“You what?”
“Please let me speak.”
He didn’t.
He leaned forward and thundered, “Misty got dead because of those ass**les.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“So, she got dead, you and your two buddies thought it was smart to play with that kinda fire? Jesus f**kin’ Christ, Faye, how could you be so goddamned stupid?”
“I told them to back off,” I said softly.
“Well, they didn’t,” he fired back. “They got names, Faye, they got a lot, and all of it they should not have. They should not know. I do not know those two but I know you.” He lifted a hand and jabbed a finger at me. “And I like you. I didn’t f**kin’ like my wife but I still didn’t want her on her knees, terrified, a c**k forced in her mouth, her face raped before she got holes blown into her. So if that shit happens to you,” he jabbed his finger at me again, taking a step toward me before rocking to a wooden halt, “I… will… lose… my… goddamned mind!”
But I was frozen, head to toe so it took a lot of effort to force out my, “What?”
“Yeah,” he ground out. “Semen on her face, darlin’, in her stomach. No one knows but a bunch of cops, most of them dirty, and me, the same and her f**kin’ husband. Last thing Misty did on this earth was give a blowjob and not one she wanted to give. Before he f**kin’ took her life, he f**ked her goddamned face.”
My entire body started shivering as I stared at him and tried to process this horror.
“That why you were up there that night we met?” he asked and when I stared at him blankly, shivering, shocked at this new knowledge, he barked, “Answer me!”
I jumped and whispered, “Ye… yes.”
“Jesus f**king Christ!” he yelled, turning, he swiped my perfume bottle off my dresser, shifted and with a scary, powerful sidearm throw he threw it across the room so it shattered against the bricks at the other side of the apartment.
I blindly took quick steps back, going at a diagonal and slammed my side into the kitchen counter. My body registered the pain so I stopped.
His burning eyes scorched back to me and he clipped out, “This world, Faye, the one you actually live in is not a fantasy.”
“I… I know,” I said softly.
“Bad shit happens.”
“I know,” I repeated.
“Happily ever afters are not f**kin’ guaranteed.”
“Chace –”
“You can be you, good, sweet, kind, generous, loving and still get your face raped and holes blown through your beautiful body and no hero’s gonna ride in and save you from that shit because you’ll be f**kin’ dead.”
“Pl… please calm down, Chace, and let me explain.”
“There is no explanation for this stupid f**kin’ shit, Faye,” he fired back and I stared at him.
Then I squared my shoulders and whispered, “There is.”
He studied me a second before he threw his hands out to his sides and invited sarcastically, “Dazzle me.”
“I was doing it for you,” I told him softly and he shook his head, moving toward me but I stood my ground.
“Wrong answer,” he growled.
“It affected you, Misty’s death. I saw it, how it upset you and, you know, I, well, I had a crush on you before –”
I stopped speaking because suddenly he rushed me and before I knew it both his hands were on either side of my head, his face was all I could see and he whispered, “Shut up.”