Gone - Anna Brooks Page 0,67

kind of, he tried to grab my arm, and I knocked the air out of him, and then he left.”

His lips twitch. “Don’t make me laugh right now.”

“It was kind of funny.” I bite my lip, cautious that he’s wound super tight.

He pulls my lip away and drops his head to rest on my thigh. “My brother is an asshole, but I really don’t think he’d do this. It’s too obvious with him threatening you so recently, and it’s just not his style to get his hands dirty like that. But you best believe I’m payin’ him a visit.” When he sits back up, he’s careful not to jostle the bed too much. “Think really hard, Iz. Anybody else? Your boss is already on the list, Mario, Danny, but anyone else who you’ve gotten into confrontations with at work, customers, co-workers, neighbors? Old boyfriends. Anybody.”

“Gio chased away pretty much every boyfriend I’ve ever had, and Mario was the only one who things ended badly with. But… the only other thing that happened was when you were gone, Danny was in my boss’s office. He had me walk him outside and then said some stuff. But none of it was threatening.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me when it happened?”

“Just like you told me you were out hunting for Mario?”

His nostrils flare. “What did Danny say to you?”

It’s not lost on me that he’s avoiding my question. “Just that you were taking care of the Mario problem, which is why I called you and left that message. He told me he’d probably never see me again. That was pretty much it.”

“Pretty much?”

“I don’t really remember.”

“Iz.”

My name is a warning. “He implied that as long as I was… good, he’d never see me again. But that he wouldn’t mind it if I was bad.”

“That fucking cocksucking motherfucker.” Oh, no. “If that goddamned pussy ass little bitch ever, ever touches you, talks to you, fucking looks at you, and you don’t tell me the second it happens…” He cracks his knuckles, and his body shakes when he slowly releases a breath that seems like it came from his toes. “I swear to God, you won’t be able to sit right or walk straight—”

Judy’s head cocks to the side, and she whines, and Damien jumps up and reaches behind him to pluck the gun he had tucked in the waistband of his jeans. I don’t have time to process how much his threat turned me on because I tug the sheet up to my chin and begin trembling. A second later, the sound of tires rolling over gravel leaks into his bedroom.

“Watch her,” he commands to Judy, who then stands on alert.

Without another word, he walks through the frame, pulling the chair enough to close the door. I hear Damien raise his voice, and then the voice of another man, but no gunfire… thank God. After a minute, the door opens, and Judy hunches down and growls until Damien appears. She immediately stops, and then resumes her position on the floor where she was lying down.

I’m too busy appreciating how beautiful she is that I don’t notice Damien’s father come in behind him. Damien helps me sit up a little bit and then clears his throat. “My dad heard about what happened, and he wanted to come and take a look at you.”

“Why? The doctors said the fracture in my arm needs to stay in the cast for a few weeks, and it should heal by itself. My ankle is just swollen.”

“Remember me telling you my dad was a plastic surgeon?”

I nod.

“He wants to examine that gash across your forehead, see if he needs to fix it up so you don’t have scarring.”

My eyes find John’s, and he offers a sympathetic smile.

“Why do you care?” Yeah, I ask him outright. His dad already probably thinks I’m a bitch, so I really don’t care. After how he’s treated Damien, does he expect me to fawn all over him to fix my face. I don’t think so.

John drops his head. “At the end of the day, Damien is my son. I may not agree with some of the choices he’s made, but I still love him. And he loves you. My mother read me the riot act after you two left dinner and made me realize some things.” He looks at Damien and sucks in a huge breath. “I’ll never win father of the year, and I doubt we’ll ever be close again, but I want