didn’t have to tape my knuckles. Twenty minutes later, the security system chimed with an alert of an approaching car. Piper leapt off the couch, scrambling so goddamned quick even I couldn’t have caught her.
She raced outside and nearly ripped Jasper from the driver’s side window.
I recognized his type—and it wasn’t Piper’s.
He wasn’t a bad looking man, and he knew it. Popped collars and gold jewelry didn’t disguise his cheap ass taste. He had money. Not a lot of it, but more than most. His Mercedes was a couple years old, and his sunglasses were worn just for the designer name. Piper’s skin was a shade lighter than his, but I still saw more of him than I liked in Rose.
He grinned at Piper and leaned against the car, arms outstretched, like he expected her to fall against his chest.
Piper slapped him instead.
“I told you five o’clock!”
As satisfying as letting her go momma-bear might have been, the baby wailed, red-faced and miserable in her car-seat. Rose needed her mother to stay calm. I pulled her back before she regretted anything she did to Jasper.
“Sweetheart, I said I’d bring Rose home in the evening.” Even his smile was slime. He held up his phone. “Besides…look how much you called me. You couldn’t wait to see me.”
“You ignored my calls?” She clawed the arm I held over her waist, either trying to punish Jasper or to get to her shrieking baby. “Do you know how worried I was? I swear to God—”
“Calm down, Sweetheart. Daddy took care of things.”
My blood pressure spiked. “Let Piper take the baby, and get off my property.”
Jasper edged his sunglasses down his nose. “So you’re Cole Hawthorne?”
“Yeah.”
He snickered. “I thought you’d be bigger. You don’t look so tough without your pads—or a penalty flag at your feet.”
I’d snap him over my knee.
I didn’t, but I imagined the sound.
My voice stayed even. Raw, but contained. I wasn’t losing my shit yet. Not when Piper needed me.
“Let her get the baby,” I said. “Unlock the door.”
A heavy moment passed. Jasper tried to hold my stare. He didn’t know the mistake he was making. Didn’t realize the danger he was in. I didn’t move, flinch, blink, or threaten. I turned solid as a statue and just as unbreakable.
And he knew better than to fuck with me.
His sunglasses popped back up. He looked away.
“She wouldn’t stop screaming all day.” He unlocked the car. Piper dove into the backseat to get to Rose. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be so happy to have her home.”
The kid wailed. Her little hands reached out, and she screamed a heart-rending, bone-crushing cry for her momma.
It would be the last time that child ever made that terrified sound.
Piper held Rose on her hip, but she pulled her hand away from the diaper. Soaked.
“Jasper, did you change her?”
“She didn’t need it.”
“All day?”
He shrugged.
An absolute fury darkened her features. “She’s soaking wet and covered in…” Her words shuddered. She blinked, ready to cry. “I can’t even look at you, Jasper.”
I could, and I didn’t like what I saw. A baggie of white powder was stashed in his cup holder. The asshole was probably high.
This ended now.
“Take the baby in the house,” I said.
Piper bounced Rose. It didn’t soothe her. “I can handle this, Cole.”
No. She couldn’t. She was too upset, trembling and holding the baby in her arms. I ordered her again—gently, so I wouldn’t terrify the kid.
“Take the baby into the house. Get her cleaned up.”
Piper raged, but she stayed silent. She cuddled Rose close and stormed into the house, slamming the door behind her.
And then it was just the three of us.
Jasper, me, and what remained of my conscience.
I lunged for him, grasping him by the lapels of his douche-bag suit coat over a t-shirt. I slammed him against his car to silence his shouts. He struck the car hard enough to keep his attention fixed on me, but not hard enough to hurt.
No matter how much I wanted to break him.
“If you ever pull this shit again…” I held him firm. “If you ever make that baby cry…if you ever upset Piper again…we won’t be talking like civilized men.”
He acted tough even though his feet didn’t touch the ground. “You threatening me?”
“You bet your fucking ass I am.”
Jasper tried to twist from my grip. He didn’t have the strength to get away.
I might have hurt him. Split him in two with my bare hands or bashed him into a goddamned powder against the pavement.
But