Page 62 of Truck Stop Titan

Throat dry, blood pressure rising, I managed to rasp, “Dane. Let him go.”

Dane brought his face closer to Matthew, studying him with a snarl, like he was about to tear his head off with his teeth.

“I’ma tell you one time. A lady asks you to leave, you leave.” He raised Matthew an inch higher. “Mylady asks you to leave, you tuck tail and flee the motherfuckin’ state. Am I clear?”

Swear to all that was holy, that threat in Dane’s eyes made my knees buckle, and my body warm in all the wrong places.

Matthew glanced my way, broken, defeated, then blinked a slow blink at Dane.

“Let him go. He hears you.”

Dane growled. Growled. Like a freaking werewolf. I half-expected him to howl at the moon and rip his shirt to shreds.

“Don’t care where you go. Just get the fuck out. And you sure as hell don’t come back. We’ll let you know when and where you can collect your things.”

Matthew blinked again, all color drained from his face.

Dane wasn’t finished.

He slammed Matthew’s back against the wall. Once. Twice. Holding an impossible amount of weight. “You even think about calling the cops, you’ll be choking on your own cock faster than you can set the phone down, and when you’ve breathed your last breath, I’m gonna bring you back, do it all over again.”

Now that was just overkill. And disgusting. I found my voice. “Enough!” Shrugging free of Tito’s grip, I charged Dane, pushing hard. “Enough! He gets it. He’s leaving.”

Dane dropped his arms but stayed firmly planted where he stood, unwilling to back down. Matthew shimmied along the wall, scooted clear, and without a word, or his shoes, he snagged his keys and left, the house going silent once more.

I shot Dane a glare, ripe with all the ugly things I wanted to say.

He huffed, hands fisting and stretching at his sides.

“Mo—”

I shoved at his chest. “Not a word. Not one word.”

Before I could lay into the hulking beast, my stomach clenched tight, a sudden wave of nausea forcing me to the bathroom.

When I finished with the dry-heaving and made my way out of the bathroom, Tito was fast asleep on my couch, and Dane was in Mim’s room, shoes off, stretched on the bed, little girl snoring at his side.

Exhausted, and more than over the day, I retreated to my bedroom, and tucked into the sheets that reeked of Matthew.

# # #

The thing about shock and awe is that you’re blind to the damage until after the smoke fades.

In the light of day, the quietude of morning, with my clear head and fresh perspective, I found the physical damage minimal: small dents in the walls, overturned chairs, broken picture, small bloodstains on the carpet. My heart and my head? Not so bad either. I wasn’t a mess, and I wasn’t scared. If anything, I was disappointed.

Dane showed his true colors. Exposed his dirty underbelly. The way he’d handled Matthew was nothing short of barbaric. Having glimpsed that brutish side of him, I should have cut and run. Kicked everyone out of my house. Changed the locks. Forget I’d ever met my inked bad boy.

The disappointment was not with Dane, however, but myself, because I’d suffered a morbid thrill, watching him scare the piss out of Matthew. Violence was bad. So why was I turned on? What kind of person did that make me?

Dane had come for me. He’d fought for me. He’d called mehisgirl. I liked being somebody’s girl, and oh God, why was I acting like such a girl?

Red flags sprouted everywhere, alarms blaring. What kind of man could wield such violence, destroy another man’s dignity, threaten his life, then minutes later curl around a child, protecting her from any threat, and fall asleep?

I crossed my arms, leaned against the doorframe, sipped my coffee, and watched Dane’s massive chest rise and fall. Mim’s hair covered his face, her right arm thrown over his neck. Both of them snored, Mim’s soft and sweet, Dane’s deep and rhythmic. The scene was too much, filling my malnourished heart with thick, meaty sustenance.

The front door opened, then closed.

I left my sleeping beauties alone, and found Tito in the kitchen, downing a glass of water.

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