People might take a quick glance at this man and see him as less powerful because his legs didn’t work. He was reliant on a wheelchair but he was a solid guy. His shoulders were broad, and his biceps were thick with muscle. He was strong. If he could have stood, West knew he’d be a few inches taller than West’s own six feet. He’d once cut an imposing figure. Still did.
Flick might have been able to outrun him in some circumstances, but West bet he was quick. And definitely strong. Flick was tiny. Built like a little fairy. And this man had taken those ham-sized hands to her.
Yeah, his calm was definitely an act.
O’Malley’s eyes narrowed, taking him in. “How’s my sister?”
The words were spoken to provoke, and it was a direct strike.
“Safe from you,” West told him softly.
“I don’t know what you mean,” the other man drawled. “I’ve protected and taken care of her for years. Ever since our parents were brutally murdered.”
West nodded. “You did, in the beginning. Before you lost the use of your legs and turned to drinking.”
“Man’s allowed a drink. I think the judge will be sympathetic to the blows life has given me.”
“The only blows the judge cares about are the one’s you’ve inflicted on your sister every time you beat her.”
“I have never beaten my sister.”
“She says otherwise. Has the bruises to prove it too.”
“My sister has some issues. After all she’s been through, it’s understandable she would have delusions.”
“Delusions, huh? Don’t think a delusion dislocated her shoulder and broke her finger.”
“She deluded herself into thinking you could love her, didn’t she?”
West paused. He wondered how much this man knew about what his sister had been up to. He didn’t get why he’d given her so much freedom.
“You know, it’s hard believing you have something, only to have it ripped away from you. Like what happened to my legs. Or when you fall for someone who’s using you or not interested in you or betrays you.”
Fuck. He wouldn’t be that fucking twisted, would he?
“You knew about her interest in me and let it happen because you figured I wouldn’t return that interest?” That was a big assumption on his part when he didn’t know West. It also didn’t make much sense. “No, that wouldn’t be nasty enough for you, would it?”
That was a glint in the other man’s eyes. Cruelty. Coldness. There was very little humanity. West knew he had darkness inside him, but this man—he was black. Down to his soul. He would have to be to do what he’d done to Flick, someone who was pure.
“You were going to do something . . . let Flick get in deep then interfere in some way that would hurt her. What were you gonna do? Try and buy me off? Bribe me? Kill me?”
“Now, I’d be a stupid man if I admitted to anything like that, wouldn’t I?” he said with a small smile.
West figured the man hadn’t gotten this far by being stupid, and he’d had enough. Being in this monster’s presence made him feel dirty. Like there was a sheen of oil coating his skin.
“Whatever you had planned doesn’t matter anymore. I’m here to tell you, warn you, she’s mine now. She’s under my protection. If you’re a smart man, you’ll stay far, far away from her.”
“Consider me suitably warned,” O’Malley mocked.
West moved forward. He lowered his voice. “You might think you know who I am, but I promise you that you don’t. The things you’ve seen and done? They mean nothing to me. I defend those who belong to me. And Flick. Is. Now. Mine.”
There was a flash of anger in the other man’s eyes, but West was done. It wasn’t the warning he wanted to deliver. The one he would have been free to deliver when he’d worked for Marceras. But it would have to do. O’Malley could ignore the warning at his own peril.
And then West would let the hold he had on his own darkness slip free.
Because no one harmed what belonged to him. He didn’t need to learn that lesson twice.
10