Page 21 of The Rogue

“Where the fuck is he headed?”

“Justice,” she said again.

“Did he fucking break your heart?”

“He... he called off the wedding.”

“What the fuck?”

“He had sex with somebody else,” she said, the words stinging her throat.

“What the fuck?”

Justice wasn’t yelling. His voice was low. Even.

Dangerous.

“Yeah. He... Apparently there was a woman that he met on deployment and it happened a few months ago, and he just wasn’t going to tell me.”

“Wait here.”

Chapter Six

Justice could only see red. He was beyond rational thought. He was beyond understanding. He was beyond everything but his desire to destroy the man who had hurt his Rue. Who had taken her perfect day and turned it into a nightmare.

He was going to bend that man into the shape of a pretzel. And then...

“Asher.”

Asher was halfway to the front door of the church, and he stopped and turned.

“Listen,” he said, putting his hands up.

Justice growled. He crossed the space and without giving him a chance to say another word, punched him in the mouth.

Asher went down. It wasn’t like he was a weak guy. He was in the military. But he was a damned sight smaller than Justice, and Justice had a feeling that even though he had never been enlisted, he could take this guy.

“Justice,” he said, breathing hard, and not making a move to hit Justice back, which made him feel like he couldn’t hit him again, even though he wanted to.

“You get the hell outta here,” said Justice. “Or I will kill you. Do you understand me? I don’t mean it as ametaphor. I will kill you. They won’t be able to find your body. It’ll be the mulch I feed to the cows.”

The cows would not eat a human being; the cows were vegetarians. It didn’t matter. Because Justice had a feeling that the cows would know that he deserved to be eaten.

“I’m sorry,” Asher said.

All the goodwill Justice had ever felt toward Asher was gone. Justice had tolerated him–liked him even–because he made Rue happy. Now he’d made her cry. So that was it.

“Like that means anything. It’s aninsult. Get out of here. She should never have to look at you again. She shouldn’t have to deal with you, she shouldn’t have to see you. Nothing. Do you understand me?”

“I get it...”

“I can’t believe that I thought you were all right. I never thought you were good enough for her, because nobody could be. But she loved you. She really did. Do you have any idea how much that meant?”

Rue had risked herself to love him. She had given herself to him. She had...

She had broken down all those walls for him, and this was what he had done to her? The doors to the sanctuary opened, and his siblings appeared.

They looked at him, and then they looked back at Asher.

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