In a flash, Mensa had Rod in a choke hold. I caught the glint of a knife blade resting against Rod’s throat.
“Did you hear anything I said, jackass? Her name isn’t your business.” Mensa bit out.
“What’s she to you, asshole?” Rod asked.
“She’s mine, motherfucker.”
Rod scoffed so hard, he nearly spit on Mensa. “Not a fuckin’ chance she’s yours. Any bitch who doesn’t wear a fuckin’ cut is free game.”
I opened my mouth to point out that I wasn’t game of any kind, but Mensa shifted his body aggressively.
He pressed the tip of his blade into Rod’s neck. “You ever been stabbed, Rod?” he demanded, his voice sinister.
“Fuck you.”
“Focus, Roddy. Gettin’ stabbed fuckin’ sucks. I know because a coward stabbed me from behind.”
He’d been stabbed? How had I missed that kind of scar?
“Mensa, we’re in public,” Riley said, pulling me from my thoughts.
“He needs to get my message,” Mensa clipped out.
“You don’t need to go to jail, though,” I murmured. “Tons of cameras out here.”
Finn, Cynic, and the prospect sauntered up behind Mensa.
“She doesn’t exist to you,” Mensa said, giving Rod one last shove before letting him go.
A security guard rode up in a golf cart. “What’s the problem here? No loitering.”
Mensa had tucked his blade away in a smooth motion I almost missed. He slung a heavy arm around my neck. “Not loitering, sir. We were just leaving.”
Finn assumed a similar posture with Riley tucked under his arm. He aimed a good ol’ boy grin at the guard. “Yeah, just needed to find our women. We never know which exit they’re going to use.”
The guard shot a skeptical look at Rod, Cynic, and the prospect, but they ignored it.
To my surprise, Rod hurried to the other side of the parking lot without another word.
Mensa led me to his bike.
“I rode here with Riley,” I muttered when we were half-way across the parking lot.
“Yep. And you’ll ride back with me, Whitney.”
“Why? Just to prove to Rod that I’m with you? That’s ridiculous.”
He pulled my body flush to his. “That’s my world, Blume. You’re my woman and assholes like him especially have to respect that.”
I stared at him for a long moment.
He frowned. “You got problems with that, tell me because that’s not gonna change.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I claim you, then I’ll make sure people know it. And—”
“It shouldn’t require a violent confrontation.”