Page 126 of Puck Princess

“She’smygirl.”

“Yeah, well, she was mine first.” His words are smooth, his head cocked to the side slightly. I’d love to knock it clean off his shoulders. But then, all at once, a Christmas tree worth of lightbulbs illuminates in my head. One by one, they flicker on, connecting all the dots I should’ve put together months ago.

Callie has slid down the wall to the floor. She’s crumpled in a heap, gripping her stomach and crying. She looks up at me, and I see the horrible truth painted there.

She lied to me. She’s been lying to me. As she looks from me to Spencer, I can see that she doesn’t know what’s coming next. She doesn’t know what I’m going to do now.

The fear in her eyes breaks me.

I turn back to Spencer. “You’re her ex.”

He smiles, and I can’t believe I didn’t see it earlier.

He’s the one who ran her out of her last job. He’s the one who has been following her, hunting her, threatening her.

All this time, he was right here. And she didn’t tell me.

With each realization, I feel the wind knock out of me.

“Like I said,” he shrugs, “I had her first. If you hadn’t walked in, I might have had her again.”

She didn’t tell me who Spencer was, but… Callie would never want him. She would neverchoosehim.

“She was practically throwing herself at me,” he continues. “Just like she did when we were in school.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, the jumbled pieces are clicking together.

Callie is terrified of Spencer. She has nightmares. When he was following her, she ran in the opposite direction, trying to escape him.

She locked herself in a bathroom and called me to save her.

Whatever past Spencer is alluding to, the only thing I know is that it has to be so, so much darker than he’s making it seem.

And that is all I need to know.

“Youhurther,” I snarl.

Spencer’s lips actually have the audacity to tip in the corners, threatening one of those infamous Santos smirks I’ve grown to hate. “Only a little…”

And I hit him.

My fist connects with his jaw, and whatever comes for me because of this—it will be worth it.

He put his hands on my future wife. He’s trying to lay some kind of sick claim on her, and I’ll fucking kill him before he takes another step towards her.

His head cracks to the side and it throws his balance. It’s enough for me to take him to the ground. I fist my hand in his jersey, nailing him to the floor hard enough it makes his eyes rattle.

“You’re never going to touch her again,” I say again, trying to make sure he understands. If he touches her again, I’ll fucking kill him.

Spencer goes perfectly still for a second. Then, he drives his leg up and rolls until he’s on top of me. He punches me in the eye and Callie screams.

“I don’t need to touch her again,” he pants, hitting me again. “I already got her pregnant.”

No.

Callie gasps. “Owen, no?—”

But whatever she says is lost as I flip Spencer over, slamming him against the thick wooden leg of a table. The air whooshes out of his lungs, and I pin him back to the ground, snarling in his face. “The baby isn’t yours!”

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