Page 5 of These Jagged Edges

The loud bellow startles me, making me jump back into Mercy. "Are you okay, Sugar?" Mercy asks his voice full of concern.

Looking down at the end of the short driveway, I see Maddox glaring my way. His arms are crossed, his jaw is clenched, and his eyes are blazing with anger. It’s clear he’s not happy to see me here, and he's not making any effort to hide it. I involuntarily take a step back into Mercy again.

“Sugar?" Mercy’s question makes me realizes I’m standing flush with the man. My ass is notched right at hiscrotch.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Maddox barks while stomping up to the porch.

"I—just leaving." Stepping away from Mercy, I sidestep Maddox's looming figure giving us a wide berth, and hurry to put as much distance as possible between us.

"Hey, sugar, hold on a second." Mercy appears beside me as soon as I reach my mailbox. "My apologies about the jackass. My mama insists we're brothers, but I’m only sure of that twenty percent of the time.”

"That prickly jackass doesn't scare me," I say a little too quickly, which causes the man before me to raise an eyebrow. "I just needed help with something that he offered to help with last night," I say, throwing my hand in Maddox's direction.

He looks over his shoulder at his brother, a look I can’t quite decipher crosses his face before turning back to me. "You need something?" He smirks at me. "I'm at your mercy."

I can't help but laugh. This man and his flirtatious nature instantly lift my mood. I've smiled more in his presence than I have all year. Screw it. Twirling a lock of hair around my finger, I give him my most innocent look. "Can you come clean out my pipes?".

Mercy throws his head back, laughing, his olive throat working up and down. "Oh sugar, we're goin' to get along just fine."

With that we head off to my house, leaving the rugged man to watch us from his porch.

The sun had gone down long ago,but Mercy has just left. Mercy had fixed my sink and was able to fix my washing machine and water heater. There’s no more running out of hot water in five minutes or starting the washing machine with a monkey wrench. He just asked us to jump in the shower and soap each other up as payment, swore he'd be a good boy and keep hishands to himself. Lou threatened to call his mama nipping that in the bud.

As playful as he was, Mercy had a heart of gold. He talked so lovingly about his mama and two older brothers but insisted he was the best-looking. Mercy had a way about him that made you feel like you've known him your whole life. After a while, I could see where he shared Henry's smile and his mama's sweet disposition. Magnolia Wilder was Joe's best friend, although I hadn't seen much of her in the past year, I knew her to be as full of life as her youngest son.

Mercy was passionate about two things: cars and women. He finished his second tour in the military and decided to come home and open an autobody shop in Thunder Ridge, which explains why I had never seen him around town until now.

While he refused any money for everything he fixed, the man didn't turn down a home cooked meal. Mercy didn't have the brawl to his build Maddox did, he was leaner with the body of a swimmer, but the man could eat. Lou and I whipped up a quick dinner while he finished the water heater, and when he was done, the man ate three plates, even taking some to go.

After finishing her beer, Lou says her goodbyes. She has an early morning at the bakery. "I can't believe you asked the poor man-whore to come clean your pipes! Evie Taylor, I knew you were full of fire," Lou says, kissing my cheek goodnight and with one last chuckle, she heads out.

Finally, soaking the screaming ache from my shoulders in a hot bath, I try to unwind. I groan when the insistent knocking on my door pulls me from its warm embrace. I quickly dry off before throwing my night shirt on before heading to the door. Lou is notorious for leaving something wherever she goes, purse, phone, keys. Always something. The knocking turns into full-out pounding.

That should have been my first clue.

"Hold yourhorses! I'm coming!"

An imposing stoic face and stormy eyes greet me as I open the door. "Well, you're not Lou."

He looks at me up and down, his gaze darkening as he takes me in. I slept in one of Vic’s old navy shirts that hangs to my knees, and I am immediately reminded how thin it is. Maddox clenches his jaw so tight I'm afraid he might crack his teeth. "Where the fuck are your clothes?"

"You asking me or my breasts, Big Guy?"

Maddox blows a frustrated breath out. "Why in the hell are you answering the door like that?"

I mean, he’s not wrong. Should I have answered the door like this? Probably not, but I wasn’t about to admit he is right. A girl has pride. “What areyoudoing here?" I throw his words from earlier back at him.

Leaning his brooding frame over me, he braces both arms on the doorframe, our faces inches apart. There is a mix of frustration and passion on his handsome face. "I came to apologize for earlier if you'd just fucking let me," he snaps, his expression darkening—the calm before the storm.

A storm I want nothing to do with. Panic settles over me as if someone dumped cold water over my head. What the hell am I doing sitting here challenging this mountain before me? I step back looking down at my feet. "O-okay."

Noticing my retrieval, he raises his eyebrows in confusion. Before he can ask or say anything, I shut the door in his face. Heart pounding, I lean against the door, hearing his heavy steps leave the porch. I let out my breath, willing myself to calm down.

Not every man is him, Evie. I silently whisper to myself over and over until the feeling of dread leaves me.

After the encounterwith Maddox last week, I've been on edge. It was just the slap I needed to remind myself aboutwhat's important: keeping my boys safe. Safe from that damn devil because I know deep down, he won’t ever stop hunting for me, and I need to be ready when he finally finds us. I can't afford a distraction, especially one as moody and gruff as Maddox Wilder. The rational side of me knows I need to always keep my guard up around him, but the irrational side? Well, she's a crazy bitch whose panties combust in his near presence. I need to keep her on lockdown.

It wasn't tough to ignore him because I had hardly seen the man but a handful of times before our heady moment in my foyer. He just moved back about a year ago and has been devoted to building his gym,The Boxing Den. Vic told me someone had bought the empty house and was moving into the neighborhood over dinner one night and left it at that. Vic was fiercely protective of us and wouldn’t let just anybody move into our neighborhood, so I didn’t feel the need to ask questions.

---