Fuck him. He did not get to be pissed at her. He was the one screwing someone else, not her. He was the one throwing the word exclusively around, lying to her face. “We weren’t expecting you home so soon. If you give us a few minutes to finish the front, we’ll be on our way.”
He dropped his arms and spun her to face him, staring down at her. Pissed didn’t really cover it, furious was a better description, maybe murderous. “There a reason you’re vandalizing my place, smashing the fuckin’ windows?” His eyes narrowed. “This can’t be because I canceled our plans?”
She laughed, the sound bitter to her own ears. “I’m not that goddamned precious.”
“Why?” he gritted out.
She imitated his stance, but only because she needed some kind of barrier between them. “I don’t like being lied to, and I sure as hell don’t like being treated like a brainless piece of ass.” She shrugged. “I thought you knew that about me—big surprise, I was wrong. You’re just a pig, same as all the other pigs I’ve had the displeasure of crossing paths with.”
Before she knew what she was doing, her hand was in the air, heading for his cheek, but he was faster and grabbed her wrist before it made contact with the side of his face. She tried to pull free. “Let me the hell go.”
“I don’t react well to being hit. I wouldn’t try that again if I were you,” he said, voice deadly calm.
She wrenched out of his hold and turned to Alex and Piper, who had just rounded the corner. “Let’s get out of here.” She went to push past him, but one of his hands wrapped around her upper arm and stopped her in her tracks.
“Talk to me, and I mean now, Rusty.”
Alex stormed forward. “Let her go, you cheating piece of shit.” Piper grabbed Alex around the waist before she launched herself at Reid.
“Cheating?” he repeated.
“We saw you with that skank outside a hotel. Don’t try to deny it,” Alex fired at him.
His gaze slid from Alex to Rusty and held. “That skank, though I wouldn’t say that to her face if I were you, was my cousin. She was here for one night on business. We had dinner. I dropped her back at her hotel.”
“Oh, a likely story,” Alex said, struggling to get away from Piper.
Jaw clenched, Reid pulled his phone from his pocket, and holding it up so Alex could see as well, scrolled down to someone named Nina and hit the call button, putting it on speaker phone.
It rang twice, then a woman’s voice sang out into the now deathly silent yard. “Yo. What’s going on? I was just going to bed. I have an early flight, remember.”
Reid held the phone closer to his mouth. “Hey, cuz, just wanted to tell you again how nice it was catching up for dinner.” His eyes were still locked on Rusty’s, and she wanted to shrivel up and die right there on his driveway. “And to make sure you say hi to Aunty Susan for me.”
“Are you high or something?” the voice said. “You already said that when you dropped me off. You going soft in your old age?”
“Obviously,” he muttered. And all the while, those eyes stayed locked on Rusty. Making her squirm. “Catch you next time, pain in the ass.”
“You, too, shithead.” Then the call disconnected.
He shoved his phone in his pocket and tilted his head toward the house. “Inside.”
Oh, shit. She stared up at him, mouth flapping, giving a good impression of a dying fish. “Um…”
“Say good-bye to your friends.”
“Um…” She looked to said friends, and Alex was no longer fighting to get free from Piper. Instead the pair of them were looking down at their shoes, feet shuffling about on the toilet paper coating the ground.
“Now, Rusty.”
“Good-bye?” She stared at them, eyes wide, hoping for some kind of backup. Nothing.
“See you at work Monday,” Alex called, already halfway up the driveway.
“Sorry about the…um, yeah, sorry,” Piper said, then ran after her.
Traitors.
“Let’s go,” Reid said, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck, leading her toward the front door, or where it would have been if you could see it past the white toilet paper curtain.
Ah, crap.
Chapter Fourteen
Reid’s fingers were curled around the back of Rusty’s slender neck, over the rose inked there, hair sliding against his hand, warm and silky smooth as he led her inside. He used those seconds to calm the hell down.
What the fuck?
She was trembling. But it wasn’t from fear. She sure as shit wasn’t afraid of him. If she was afraid, she never would have thrown a goddamn rock through his window right in front of him.