Page 6 of Holding Penalty

“I found out that my fiancé’s been cheating on me.”

My jaw clenches, teeth pressing together. My grip on the steering wheel tightens, my knuckles turning vivid white. Tension tightens the muscles around my shoulders and neck.

“Who?” I ask. The word is a harsh growl from somewhere deep in my throat.

“Huh?”

“Who is he?” The question comes out automatically. In my mind, I imagine dropping Piper off somewhere safe, then finding this guy and teaching him a much-needed lesson or two.

“You wouldn’t know him.”

I take a long, deep breath, trying to calm myself down. Why the hell am I feeling this surge of protectiveness? Why are my knuckles itching to connect with the jaw of this fucker who cheated on Piper—and then left her on the side of the damn road? What the hell is that?

We’re not talking about a man, that’s for sure. This is a boy, who’d leave his damn fiancée to walk on the side of the road by herself after doing her wrong like that.

“And that’s why you were stranded out here?” I ask.

“I saw the evidence on his phone, so I smashed it up with the heel of my shoe and then got out of the limo and insisted on walking myself home.”

My smirk turns into a full smile. I don’t want to smile at Piper—at anyone—being cheated on, but I approve of the way she handled it.

“The piece of shit just let you walk away? Alone?”

“I didn’t give him a choice.”

If I ever did wrong to a woman I loved like that—not that I ever fucking would—I’d crawl on my hands and knees behind her before I’d even think of driving away and leaving her alone on a road in the middle of the night.

“What’s his name?” I ask. I’m no longer entertaining plans of committing a felony against him tonight, but I’d like a name to pin the anger I’m feeling onto.

“Crew Bentley,” Piper answers.

Are you kidding me? “Crew Bentley?”

“Yeah. Why? Do you know him?”

I scoff. “No, it’s just that’s the douchiest name I’ve ever heard in my damn life.”

Piper breathes a small laugh. Fuck, I know how much she’s going through right now. I just hope any tiny laugh I can give her makes her feel a little better.

“Don’t tell me you were gonna be Piper Bentley.”

She huffs. “What’s wrong with that name? As if Piper Miller sounds any better?”

I’m not gonna ask myself why my cock is twitching so hard behind my jeans at the sound of that.

After a long beat of silence, I slide my gaze over to Piper.

The look on her face is blank. She’s resting her head against the window, cushioned by her hair. There’s not enough light coming from the dashboard to tell, but I still know exactly the shade of light brown it is. I wouldn’t be able to forget it even if I tried.

I’m sure of that, because sometimes I did try, when it would pop into my mind too much during hockey practices in college.

Yeah, Piper inconvenienced me a whole lot back then. With her parties, her other loud get-togethers, her inability to adhere to the trash schedule, and making me think about her too damn much.

She’s holding up pretty well for just finding out that her fiancé is cheating on her.

She’s holding up a lot better than I did when I found out the same thing.

Memories of Bridgett flood my mind, and I grit my teeth to push them away.