Page 43 of Protecting Her Secrets

I give her hand a squeeze. “I won’t lose a minute of sleep knowing he won’t be a threat to you anymore. Believe me.”

The ringing of a cell phone interrupts us. I immediately know it’s Skylar’s based on her panicked expression.

“What if it’s him?”

“Answer it and put it on speaker. Tell him the wedding is off and that you won’t be coming home.”

Her lips turn down, and her brows furrow. “In front of everyone?”

“They should know what we’re up against.”

“Okay,” she says.

“Mind if I dig?” Ridge asks, pointing to her purse where the ringing is coming from.

“Go ahead,” Skylar says from over the back of the sofa. She accepts the phone with all the care of a hand grenade before removing her feet from my lap and pivoting to sit upright.

“It’s him?” I ask.

“Yeah.” She sets it on the coffee table and taps the screen. “Hello?”

Klutch’s voice is deep and gravelly, as if he has been smoking since he was a kid. Which, knowing what kind of guys are in the club, there’s a good chance he has. “Where the fuck are you, Skylar?”

“Still up north,” she replies, and I hate how timid she sounds. That tone only comes out when this asshole is involved.

“Vacation’s over. It’s time to get your ass home.”

She tucks her hair behind her ears. “I won’t be coming home, Klutch. I’ve done a lot of thinking while I’ve been away, and I realized I don’t want to marry you. It’s over between us.”

All of us are expecting him to blow his lid, but instead, we’re met with silence. Skylar glances over at me, completely freaked out. I scoot closer to rub her back and mouth, “Keep going.”

“Klutch? Did I lose you?”

“No, I’m giving you the opportunity to take that shit back before you really piss me off.”

“I’m not taking it back. We’re done.”

He laughs, but it’s a sardonic and ugly sound. “We’re done, huh? Just like all the other times we were done? Do you remember what happened those times?”

“I mean it this time.”

“This time?”Does that mean she tried in the past and failed? What happened to make her go back? I’ll have to ask those questions later.

“I asked you a goddamned question. Do. You. Remember. What. Happened. Those. Times?”

Goosebumps climb up her neck to her hairline, and I know whatever he did to get her back was so bad, she’s traumatized by it.

“You can’t hurt me this time.” She chokes out the words, and it breaks my heart. It has an effect on my friends too, because they inch closer, as if they can reach him through the phone. Rage is rolling off them in waves, and not for the first time, I’m thankful we’ve forged friendships.

“You sure about that? All I have to do is make one phone call, and I’ll have an army willing to chase you to the ends of the Earth. You aren’t safe anywhere, you dumb bitch.”

Name-calling is where I draw the motherfucking line. I pick up the phone and stand, slipping out of Skylar’s hold on my arm as she tries to stop me. “Listen up, asshole. She made it clear she doesn’t want to be with you anymore. Are you so goddamn foul that you can’t trick some other woman into being with you?”

“Who is this?”

“None of your business, just like Skylar.”

“You sure about that? Has she told you I hold the deed to her mom’s house? It’d be a shame if there was, let’s say, an electrical fire? Or maybe someone accidentally leaves the gas on.”

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