Page 4 of Swallow Your Fear
She raised her chin, regarding him with a bored gaze. “Is there something I can get you?”
“Brynne’s taking her break,” Chase shouted toward the back before turning and leaving the diner.
I watched, waiting to see her next move, as Austin mumbled, “That doesn’t sound good.”
If she followed, I’d have to do the same. I couldn’t risk Chase leaving before I confronted him.
Brynne ripped the paper off her pad, setting it on the shelf for the cook to find, and refilled the elderly man’s water glass.She wasn’t going to leave.
But then, she untied her waist apron, set it on the counter, walked around the end, and disappeared out the front door.
“Goddamnit,” I muttered, the chair scraping along the linoleum floor as I stood.
Austin went to stand as well, but stopped when I held a hand out.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
I didn’t stick around to see if he listened as I beelined it out of the diner, checking both ways down the cracked sidewalk to see where they’d gone. But I didn’t have to look for long before a woman said, “Let me go, Chase.”
“All your shit is gone,” Chase spit back from down in the alley beside the diner. I stayed out of view, listening from the corner.
“Why do you think that is?” Brynne snapped back.
“If you found another man?—”
“IfIdid? You’re the one who’s slept with half the damn town since getting with me. I had to find out through McKenna!”
“Maybe if you’d do your job in bed, I wouldn’t have to,” he spit out.
That wouldn’t slide.
Before I could think better of it, I stepped around the corner, and the scene before me nearly made me rip hishand clean off. He had her wrist pinned to the wall, his grip hard as her hand turned the slightest shade of purple.
I prowled toward them, and Chase’s head snapped my way. “Little busy here, man.”
Brynne’s gaze found her shoes.
“Busy ignoring her request?” I asked, my words like knives wanting to find their target. Unfortunately for Chase, he was the blazing red bullseye.
“She’s my girlfriend,” Chase defended, and I swore, I was going to break his damn hand.
“I’m not your girlfriend,” she murmured, refusing to look up.
Chase’s eyes snapped to her, his face reddening. “What was that?”
His hand tightened on her wrist, and I snapped. Grabbing his arm, I tore it away from her, my other hand coming up to grip his wrist. I squeezed. Hard, just to see how he fucking liked it. “I think you heard her.”
His eyes were frantic now as I backed him away from Brynne. I shouldn’t give a damn. I was here to clean up Henley’s mess, not whatever petty problems these two were having in their relationship.
“Let me go, man,” Chase begged, and satisfaction rolled through me as his voice wobbled.
His back hit the brick wall on the opposite side of the alley, and I tightened my grip on his wrist further. “Did you let her go when she asked?”
His frenzied gaze landed on Brynne behind me. “Call for help!”
I nearly laughed. What a fucking wuss.
A crack echoed through the alley, and Chase yelledout in pain as his wrist snapped under my hand. “You touch another woman without consent, and it won’t just be your wrist I’m breaking.” I let him go, his body shrinking into a ball as he crouched, cradling his broken bone.
