Ren’s eyes came back to mine then they dropped to my mouth again. One of his hands moved so his thumb could gently touch the cut on my lip.
His gaze shifted to mine. His eyes were troubled, anger warring with something else, something softer and quietly he said, “Honey.”
This cut through me because I realized, right then, Ren didn’t just want to f**k me. Ren liked me. Ren didn’t just like me, he liked me.
“Ren,” I said softly and I sounded sad, sad enough for him to understand without me saying it that he didn’t have a chance in the world.
He closed his eyes. This cut through me too, deeper this time, because he was a good guy and he deserved to be happy. He had just picked the wrong girl (not that I could make him happy, I was kind of crazy, I had a bad temper and I fibbed a lot, luckily, Luke “enjoyed” that kind of thing). Regardless, I lifted my hand to his cheek.
“Oh f**k,” Shirleen said from somewhere behind me.
That was when the room exploded.
Mainly because, with his usual perfect timing, Luke walked in.
Worse!
Behind him came Lee and Vance.
And no one looked happy.
In a flash, Tex stepped back. Lee and Vance took positions, the heat of the exploding air pressed in and Luke came at us, eyes on Ren. Ren went still, preparing for attack.
Worse than parking lot fistfights mayhem was about to ensue, I knew it, I felt it and I had to stop it.
I pulled away from Ren and got between him and Luke.
“Luke –” I put my hands up, Luke collided with them and halted, his eyes flashed to me and they were scorching.
“Get outta my way, babe.”
I scrambled for something, anything, to make Luke to calm down.
“He just found out about Noah,” I said.
Luke went solid and his brows snapped together. “You told him he touched you?”
Oh f**k.
Fuckity, f**k, f**k, f**k.
“Touched her?” Ren said low from behind my back.
Oh f**k.
Fuckity, f**k, f**k, FUCK.
Luke’s eyes moved to Ren for a beat then they came back to me. He searched my face then his gaze dropped to my hands on his chest and then, for some reason, I felt his body relax.
I had a moment of relief before it was swept away. Because, for some ungodly reason, Luke shared, totally open and brutally honest.
Luke looked at Ren as his arm slid around my waist, pulling me to his side. “Yeah, he touched her. He beat the shit out of her. Duct taped her to a steel support in her basement. Put his f**kin’ hand down her pants and dry humped her. Then he left her in the dark for hours before we found her.”
Ee-yikes.
“You have got to be shittin’ me,” Dom said and I peeked around Luke to look at Dom. His arm was around Sissy’s neck and his face was red. Sissy’s face was pale, as, I suspected, so was mine.
Apparently Dom had forgotten that, days earlier, he’d stun-gunned me and tried it on with me in the back of his BMW.