I could do it easily. I was bigger. A lot fucking bigger and most definitely pissier. I could snap him in two and give a wicked smile down at the bloody pieces I’d leave for Rebecca to find.
I’d discard his body in two mutilated pieces like she left my heart, and maybe—just maybe—I’d finally sleep through the night without a fifth of poison.
“Glad to see you’re fine, beautiful.” The dark-eyed fuck reached up and pinched the end of Scarlett’s chin, tipping her head back to look at him. “Demitri here thought you might’ve offed your agent.”
His brother shrugged. “It was a fair bet.”
Between my ears, hot blood was roiling and roaring, making note of every inch of Scarlett they’d laid their filthy hands.
Their fingerprints were marked in my brain like a muddy highlighter across her fair skin, and all I could picture was getting her somewhere I could strip her bare and wash every goddamn inch of her until she was a raw canvas untouched.
Then I’d put my hands, my mouth, my face everywhere theirs had been, and I wouldn’t stop until she was painted in everything I had to give her from head to toe.
Like she was privy to my thoughts, Scarlett moved her face out of his grasp, finding me across the table with her knowing eyes.
She gave me every ounce of her palpable focus like she could feel how much I needed it on me and not him.
Never him.
My jaw pulsed, telling her through grinding teeth to get the fuck up and come with me.
She didn’t move.
Demitri’s brother straightened and covered his black eyes back up, giving a cursory look around.
“This place looks like it needs a bath. In bleach.”
And we needed to get out of here before brain matter joined the soil and grime grooved into the cafe’s weather-worn exterior. The .22 in my waistband pushing against my back was pleading for the redecoration.
Throwing an uncounted amount of cash on the table, I pocketed my wallet back inside my jeans while standing.
“Get up.” I jerked my chin at Scarlett. “We’re going. Now.”
My lavender flame was quick to argue, tilting a brazen look up at me. “I said I wasn’t ready.”
Against my jeans, my fingers twitched.
Heat rose to the top of my skull as enough tension conducted between our warring glares to strike a match out of thin air.
“Don’t do this,” I warned, low vibrations roughing up my voice.
Proving she didn’t care to be a liar, just a tease to her own fate, she cocked her head and provoked, “Do what?”
“Piss me off on purpose."
“Why?” Intrigue flurried a wild glint across her gaze. “Are you scared of what might happen, James?”
Fucking terrified.
“Red.” Demitri scooped her hands up in his, trying to steal her attention again. “You should come back with me and Alec.”
“The fuck she should,” I threw back in his face.
He and Scarlett both lifted their stares to me, a scowl scrunching his expression and delirious excitement on hers. I knew that look from her.
I fucking knew it. And I should have stopped.
Should have taken a goddamn breath to calm myself down.