Page 90 of Forbidden King (Magnolia Falls)

“Okay. Let’s agree to disagree. All the books in this store are primarily romance. But this section over here is clean romance. That means they are closed-door sex scenes. Nothing is explained; you are just to assume things happened.” I walked him over to the section at the other end of the store.

“Also known asboring,” Midge sang out as she grabbed the historical romance books and set them on the checkout counter. “Those will be perfect for you, Will.”

“I’m thinking these might help me with my dating life,” he admitted as he pulled one from the shelf.

“Oh, yes. You can get some very romantic ideas from the pages of these books,” I said, as the door swung open and Oscar Daily waltzed in.

“Saylor. I need a book about how to fix a grandfather clock. Do you got one of those?” he asked, scratching the back of his neck as he moved toward the mafia romance section.

Midge raised a brow and smirked. “Well, you sure as hell aren’t going to find it over there.”

“I told you that I don’t sell those types of books, Oscar.” I walked to stand beside him after I finished ringing up Midge. “You can probably just google it and find something online.”

“Yes, that’s right.” He shot me a look, and I realized exactly what he was here for. He’d bought book one in this mafia series last week, and he’d said it was for his daughter, but I had a hunch he wasn’t being completely truthful.

“Did Sabrina enjoy the first book in the series?” I asked, pulling book two from the shelves for him and holding it out.

“Uh, yeah. She liked it. I guess since I’m here, I may as well get this one for her, too.”

“Pfft. These men and their embarrassment over reading romance books. It’s ridiculous,” Midge said.

I made my way behind the counter as the three of them argued back and forth. Oscar insisted the book wasn’t for him. Will insisted that he hoped the book he’d chosen would teach him about cooking because the hero was a chef. And Midge gave them both a hard time and called them out repeatedly.

It was a relief when they were gone, and I moved to the back hallway, where the new shipment of books was stacked in boxes along the wall. I started unloading the new inventory when the bell chimed and the door opened.

I looked up to see Barry step inside. I wasn’t afraid of the man. He would never do anything in public. He saved everything for behind closed doors. Everyone in town thought he was this charming man, but I knew who he was. And after Hayes and I had been taken out of our home as teenagers, the rumor mill ran rampant. He hated that people wondered what he’d done.

“Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here.” I settled my hands on my hips, and he stopped in front of me, but it was impossible to miss the anger radiating from him.

“Well, if I don’t come here, I won’t ever see my daughter.”

My daughter.

The man had never been a father to me. He’d come in and made a bad situation worse. He’d found a woman who struggled with depression and made her feel like she couldn’t function without him. He was controlling and possessive, and I’d never liked the man. Not from the first time we’d met.

“What can I do for you, Barry?”

“For starters, you can talk to that asshole brother of yours. He’s the reason that our family is broken.” He ran a hand over his jaw and shook his head. “People fight. Kids get spanked, and it’s not a big deal. It sure as hell doesn’t mean that you cut them out of your life. He’s hurting your mother, which means he’s hurting me. And I’m about done with it.”

“Really?” I made no attempt to hide my sarcasm, and my fingers instinctually moved to my necklace. “Are you really going to come into my store and talk poorly about my brother? Are you really going to minimize the hell you’ve put my family through? People fight, yes. People don’t get physical. They don’t raise a hand to their wife. To their daughter. To their son. And you did that. You can’t blame Hayes for saying that he had enough. And I’d watch what you say about him because he’s not a little boy anymore. He’s looking for a reason to have a go at you, so be very careful, Barry.”

“Un-fucking-believable. A few backhanded swats and you’re all high and mighty, like that doesn’t go on in families all the time. It’s called discipline, Saylor. You asked for it when you got hit. You involved yourself in a fight that wasn’t yours. That was between me and your mother.” His beady gray eyes narrowed. His shoulders squared, and his hands formed little fists at his sides.

I noticed these things because I’d been trained to notice. When you live in a home with a man who is unpredictable and violent, you quickly learn how to read the signs.

I raised my chin, making it clear I wasn’t afraid of him. “You were choking my mother, and I tried to stop you. You were the cause of all of it. You hurt her, and then you hurt me. I was a goddamn teenager, Barry. You threw me down, and I fell through a coffee table. I was knocked unconscious. That is all on you.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. You shouldn’t have gotten involved in adult business. That’s on you, Saylor. And with you living back in town and refusing to come over when I’m there, it’s causing a strain in my marriage. Your mother is being distant and barely speaking to me lately. And I’m about fucking done with it, do you hear me?”

I never heard the door open or the bell chime. Kingston was there and moving between us in a blur. “Barry, I’m going to give you one fucking minute to walk out of this store before your teeth are in your throat.”

Kingston shifted me behind him, his hand remaining on my arm to keep me there.

“Is this a fucking joke?” Barry chuckled this maniacal laugh and pointed at Kingston. “It’s a public place.”

“I’m not asking you twice. The choice is yours. Personally, I’d enjoy knocking your teeth out. I’ve wanted to do it for more than a decade. Give me a fucking reason.” Kingston moved forward, his hand dropping from my body as he crowded Barry.

“You and your fucking friends think you’re better than me. I make more money than all of you put together. You’re a bunch of fucking losers.”

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