I just saw him bullying and terrorizing Leota and— I’m sorry.”
“You do realize that if you saw Jerrold, he meant for you to see it?” Cliff grated out. “Notice how she has no bruises on her face or anywhere visible? He’s very careful about how he abuses her. He’s trying to provoke you. I’m sorry. I know this is hard for you – it’s hard for all of us. The trials start day after tomorrow. We’ll be finished up before the full moon. And he’ll be dead.”
Taylor glanced at Grant. “You could have let me get in the middle of that and mess things up to the point where the Elders disqualified Cliff. But you helped your brother.”
Grant scowled at her. “Don’t ever accuse me of helping that walking turd-pile. I just don’t need Jerrold’s help to win. When I beat Cliff’s ass, it’s going to be done fair and square,” he said, and he turned and walked away.
Cliff still looked like a walking thundercloud about to shoot lightning bolts from his fingertips. Truman and James took one look at him and hurried off, leaving Taylor and Cliff alone.
“You still seem angry,” she said to Cliff.
He held up her cell phone. “Your ex-boyfriend has been texting you, and apparently he doesn’t realize he’s an ex. He’s talking to you like you’re his.” His voice shook with fury. “Saying he can’t wait to see you again.” His hand closed around the cell phone, and he squeezed it so hard it shattered.
“Hey!” she yelled furiously. “Damn it, Cliff! If Chantelle can’t reach me, she’s going to freak out and think that I’ve been kidnapped! You want her to go to the police? The media? I’m having a hard enough time stalling her as it is!”
He dropped the shattered cell phone, buried his face in his hands, and groaned. “I’m sorry. It’s just…the thought of you being with another man…it’s agonizing. It’s like being set on fire from the inside.”
“Joel slammed my head against a wall after I broke up with him, so hard it left a bump. Then he harassed me with phone calls and texts, then he came to my house and tried to kidnap me. I can assure you, I am not encouraging his attention.” Taylor’s tone was icy.
Cliff spat out a stream of curses. “Taylor, my God. I had no idea he’d ever laid a hand on you. I was under the impression that he’d just pestered you with a few calls after you left him. I’m really sorry. And I’m going to kill him.” He said that last part so casually that she almost missed it. Like he was saying he was going to go grab a cup of coffee. But he was talking about ending someone’s life.
She shook her head. “It’s okay. I don’t like to talk about it. And you don’t need to kill him. When he slammed me against the wall, I hit him back and broke his nose.”
“Yep.” His eyes gleamed with anger, and she felt a stab of alarm. She suspected that Cliff meant what he said. Should she try to stop him? Joel was an abusive dick, and God knew what he might do to some other woman, but still…
“Let’s hold off on that for now, shall we?” she said. “Maybe just have your people keep an eye on him, and if he tries to go after anyone else, then we’ll talk. In the meantime, you need to let me call Chantelle on your phone.”
He looked around for his pants, or what was left of them after his shift, and pulled his cell phone from his shredded pocket.
She dialed Chantelle.
“Hey, it’s me. Miss Butterfingers. Dropped my phone,” she said. “Feel free to call me back on this phone at any time. Day or night.” She shot Cliff a challenging look.
“Hey! I was just about to put out an APB on you,” Chantelle said. “You dropped your phone? You’ve never done that before. What’s going on?”
