Page 30 of Monsters of Midlife

I took a deep breath. “I am… I’m sorry,” I stuttered. “I don’t usually sing. I don’t know what got into me. I just suddenly felt like it.”

But I could see by the look on Tony’s face he wasn’t having it. It was time I to leave. Sophie had my arm in her hand and was pulling me toward the door. Everybody was staring at us silently as we walked out. It was the same as when we had walked in, except now many of them were crying.

Chapter 19

RYDER

I kicked open the door of Furlan’s bar, shedding bright California light into the deep dark recesses of the pub. I thought I probably didn’t have to make such a dramatic entrance, but I was pissed and my anger needed release. My blood boiled in a way I couldn’t even describe.

She had disobeyed me.

Caroline hadn’t listened to me; she hadn’t done what I had told her to do, which was stay put. In two seconds, I was across the bar and had my hand around her wrist, pulling her towards me.

“Let me go,” Caroline said, yanking her arm away from me, but my grip was strong, and it only resulted in her hurting her wrist.

“I told you not to leave the house,” I growled.

Sophie stepped in between us. “It was my fault, Ryder. I convinced her to go.”

“I’ll deal with you later,” Ryder’s tone was as cold as steel.

“Nothing happened.” Caroline still tried to tug her wrist out of my grip, but I was not going to let her go. Not a chance.

“You were there in Boston. You know exactly what happened,” I said. “Even worse than that can happen now. You’ve got to listen to me. You’ve got to do what I tell you to do.” Even as I said the words, I knew there was little to no chance she was going to listen to me.

Caroline was anything but conducive to taking directions, least of all from me.

Unfortunately, it was one of the things I quite loved about her. Unlike any other woman I had ever met, she was not easily thwarted and certainly wouldn’t just take people at face value. She dug in, knew her mind and kept things her way. Now, I stood there staring at her, watching her chest rise and fall as she took deep breaths trying to calm herself down.

“We do not encourage the laying on of hands in an aggressive way in this bar,” Furlan’s voice rasped behind me. He sounded like he’d smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for the majority of his life.

The whole bar was quiet watching us. I feltmy back stiffen and my jaw clench.

“Is that how you speak to a demigod?” I drew myself up to my full height, letting my horns and fangs show, but out of respect for Furlan, I loosened my grip a bit on Caroline’s wrist. She took full advantage of it by yanking her arm back to herself. I scowled at her, but I didn’t make an effort to get it back. The DGC already got enough of a bad rap without me making us look like a bunch of assholes in public.

“Maybe there’s somewhere a little quieter we can talk?” I asked.

Tony looked sideways at me. “I think we were asking you to leave. She’s different.”

“Be that as it may, I’d like to speak to you alone,” I said.

Caroline huffed, hands on her hips. “If you’re going to be talking about me. I’m coming with you.”

“You’re coming with me because I have to keep an eye on you,” I said. “Clearly you can’t be trusted to follow directions.”

“I’m still unclear as to when you began thinking I take directions from you.” Her tone was belligerent.

“You’re in way over your head, Caroline,” I said. “You need to start listening and doing as you’re told.”

Her face went bright red, and I could see the anger boiling in her eyes as she gave me a death glare, but I didn’t care. I had faced down worse with the monsters that I was constantly battling, and the reality was, if I couldn’t get her to listen to me, she was going to wind up dead.

“You’re really killing the buzz of my bar,” Tony said. “Come to my office.”

“I’ll wait for you down here,” Sophie smiled at Caroline.

“There’s no need for that,” I growled. “I’ll be here with her the whole time. I’m not letting her out of my sight.”

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