“Yeah, well the timing couldn’t be worse. Shayna’s after me, tailing me, and I can’t have Quinn in her sites. And the bigger problem is that Cody is about to take us public. I can’t drag her through that. She wouldn’t survive it.”
“Maybe she’s stronger than you think,” Bruiser said in a soft, thoughtful tone. “You chose her for a reason.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in fate.”
“Yeah, then I married my mate sight unseen, and she’s it for me. She came into my life at just the right moment to set everything right again. Trust your animal. Trust your instincts.”
“I’ll hurt her.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Dade shook his head in denial. He’d planned on going his whole life just as he had been. Fucking occasionally to settle his animal, then going about his business. He liked things the way they were. His personal life was simple and easy. He didn’t have to worry about anyone besides himself and his crew. Cody had become scared when his mate Rory brought their young son to him, begging help with his little out-of-control bear. That had to be why Cody was making a desperate decision now. Pairing up with a mate changed things, made men softer, weaker. He didn’t want that. He’d spent a lifetime erecting walls of stone and mortar around his heart out of necessity. He wasn’t going to live forever, or even much longer in trigger-happy IESA’s crosshairs, and now his bear had latched onto a helpless human.
“You know, you were supposed to be the level-headed one,” Dade muttered.
“I am. You just don’t like hearing what I have to say. But hey, have fun trying to stay away from your mate.” His voice was practically singing.
Dade leaned his head back on the chair. “This sucks. Does it get better with time?”
“If you’re talking about thinking about her constantly, it gets worse over time.”
“But not if I don’t talk to her again. My bear will eventually give up on her.”
A beat of silence. “You can try, man. I know the timing doesn’t feel right, but there is a reason she came into your life right now.”
Dade talked to him for a few minutes longer, then hung up, more confused than when he’d called. Bruiser was supposed to have told him how to break away from whatever spell Quinn had cast on him. She couldn’t be worse for him, or he for her. Oil and water.
If she had any shot at happiness, it wasn’t with him.
He was a meteor on a collision course with the human race.
If he pulled her along for the ride, she’d burn up right along with him.
Chapter Four
When the bacon grease in the skillet popped, Quinn yanked her hand back. She glared at a tiny dot of moisture that burned on the knuckle of her thumb. Today hadn’t been awesome. Confusing, irritating, and heart wrenching, yes, but awesome, absolutely not.
Daffodil huffed a yip from beside her, and she frowned at the tiny Yorkshire Terrier. Daffodil wasn’t a barker by nature. She was more of a lazy, eat while lying next to the food bowl, sleep through a burglary type of dog. The exact opposite of her breed traits. It was Beans that had been the barker in his younger days, but now her senior yorkie just lounged around the oversize bed she had set up for him in the corner of the kitchen. Old as a dinosaur, deaf and nearly blind, he wasn’t the best watch dog either.
The fact that Daffodil had barked set off clanging warning alarms in Quinn’s head. She turned off the knob to the stovetop and padded toward the window. Her eyes flew wide and she guffawed when she saw Dade’s jacked-up Tacoma sitting on the street at the end of her long, gravel driveway. How the hell did he know where she lived?
She pulled back the curtain a little farther with the tip of her finger as he strode up the stone walkway, only to turn around and jog back to his truck. A curse word echoed through the window as he ran his hands through his blond hair. Short on the sides and longer up top, it was sticking up everywhere as if he’d roughed it up a few times already.
He turned and glared over his shoulder at her front door. His angry expression confused her. What had she done? Answer: not a darn thing. He was the one who had been hot and cold at the vet’s office, then sprayed travel grit in her face as he drove away.
Dade hooked his hands on his hips and stared off into the woods across the road.
Okaaay…right here was a man completely at war with himself, but why?
He spun and strode for her front door, then stopped halfway and stomped back toward his pickup again. When he opened his door, it became apparent he was really leaving this time, and a piece of her revolted at not finding out what he wanted.