House Rules(66)
“You dumb motherfucker. When are you ever gonna learn,” I snarled in his ear.
“Hawes?” There was a hint of fear in his voice.
His arm was no longer in the cast, but the scent of alcohol permeated my nose. I doubted his reflexes would be fast enough to defend himself against me.
“You are going to stay the fuck away from Tess,” I warned.
When it became obvious he wasn’t getting away from me, he gave up his struggle. “Why does it matter? She was just part of a pot to you. A one-night stand. She’s my world.”
Glancing around, I threw a quick shot to his kidney. He grunted, but my body prevented him from going anywhere. “She’s not your anything. Tess wants nothing do with you. You’re too fucking weak for a woman like her. Now you’re going to start thinking with your big head instead of your little one and stay the hell away, or I’m going to cut the little head off.”
His eyes glanced back, unfocused. “Are you telling me she’s with you?”
“Back the fuck off.”
Ray used his hands to shove at the roof of the car, trying to gain some leverage, but between my strength and his intoxication it wasn’t enough. That didn’t stop him from struggling even more.
“Motherfucker,” he screamed. “She’s mine!”
Pushed beyond reason, I slammed his head forward into the car, the satisfying sound of bone crunching filling the silent lot. He howled, blood dripping everywhere. I stepped back to avoid getting any on me. Wasden sank to the ground.
“Listen here, you little prick. She’s not yours, and never will be again. Let me be very clear here—if you come anywhere near her again it won’t just be me breaking parts of your body. I’ll bring Charlie, Dean, and Brock and we’ll each take a turn beating your ass into the ground. And I can guarantee we’ll break more bones than you can count.”
Wasden’s hands trembled, his eyes wide.
“Do you understand?”
I waited with my arms crossed over my chest.
“Perfectly,” he mumbled.
“Good, now get the hell out of here.”
Leaving the bastard on the ground to clean himself up, I returned to the bar, this time walking through the front door. Tess and I needed to have a little discussion of our own.
A hush settled over the room and she looked up from whatever she was pouring.
“My office. Now.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously and I noticed her glance over at Derek. She placed the glass in front of the customer, then followed me down the hall. I closed the door behind us and turned to face her.
“Anything you want to tell me?” There was an edge to my voice that I didn’t try to hide.
She shrugged it off. “I handled it.”
I walked over and wrapped my hands around her shoulders. “You shouldn’t have to handle it. I would have dealt with the asshole my way.”
She looked up. Her gaze was soft, trusting. The words danced on the tip of my tongue again. “You can’t fix all my problems.”
“When are you going to understand that your problems are my problems, especially this one. If I hadn’t let the little weasel into the game, he wouldn’t be fucking stalking you.”
“Two visits to a bar does not constitute stalking.” Her eyes shifted to one side and back again. I had a feeling there was something she wasn’t telling me. For one moment I thought about pushing for the answer, but if I’d learned anything about Tess it was that pushing her got me nowhere. I’d drop it for now.
“Until he fucking comes back again and again. What were you going to do then?”
She shrugged. Again. God, I wanted to shake some sense into her.
“Why the hell does this not bother you?”
She glanced down, inspecting her nails. “Probably because you came in the front door. I’m a pretty smart girl. I’d be willing to bet you had your own little chat with Ray after Derek told you what happened.”
“Okay, then why aren’t you pissed?” I’d been ready to battle and her reaction threw me for a loop.
“Because I don’t feel like dealing with him anymore. He obviously wasn’t going to take no for an answer. What did you tell him anyway?”
I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to feel her against me, just in case she wasn’t happy with what I said.
‘That if he came near you again I’d break enough bones that he wouldn’t be able to count them all.” When she said nothing. I had to check one more time. “You sure you’re not mad?”
“No, I’m not. I should be a little freaked by the threat, but I’m okay with that, too.”
While we were on the subject of being freaked out about things, I had to ask something. Especially if I was planning on changing everything in my life around so I could accommodate a relationship with her in it. “You don’t mind that almost everything I do to make money is illegal?”