Edmond’s face turned cold, and his eyes filled with fury and hate. More than I’d suspected was hidden behind that handsome face. It unnerved me.
After the life I’d lived, people I’d spent time around, I considered myself to be a good judge of character. A good judge of what lay beneath the layers of civilians, able to see their true faces underneath the masks they wore.
But I’d missed it with Edmond. Hadn’t listened to my instincts telling me that there was something off, beyond the fact that he just wasn’t my type.
“You touch me, I’ll sue you for everything you’re worth. I’ll make sure you go to jail like the criminal you are,” Edmond spat.
Kace grinned in the face of the threat like the joke it was. “Oh, you gonna hurt me with some fuckin’ paper? Go right ahead. Try it.” Despite Kace being younger than Edmond, much less groomed and put together, he sounded like he was talking to a child, something beneath him. His voice and demeanor shrank Edmond down into something small.
Edmond didn’t like that. Not at all. But I could see that he was also scared of Kace. He was trying to hide it, but it was easier to hide ugliness than it was fear.
Instead of answering Kace, he focused on me. “You’re making a huge mistake.”
“You don’t fuckin’ talk to her,” Kace fired back, moving me ever so slightly backward. I rolled my eyes at him trying to protect me from an asshole in a suit that even I could take down without much effort. Edmond was used to bringing people down with words, he was no match for the Sons of Templar, or anyone connected to them.
“You don’t think about her. You don’t look at her. You see her on the street, you turn around and walk the other way. That is, if you like the way you’re walkin’ right now. I’d be happy to change that for you. I’d take great fuckin’ pleasure. The Sons own this town, and we’ll be watching you. Every fucking move.”
Kace meant it. Every word. He would hurt Edmond. End him. Just for talking to me like this.
“Change is coming,” Edmond spat. “The town is growing. A thug, criminal biker gang can only stay in power for so long. It’s not going to be a fist fight that brings you down. It’ll be progress. And I’ll glory in it.”
Kace grinned. “Well, I’ll be glorying in Lizzie’s pussy.”
On that note, he pulled me back and slammed the door in Edmond’s face.
“You did not have to end it like that,” I admonished.
“Yes I fuckin’ did, babe,” he replied, his voice still filled with anger. “That fucker is darker than he seems, and he wants what I’ve got. In a way that fuckin’ worries me. He needs to know what’ll come to him if he gets near you.”
“I can take care of myself,” I demanded, stepping back, folding my arms. “And I’m not yours. We fuck. That’s all.”
Kace moved forward, forcing me to retreat so my back hit the door. He didn’t stop. Not until he caged me in.
“Very aware you can take care of yourself, Lizzie. I’m also very aware that you’ve got two kids who need their mom. You’ve been through enough shit. I’ve got the ability to make sure I’m between you and fucks like that, so I’m gonna do that. You can fight me on it as much as you want. Try to push me away, I’ll take it. But I won’t go nowhere. Because even though you’re not ready to admit it, you are mine. The parts of you that can be.”
“You need to leave,” I gritted out.
He ran his eyes over me, and I hated the way that made me feel. “Sure thing, baby. But it’s too late to really try and get rid of me. I’m under your skin.”
I turned and walked away from him. Because I didn’t have it in me to argue.
To lie.Chapter 15Someone had been in my house.
I knew that the second that I walked through the door. It wasn’t locked. Something I forgot to do more often than not. Something that had irritated the ever-living fuck out of my husband. The cause of a lot of fights. Of course, I was extra careful in the bloodier days. I wasn’t going to take any chances with my children. Now, I shouldn’t have been as careless. Stupid. I was a woman alone in a house with the two most precious things in my entire world.
But there was a lot on my mind.
To say the least.
And the club was no longer attracting death and danger. Ranger’s death was the result of a war that had been unavoidable. A war the club won. One that had made it so that all the criminals in the underworld stayed away.