Page 60 of Fire for Effect

He straightened, let go of the tea and grinned, as Griff stormed over, his hand poised to strike.

I jumped in front of Veder, “Griff, it’s not what you think.”

“You son of a bitch!” Griff said, his fist flying through the air, over my shoulder and smashing into Veder’s face. “My wife wasn’t enough, so now you’re trying to steal Taz from me too?”

Chapter 15

Mine

Griff

I planted my fist right into VD’s smug fucking face. The unapologetic man-whore’s head flew backwards. A satisfying crunching sound shattered through the air.

“No wonder you live in a barn, it’s where you belong,” I shouted. “With the fucking animals, you piece of shit!”

I shoved Taz away, ready to take VD to the ground, but she held onto me, pulling me back.

It was too reminiscent of when he told me he’d fucked my wife. Taz had to pull me off him back then too. I regretted not knocking the teeth from his head. Now? I wanted to go a step further and kill the bastard.

He had kissed her. He put his mouth on her. On what was mine!

The whole time I was coming up here, I thought I’d find her at Mack’s breakfast table, with a mug of tea. But no, she was here with Veder, in his barn, alone, with the fucking door closed. The two of them fighting over a bottle just like we had.

Did Veder need to steal that memory from me too? Did he have to sully that perfect moment?

Now he had the fucking gall to act like a martyr, with his hands at his sides, ready to let me beat the fuck out of him. Fine, I’d oblige him.

I lunged for Veder again, but a small, immovable object - a fist - ran into my sternum, and I was practically clotheslined backwards.

“What did you think was happening, huh?” The slap across my cheek was hard, and angry, and I savored the sting of it. “That I came over here to hop into bed with Veder? Really?”

I straightened, turning to her as the rage simmered inside me. I was either going to fight him or fuck her, and I wasn’t sure which.

Maybe both.

But then I saw the hurt in her eyes. The true, genuine pain.

She was offended.

“You already made it clear that if I keep talking to Riley, even as a friend, that things could be bad for him. That you might hurt him.” Her fists clenched at her side, and she was shaking with fury. “Now I can't talk to my old teammate? What’s next? I can’t hang out with Goose or Top either? No talking to men in general, right? I can’t be trusted, can I? I’m just going to slip into bed with the nearest guy, because I’m just that kind of woman?”

Where was this coming from?

“I would never think that of you,” I said, trying to calm myself, and keep my voice low. “But this piece of shit slept with my wife, and I don’t fucking trust him–”

“You don’t trust me!” She put her hands on my pecs and shoved me away. “You don’t trust me!”

She slammed a fist against her chest.

“I’m the one you don’t trust. Not him. Me!” She shook her head, her eyes suddenly glassy with unshed tears.

“Firefly… baby…” I reached out to her, and she flinched away, stumbling to get out of my reach.

She stomped away, only to turn around when she caught her second wind. But there were tears in her beautiful eyes, and my heart cracked in my ribs.

“Baby…” I said, trying to reach her again, but she almost fell over a rake trying to stay away. So I stopped, because I couldn’t cause her more pain.

“Newsflash, Griff, you can’t just show up out of nowhere and start treating me like I’m property. Like I’m some unreliable slut that’s just going to start sleeping around.” She turned, her hand over her heart as if she was massaging it back to life. “How dare you? How dare you, when that was the exact reason I left five years ago. The exact reason why I couldn’t be with you. So people wouldn’t think like that about me.”

---