Page 99 of Outlaw

“Now, you can either stop this bullshit or I am going to stop it. I’m done watching this. She doesn’t deserve it. Let her go. You don’t want her, then release her to have a life. Get joint custody. Share Stevie. But this, making her stay here a year, is horseshit. You hear me? It is HORSE. SHIT.”

He pointed his finger at me. “You can’t admit to yourself that she’s here because you don’t want anyone else to have her. In your head, she’s yours. But she ain’t a goddamn possession. She’s a woman. A mother. A real fucking incredible one. Treat her with the respect she deserves and let her go.”

My chest was rising and falling as I seethed. Listening to every word he said, hating him for the fact that he was right about some of it.

I felt like shit over the fact that she’d just seen that and that I’d said, “Ringlets,” as I shot my load.

But the sight of her face and those tiny satin shorts and matching camisole had been why I exploded. Not the woman on her knees.

“This isn’t your business,” I warned him.

He let out a mocking laugh. “It’s about to be. Because if you aren’t gonna treat her right and you’re gonna keep her locked up under this roof without her own life, then I’ll make sure she’s treated right.”

My eyes narrowed as fury rolled over my back. “Are you threatening me?”

“Just making it clear. I like her. She deserves better.”

I let out a hard laugh. “And you’re better? You? You think you can be a relationship man? That she would want you?”

He shrugged. “You saw her in that outfit. I think I’d do some crazy shit to call that mine.”

I lunged as a roar ripped through my chest. All I saw was red. The threads of my sanity had been snipped, and the possessive rage consumed me. I was going to kill him.

Forty-Five

Branwen

If I stayed in my room any longer this morning, Stevie was going to come looking for me. I’d waited until the normal time breakfast was over and the guys left. The thought of seeing either of them this morning made me want to curl into a ball and die.

I’d been in bed last night and heard the female screams. Linc hadn’t even cared that his daughter might hear him. That she might wake up and be scared that someone was dying. It was way over the top. Yes, he had a big dick, but, Jesus, it wasn’t a weapon of mass destruction, and I doubted she had been a virgin.

Giving myself one more pep talk, I headed out the bedroom door and down to the kitchen. It seemed quiet. I didn’t hear anything until I was almost at the door. Stevie asked Jayda if she liked the color purple or pink better. There was no sound of masculine voices. A small twinge of relief came with that, and Ipeered in the door, just to be sure.

Stevie was on her knees, sitting on a stool, with a plate in front of her while Jayda leaned against the bar with a cup of coffee. No one else. Thank God. Maybe I could time it this way every day. Even better, I could dodge them altogether. Never lay eyes on them again.

Jayda looked over at me. “Morning,” she said. “Latte first?”

I nodded. “Yeah, thanks,” I replied, wondering if they’d said anything to her about last night.

I moved over to take the stool beside Stevie and put my arm around her shoulders to pull her close so I could kiss the top of her head.

“You slept late,” Stevie said.

“Yep.”

Jayda glanced back at me while she worked on my latte. “You okay?” she asked.

The flicker of concern in her eyes made me want to crawl under the table and stay there all day. Or the rest of the year. Probably the latter would be best.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied.

She didn’t call me out on it or push. I wondered how I’d feel about her if I had found her with Linc’s cock down her throat. It was hard to imagine hating her, but I wasn’t so sure. I hoped that day never came. I wanted to continue liking her. She would be in Stevie’s life, even when I wasn’t. It would help, knowing there was a woman here who I knew cared about her.

Stevie wiggled down off her stool when I let her go and ran over to where Maui lay, resting on one of the beds that had been bought and placed around the house for him. He saw her coming his way, and his head perked up as his entire body seemed to wag.

Jayda brought my drink over to me and set it down. “You didn’t have to wait up there so long,” she told me. “They weren’t here.”

Oh. They’d left. When? After Linc had apparently ripped the woman’s vagina open with his cock? The bitter thought settled over me. I needed to schedule an STD test today. I could ask someone to take me.

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