Page 256 of Dark Love

“On occasion?” I take a deep breath and try to focus and push my rage down. “This… creep called you before.”

Dahlia’s gaze moves to her hands. “A couple of times. I reported them. Adonis said they usually amount to nothing, but he followed protocol.”

She told Adonis and not me.

Breath in.

Focus.

Calm your mind. Angry people lose control and die. I want to kill someone, not die myself today.

“I knew it was nothing. But every time I got one of those weird calls, talking to you made me feel better.”

What did she just say? “You called me after them?”

Her small nod fires the rage in me.

Focus.

Calm. You don’t want to scare her. Save all of that for the man that’s going to die today.

“Just talking to you calmed me down. It made me put the stupidity of them into perspective.”

“Dahlia, we talked about this before. If you’re scared, if you’re happy, if you need a glass of milk, whatever you need, you come to me. When some creep calls you on the phone and scares you, you TELL ME. Not someone else.” And especially not Adonis.

“But it was a work thing.”

“There are no exceptions to this rule.”

“There are exceptions to other rules.” Her eyes move to my lips.

“Not this one. Not ever. Can you promise me that?”

“But it’s nothing. Adonis said it was nothing.”

If I hear his name one more time, I’m going to lose my mind. “No exceptions. I can’t take any risks with the woman I love.” Is she thinking of getting stubborn?

Her brow crinkles, and she sets a hand on my arm. Dahlia wins most of our disagreements, but this one I won’t let go of until she agrees.

“Okay. I promise.” She nods. “But you’ll see, it really isn’t anything.”

That’s doubtful if Shock came running down here like that. “Play it.”

He walks over and plugs a thumb drive into my computer, and a few seconds later my blood starts to boil.

Not serious.

Not serious!

“Dahlia, you and I have some very different ideas about what’s serious. When a man threatens you, ‘that is serious.’”

“Do you need a hug? You look like you want to kill someone.”

What!?! “What did you just say?”

“You look like you need a hug before you kill someone.”

My sweet, innocent Dahlia. “You can hug me—”

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