He comes towards me and I’m about to tell him exactly where he can shove it when the glass door behind me suddenly shatters.
I shriek and jump forward in surprise as Ezo leaps through. The next second, he’s towering over me and Brian, his face red and blue eyes flashing with an unnatural fire. Oh shit, he’s about to go all fire-breathing dragon any second now.
I grab Ezo’s arm but it’s like he barely notices. Brian stumbles backwards, hands held up in defense and eyes terrified. “Hey man, she came on to me.”
The lying motherfucker! But if I scream at him now, who knows what Ezo will do? Right now he looks like he’s in the mood to kill somebody. Namely Brian.
I squeeze Ezo’s arm. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
When he ignores me, his furious eyes still on Brian, I shout, “Fine! You want to have your pissing match? I’m out of here.”
I turn and head for what used to be the door but my dramatic exit is slowed when a shard of broken glass slices the side of my toe.
Fucking open-toed sandals.
“Ana! You’re hurt!”
I hold up a warning hand but Ezo completely ignores it, sweeps me up into his arms and— while everyone in the backyard is frozen, watching and no doubt whispering about the judge’s scandalous daughter—he carries me through the house and back to the car.
Chapter Fourteen
Ezo
Ana will not let me see to her bleeding foot when we arrive back at the car. She yanks away from me and gets in the car behind the wheel, slamming the door in my face.
I try to open it again but it does not budge.
Growling, I stomp around the car and yank on the passenger door. It opens with ease and I join Ana in the car. I, too, slam the door.
“What the hell were you thinking breaking the glass like that?” she yells suddenly.
I look at her, incredulous. “You were about to mate with that man. Your boy friend.”
“Are you joking?” she asks, her voice low. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“No I am not joking,” I all but shout. Why would she think I would joke at a time like this? I followed her when she walked away from her father, looking upset. I was trying to figure out how to open the strange, glass door when I suddenly heard voices coming from inside.
Her and the man she wanted to be her mate.
Had they communicated in some way I did not see earlier? Had they planned to meet there?
“I can’t believe you would—” She breaks off, shaking her head and looking out the front windshield. Then she turns the car on and drives away, wheels screeching on the asphalt. I’m thrown backwards by the momentum into my seat.
“Stop the vehicle,” I command.
She looks away from the road for a moment to glare at me. “No. I’m not going to sit in front of my parents fucking house arguing with you. I won’t give them or their friends the satisfaction.”
“I do not care about them. Stop the vehicle!”
“Fuck you!”
She keeps driving, pulling onto a much larger road with many lanes and speeding vehicles. I grip the dashboard and the handle above my head.
How can she—? She rips my heart from my chest and now she goes on like she has done nothing wrong? Like nothing is the matter? Females are infuriating! I’m glad I have never had to deal with them before her.
Then, without a word, she slows and exits the larger road onto a narrower one again. My heartbeat slows a bit. At least now I don’t have to worry about her putting herself in danger. First she recklessly walks on glass and then hurls herself down the road at reckless speeds in this primitive death machine—
After making a turn, Ana brings the car to a halt.
She’s breathing hard, her chest rising and falling, still staring out the front windshield. “I can’t believe you think I would cheat on you.”
“But I heard—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you thought you heard!” Tears shine in her eyes and my chest tightens painfully. “To have to deal with my father and then Brian—” She sucks in a harsh breath, water spilling from her eyes down her cheeks. “No one has ever believed in me. I thought you were different.”
The anguish in her voice has me questioning what I thought I heard. She asked the man, Brian, why he was with her sister. And then about their time when they were together.
It only got worse from there. He insulted me and she did not say a word in my defense. Then he invited her into his bed sheets. She did not deny him.
I told myself to walk away. That I don’t want such a faithless female as a mate. But when he told her to kiss him, I could not control my rage. So I broke down the barrier between us and don’t know what I might have done if Ana hadn’t stopped me.