Lowlander Silverback(20)

It wasn’t until she got through the doors that she remembered her bra was a-danglin’ so she bolted for a three-foot crevice between a vending machine and a wall to fix herself.

Utterly frustrated, she took a deep breath, counted to ten, and straightened her spine. Then she walked down the echoing, sterile hallway to meet the one person in her life who’d never let her down.





Chapter Six




“Dammit,” Kong muttered as he watched Layla disappear through the sliding glass doors of Tender Care. “What am I doing?”

Putting her at risk and still pissing her off, and why couldn’t he just leave her alone? He’d seen her walking down the main drag of Saratoga and pulled into the gas station without a second thought in his head other than I have to see her again. And not just see her, but talk to her and touch her, because when he was close to Layla, he felt a little less lost.

He hit the gas and pulled out of the parking lot, then sped through town to the sawmill. Kirk and Rhett were waiting in the office the second he got in.

“What took so long?” Rhett asked, blue eyes icy as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“None of your fucking business.” Because Kong wasn’t a liar, and he sure as shit didn’t feel the need to explain every second of his life to his handlers.

“You need another lesson in ditching us?”

“It was a gas station, Rhett. You could’ve turned around.” Kong sat at the desk and flipped through today’s orders. Good, the Gray Back Crew was scheduled to drop a load of lumber this morning. He could use some normal conversation with normal-ish shifters. Not this combative crap he had to keep up with Rhett all the time. Kirk wasn’t so bad. He was quiet and occasionally sympathized with him. He still did his job and had been fine beating the shit out of him last night, but at least Kirk looked sick about it. Rhett had beaten him with a ruthless smile on his face.

Someday, Rhett would find he was pushing the wrong silverback too far, though. And when he did, his ass better be ready to run because Kong’s inner monster didn’t take too kindly to being forced into submission for some stupid pictures of gore for Fiona. It had broken something in him last night to take it. Something that Kong didn’t think could be repaired. His animal was getting harder to control, and he couldn’t blame him. He was dominant, a berserker, and he was being beaten while down on his knees, cowed in front of a couple of lesser silverbacks.

And all for spending time with his mate.

“Don’t you have work to do?” he barked at Rhett, who was still standing there glaring at him.

Rhett’s face morphed into something feral, and his nostrils twitched as he locked his arms against the edge of the desk. “Be careful with her, Kong.”

Fury blasted through Kong’s veins as he stood and slammed his fists onto the desk. A crack blasted through the center of the oak under his hands. A long, low, uncontrollable rumble rattled his chest. “No, Rhett. It’s you who should tread lightly now.”

A slow empty smile spread across Rhett’s face. He pushed off the desk, chin up as he looked down at Kong. He turned and sauntered out of the office with a cocky gait.

“Kong,” Kirk whispered, shaking his head. “Rhett was fishing, and you just told him his hunch was right.” He ran his hands through his shoulder length hair and looked shaken. “Don’t see her again, man. Please.” Kirk left him alone in the office, the screen door banging loudly behind him.

Kong picked up a paperweight that held down a stack of receipts and chucked it against the wall hard enough to blast a hole through it. Doubling over, he grunted in pain as his inner gorilla pulsed against his insides. He wanted to kill Rhett. He wanted to rip his limbs from his body one by one for even mentioning Layla. Gritting his teeth against the pain of fighting the Change, he splayed his hands on the desk and dragged in a long, steadying breath. He thought of her clear sky-blue eyes. Her smile. The way her wavy hair fell forward in her face when she looked shy. The way her mouth formed his name. Kong. He could almost hear the soft sound of her voice. Little by little, his insides uncoiled and the rumble in his throat died to nothing.

Kong.

“Kong!” Rhett yelled from the loading area outside.

His eye twitched, and his lip lifted in an uncontrolled snarl. He had work to do, though. This sawmill didn’t run on dreams and wishes. It ran on blood, sweat, and hard work. He shoved off the desk, grabbed his clipboard, and strode out into the sunlight. The sound of the saw was a constant here, and Kirk was just warming it up now. They had big orders to fill, and a whole heap of beetle-infested lumber to treat. This was one of the only sawmills that tackled the monumental task. It was hard to do, but their ability to treat the ruined lumber and make it viable had put Kong’s sawmill on the map.