“It’s f**kin’ three thirty in the morning and I drove here from my place where I found my bed empty. Then I got here and the chain was f**kin’ on. One word answer,” he bit out. “Yes or no. You forget where you were supposed to sleep and who was gonna be sleepin’ beside you? And, babe, warning, the answer better be yes.”
I stared into his shadowed face.
Then I said, “No.”
He instantly started to swing me out.
But I clamped on and snapped, “Knight! No. You don’t get to punish me. We’re over.”
He stilled.
Completely.
“What the f**k?” he whispered.
“Nick came over tonight.” His body, already still, went solid under me. “He had a key. We had a chat. I know.”
“You know,” he clipped then, “You know what?”
“I know about your charity cases.”
Silence.
Scary silence.
Terrifying silence then in a sinister, soft whisper, “My what?”
“The girls you find, the pretty ones that you take care of, you spoil then you get tired of and scrape off,” I reminded him. “Girls like me.”
More silence and it was more terrifying, the room stifling such was his fury.
I kept going. He might be pissed, really pissed but I couldn’t imagine he’d hurt me.
“So we’re over.”
“Nick told you that,” he stated.
My arms clamped around his shoulders loosened and I tried to push away but his hold got tight so I stopped.
“Yes,” I answered belatedly.
“Nick came to my house, saw you, told you that and you believed it and left me.”
It was my turn to still.
And I did it at his tone which was scathing.
Then I whispered, “Yes.”
“Left without callin’. Left without callin’ at the very least to tell my motherfucking dickhead of a brother was in my house when he shouldn’t be. He shouldn’t even have a key, which is obviously somethin’ he hid from me then he lied to me when I took his other key. Then he talks shit to you about me and you don’t call me about that either. You don’t wait for me to come home and tell it to me. You just leave.”
Uh-oh.
“Knight.”
“I’m gonna let you off me, Anya, then you’re gonna crawl into bed on your own, cheek to the mattress, ass in the air and feel lucky we are not at my place. You need a cane, at least a strap but all I got is my belt and that might mark you so you’re gonna take my hand.”
A cane?