Page 31 of Monsters of Midlife

“Possessive much?” Sophie asked with a jaunt of her shoulders.

“Mind your own business,” I said. I knew Isounded like an asshole, but frankly I didn’t care. If I had to be the asshole to keep Caroline alive, then so be it; I was going to do that. I glared at her. “Up the stairs.” I pointed to the corner of the bar where stairs led up to an office.

She looked like she was about to argue with me, but she didn’t. Instead, she followed Tony, and I walked closely behind her, trying not to look at the way her ass moved while she walked.

The room above the bar had a one-way mirror looking down into the pub below. I glanced down and saw Sophie had indeed pulled herself up onto a barstool and was waiting patiently for Caroline. What was it about women that made them stick together? I had no idea, but in a way I was grateful Caroline had a female friend out here. I would’ve just preferred if it had been one who wasn’t about to get her into a lot of trouble.

“Stay away from Sophie,” I said to Caroline.

“You told her to watch me!” she exclaimed. “Besides you can’t tell me who to hang out with and who not to hang out with. We aren’t married anymore.”

“Oh my God you were married to Ryder?” Tony let out a laugh that sounded like a goat bleat.

“Yeah,” Caroline said.

“That must’ve been quite the adventure,” Tony said, a smirk on his face as he went to his desk and leaned up against it.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Caroline said. “He was never home and when he did come home, he had a lot of crazy stories. None of which were as crazy as the truth. At the end of the day, it doesn’t change the fact he spent years lying to me.”

“Yeah, lies can really ruin a relationship,” Tony said. “Honesty is the most important thing in any relationship. If you can’t be honest with the person you’re in a relationship with, who can you be honest with?”

“I’m standing right here.” I glared at Tony. “And I don’t really take taking kindly to this conversation. My marriage with Caroline was nobody’s business but ours, and I’ll thank you to never mention it again.”

He held up his hands and took a step backwards. “No problem demigod, I got you. Your relationship, your business.” He turned to Caroline and said, “but if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here for you. I’ve had my share of relationships too and they’re always a little bit hard to handle, especially in the supernatural world.”

“We are not here to talk about relationships,” I insisted. “I need protection for her.”

“Who is after her?” Tony rubbed his hand on his chin.

“We aren’t sure,” I told a half truth. There was no way I was turning and letting them know monsters were at the heart of this. “Someone is trying to get at me, and it seems like the only way they can get at me is to get to her. They found out about her.”

A slight smile played on Tony’s mouth as he looked at me. “What does it matter? You’re not in a relationship with her anymore.”

I could tell he was poking me and trying to get a response. Inside it was working. My hands clenched at my side as I wanted to punch him in the face. I also knew showing any emotion was going to be my downfall. The last thing in the world anybody needed to know was I still had feelings for her. It only drew more attention to her and put her in darker danger. What no one seemed to realize is that she didn’t want me anymore.

“I’m doing what any decent human being would do for a friend,” I said. “Someone’s out to kill or kidnap her and I’m not about to let that happen, not to her, not to anybody.”

“You can’t save the world Ryder,” Tony said.

“I can try,” I said with a steely gaze. “Now do you have some people to guard her or not?”

Chapter 20

CAROLINE

“Did it ever occur to you,” I said, stepping forward between the two men as they were having their stupid discussion about relationships and putting me in some sort of ivory tower, “I don’t exactly want to be safe and I’m not looking for some hero or white knight or anything like that.”

“Well, that’s convenient,” Tony said, “because I think a monster is hardly what I would consider a white knight of any sort. Sounds like he’s just trying to stop you from getting killed.”

I glared over at Ryder. He had been a bit controlling when we’d been together, but this was like controlling on steroids. “You can just tell me what to expect. I’m not going to be some damsel in distress,” I insisted.

He crossed the room in two forceful strides and gripped my arms in his hands as he glared down at me, his face inches from mine. Pure anger flashed in his eyes, and I thought for a moment he was going to shake me. I even felt Tony tense up and move a little closer in case I needed protection. I didn’t bat an eyelash. I stared him directly in the eyes. I wasn’t about to be afraid of Ryder. I was going to stand up to him and I was going to claim my freedom.

No matter what.

“Maybe you need to understand a little better what you’re up against,” Ryder said. “These creatures are after me. I don’t know exactly why, but they are, and they found out about you, so what I need is time to go and find the fucking beasts and stop them in their tracks from hunting you down and killing you because when supernaturals kill people they don’t just snap their fingers and you die.”

His intensity was causing chills down my spine and the hairs on the end of my arms to stand up.

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