Page 5 of Grimstone

“Then how the fuck did Ernie get up here?”

“I gave him an easement,” Dane says smugly.

I could fucking explode.

Instead, I stuff that emotion down inside and try to plaster on my sweetest smile. This is something like trying to wrestle an orangutan into a closet—my smile is shaky and feels a lot more like gritted teeth.

“Then could you please also givemean easement?”

His response is cold, calm, and immediate: “No.”

It has never been more crucial or more soul-destroying to keep hold of my temper. I want to scream so fucking badly. But I’m starting to suspect I might have a serious problem…

This motherfucker could ruin everything.

Just because he wants to.

Just because he doesn’t like watching me drive by.

I wish he’d come out on the road to talk. He’s lurking in the shadows beneath the oak, which means I have to leave the road and join him under the trees to come close enough for civil conversation.

It’s ten degrees cooler under here and a whole lot darker. I suddenly remember how far away we are from any other people. Days must go by, even weeks, without a single other car cruising down this road.

Up close, Dane is both better looking and more off-putting.

His eyes are amber-colored, and his lips are the only soft thing in his face. Maybe a little too full and soft—it makes me shudder to think of them touching me. But I am thinking about it.

If my neighbor has to be gorgeous and threatening, I wish he were one or the other and not both at the same time because it’s breaking my brain.

I try for a reset:

“Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I inherited Blackleaf from Uncle Ernie. He died last year—“

“I know,” Dane interrupts, colder than ever. “I was his doctor.”

I cannot picture this man as a doctor. An undertaker, maybe.

“I didn’t know that.”

“I’m not surprised.” His lip curls. “You never came to visit.”

That lights my fuse. This judgmental fuck doesn’t know a thing about the last ten years of my life.

Red noise buzzes in my ears like hornets—all the painful moments, everything I’ve had to do, my stresses, my fears—they build and they build and they never release…

My hands ball into fists. Dane’s eyes flick downward, amused, like he can’t wait to watch me lose control.

Don’t!

I hear it like a whisper—my better self.

If I pop off, it’ll provide the perfect excuse for him to deny access to the house.

But if I stay calm, he’s got to be reasonable. He has to—as long as I stay calm.

Stay cool, baby girl, stay cool…

“Ernie left Blackleaf to me,” I repeat. “And I’m going to renovate it. So I’m going to need to come and go on this road. A lot, actually.”

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