Plus, it took a lot more to scare me than a guy with a three-hundred-dollar haircut and shoes that cost more than my car payments.
I kept unloading my groceries from the cart when he stopped in front of me.
“I don’t have anything to say to you,” I proclaimed.
“I wanted to come over here and apologize,” Edmond replied, sounding sensible, sheepish and nothing like the man on my doorstep weeks ago.
I sighed. Straightened. Looked at Edmond. “You don’t need to apologize. Not because what you did and said aren’t worth apologizing for, they sure as hell are, but I honestly don’t want to be here while you try to trick yourself into thinking a few empty words make you a good man,” I snapped.
His eyes flickered with that anger he’d kept so well locked down on our date. “My behavior was beyond atrocious.”
I didn’t say anything.
“It was completely out of character for me,” he continued. “I was raised to respect women. To treat them with dignity and respect.”
“Well, you sure as hell didn’t do that,” I told him.
He looked down at his shoes, doing very well at playing humble. Which was what he was doing. Playing. “Yeah, I didn’t. My mother would be ashamed of me. I let my feelings get the best of me. And I do have feelings for you. Unlike I’ve had for any woman.”
I put the last of the groceries in my trunk, pushing the cart to the return spot because people that didn’t do that were assholes. I had the sneaking suspicion that Edmond was not a cart returning person.
Though he did follow me when I went.
“You don’t know me well enough to have any of those kinds of feelings,” I retorted while walking.
“I know enough about you,” he countered. “And I want to know more. Want another chance. I’m better for you, for your kids, than some... biker.” He spat the word out like he was describing a serial killer.
Oh, no he didn’t.
I whirled around, stopping in my tracks. “No, you are not better than him or any of them,” I hissed. “You’re much, much worse. Now do yourself a favor, and leave me alone.”
I tried to turn back to my car, but a hand on my upper arm stopped me. Squeezing hard. To the point of pain.
“Please,” he begged.
I looked down to his hand still gripping my arm. It was smooth. The nails manicured. Feminine somehow. But they were still going to leave a mark. Because he wanted to.
“Take your hand off me, right now,” I instructed calmly.
“If you’ll just listen to me.”
Nope. I was done listening. I raised my hand and moved it fluidly, connecting with his nose, happy to hear the crunch. I hoped that meant a bone broke, so I’d ruin the perfect symmetry to his face.
The hand at my arm fell off as he doubled over to hold his nose, now bleeding.
“A little word to the wise, since they obviously didn’t teach it to you in law school. You don’t put your hands on a woman, and you definitely don’t keep them on a woman when she asks you to let go. Now, you don’t leave me alone, it won’t be a biker that’s teaching you a lesson, it’ll be me. Biker sluts know how to hurt a lawyer just as good as the men in cuts.”
I turned on my heel and walked away, smiling despite the dull ache in my fist from the impact on bone. It was the first time I’d had to punch someone in the face. My life was lived among violence, but enough people knew I belonged to Ranger, belonged to the club, they weren’t near stupid enough to do anything that required me to punch them in the face.
But times had changed. I was the one who had to defend myself now. Sure it hurt, but all I was was pain these days. And I liked it.This time, I didn’t feel it when I came home. Didn’t get the same feeling that had me going for the gun and almost shooting one of my closest friends.
Maybe I was distracted, still pissed off from the interaction with Edmond. Overwhelmed with what my life was now. Distracted by the knowledge that Kace would notice the swelling of my knuckles and the purplish bruising already blooming on my upper arm. As much as I’d love to have a front row seat to his visit with Edmond, I didn’t need the drama. And I had the feeling that Kace going after him would only make things worse. Edmond would run with his tail between his legs, for a while to be sure. But this was a man used to getting everything he wanted. Used to the world bending to him. He definitely hadn’t ever been punched in the face by a woman.