Page 39 of Reckless Pawn

The one permanently embedded in my brain.

Houston.

On my doorstep.

Looking so damned good I almost swallowed my tongue.

"Hey, princess," he said.

Those two words jerked me from my dumbfounded stupor. Like the last time I'd seen him, hope flared in my chest only to be quickly dashed by despair.

"What are you doing here?" I don't know exactly what came over me, but I was suddenly pissed to find him standing on my threshold looking like no time had passed. After all these weeks of waiting for something to happen and after I'd finally given up and started to think past him. I was finally ready to take responsibility for myself.

"Figured it was time we talked again."

He stepped inside and closed the door before I even thought to protest. I found it suddenly hard to think straight with him in such close proximity.

"You're not supposed to be here." I didn't know much, but I at least had that much figured out. For some reason the club did not want him near me.

"Why's that? Isn't that the deal you made with the club?"

I took several steps away from him and retreated into the kitchen. For the first time in a while I was regretting the size of my new home. With him in it, taking up space and breathing the air, there was nowhere for me to go.

"You’re the one who made a deal and walked away remember?" I certainly did. Like it was minutes ago instead of months.

"Well, I'm here now. Seems no matter how hard I try, I can't stay away from you."

"What's that supposed to mean? You haven't been here at all. I've been alone."

A smile crept across his face and I hated myself for reacting to it. But I did. My body warmed, my hands itching to reach out and touch the lips forming that smile that looked so full of something...

"Guess you don't remember the night you were drugged at the casino after all," he said. "How do you think you got home?"

My mouth dropped open. I'd thought his presence had been a dream. Or at least that's what I'd convinced myself so my heart wouldn't hurt so. "You were there."

He nodded, his face clouding over. "Just in time too. Those bitches were going to drag you home and dump you. And neither of them looked eager to hold your head when you started puking."

Heat flushed through my face. If I'd made a fool of myself I didn't need to know about it now. "Why were you there?"

"Was looking for JD over some club business. Instead I found you."

His admission that he hadn't come to see me specifically tore at my heart anyway. Like it or not it seemed he had that power.

I took a deep breath and sent up a silent prayer to find the steel I needed to get through the next few minutes until I could send him on his way.

In an effort to save my sanity, I pasted a smirk on my face and rolled my eyes.

"Ugh. I am so sick of hearing those two words. I'll tell you what I told Axel. You can take your club business and shove it up your ass. I am not club business. I am a person and sick of being treated otherwise."

Houston stormed forward, forcing me to take several steps back until my butt hit the kitchen countertop. "What did they do to you?"

The anger in his words scared me. My insides froze and my brain fought to stay in the present. "Who?" I asked, my arms trembling from the sheer force of focus it took to keep my mind on Houston and not the past.

"You said you are sick of being treated badly. Who treated you badly?" He grabbed my chin with firm fingers and lifted my head until I was forced to meet his gaze. "I will kill whoever hurt you. Tell me who it was."

Whoa.

What was I supposed to do now? "It's—it's not like that." I was losing control and my muscles weren't listening to my brain. "No one here hurt me."

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