Page 38 of Ruined (The Knights of Ruin)

‘Or is it not our business?’ I stared hard at him. ‘Not our fucking problem?’

He shifted, folded his arms, and I knew that I’d got to him.

‘Jesus, Smoke. You’re just playing pretend with her—I can see that. I’ve never believed she was anything more than your friend, no matter what the others said.’

I took a couple of steps until I was right in front of him, looking him right in the eye. It was a direct challenge, but sometimes that was the best way to handle things with Keep. The truth didn’t hurt either.

‘She’s mine,’ I said. ‘She always has been, and she always will be.’

Keep’s blue stare flickered. ‘And if she puts the Knights at risk because of her fucking ex? Will you be saying the same thing then?’

‘You can talk to the police chief. You can get him to call his motherfucking son off.’

‘Yeah, and that’ll damage the relationship we have with him—you know that.’

‘We can handle it.’ Hell, we’d handled every other challenge that had been thrown at us over the years. We could handle this, too. ‘Unless, of course, you think we’re not strong enough.’

Keep gave a short laugh. ‘You’re trouble, boy. I knew you would be.’

I didn’t argue, and I didn’t look away. ‘I’m going to take her, Keep. Whether you like it or not.’

My uncle stared at me for a long, uncomfortable minute. ‘For the record, I don’t like it, and I’m not happy about it. And if this all goes to shit because of it, we’ll all know where the blame lies. Understand?’

‘Sure. I understand.’

He was silent, the look on his face unreadable. ‘This is one favour you’re going to owe me. Are we clear?’

I didn’t like the sound of that, but what else could I do but agree? ‘Yeah, crystal.’

Keep let out a breath. ‘Okay, then, you claim her. But I’ll need the pair of you to fuck off out of my sight for a couple of days.’

Like that was going to be a problem. If everything went the way I wanted it to, Cat and I wouldn’t come up for air for at least a week.

But first things first.

There was a patch I needed to get.

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