Page 54 of Ruthless Reign

I waited for her to leave and shut the door behind her.

Becca was looking at something on her phone when I turned around and as the lock engaged she whipped her head up, her face pale, fingers clutching her phone like she wanted to shatter it.

“What’s going on, Kaleb?”

She slipped from the bed like the floor might bite her, jumpy as hell. “Did something happen?”

I shook my head. “No, everything’s fine.”

She noticed the bag. “What’s that?”

I held it out to her. “It’s for you.”

She didn’t take it, but I saw the moment when she realized what was going on without me needing to say a word.

“Oh no. No, no, no. I am not fucking staying here.”

“Vixen…”

“This was the plan all along? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have come?”

Her mouth twitched. “I might’ve.”

I gave her a doubtful look. “We’re going to come right back and get you as soon as it’s done. It’ll be safer for you here with the Crows.”

She closed the gap between us with the light of a new thought in her honey brown eyes. She grabbed my arm in both her hands. “Stay with me, then.”

“What?”

Her nails dug in. “Stay here with me. Both of you. Damien has like fifty other men he can bring with him. He doesn’t need you. Stay.” The almost frantic way her voice rose, the pitch getting higher made me reluctant to tell her what I needed to.

“Come on,” she continued. “Let’s go talk to Hardin. You should?—”

The door opened and Hardin was there. Guess the bastard decided I might need backup after all.

“Stay if you want,” was all Hardin said, his dark eyes flicking to me. My stomach pooled with heat, and I removed Becca’s hands from my arm.

“No. Fuck no. I don’t need you to protect me.”

Hardin stared but said nothing. Fucker.

I swallowed my anger, noticing Becca was only getting more anxious by the second. She looked like she was going to be sick.

“Besides, who’s going to have your back if shit gets real? It’s you and me,” I told him. The four words he’d repeated to me since the day he found me in the woods and led me home.

“We need to move.”

Becca shouldered past me, and Hardin moved out of her path before she could bowl through him as she stormed out of the room, muttering something I couldn’t hear.

But Hardin heard it, and he snatched her arm, jerking her back. “You will not,” he snarled at her. “You’ll park your ass here and wait for us to c-c-come?—”

He cut himself off at the stutter, but the message was clear and Becca ripped her arm out of his grip. For an instant, I thought she might chew his head off, but she seemed to think better of it, her lips closing over her bared teeth as her jaw flexed.

“Fine,” she said, her tone clipped.

“Vixen,” I called after her as she turned on her heel and took off, but she didn’t come back.

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