He could do without that on a regular basis. “You know me better than that.”
“Yeah? These guys owe you a hell of a lot, all of them. They respect you, work their asses off for you because of what you’ve done for each and every one of them. Don’t mess that up because you’ve had a fight with your woman. That’s not cool, bro.”
He clenched his fists and felt the pull against the tender skin there. A wave of nausea hit him in the gut. “I didn’t fight with Rusty.”
“What’s the problem, then? You’ve been an asshole for the last two days.”
Reid didn’t look at him, couldn’t. “I fucked up.”
“Yeah?” His friend’s expression went from pissed to concerned in a flash. Jesus, he hated that. Hated that as much as he’d tried to convince himself otherwise, convince himself that he wasn’t that guy, that angry, damaged person he saw in the mirror every morning, that it was all bullshit, because Law knew different. It was written all over the other man’s face. They’d seen each other at their worst, knew what the other was capable of. Had seen the ugly that lay beneath.
“I beat a guy. A guy from Rusty’s past, because he’d hurt her, because he was touching her.” He shoved his hands in his hair. “She saw the whole thing. Watched me lose my shit, watched me turn into a goddamn monster.”
“Jesus.” His friend walked around, hard stare locking with Reid’s. “The cops involved?”
He shrugged. He had no idea, but if the cops had been called he guessed he would have had a visit by now. “Don’t know.”
“What’re you gonna do?”
“What I should have done when I first laid eyes on her.” Law frowned, about to say more, but Reid shook his head, and thankfully his friend knew better than to push.
Turning his back on the guy, he headed to his office. The conversation was closed, he did not want to be talked around, couldn’t afford to be. His mind was made up.
He’d lost it, completely. If Rusty’s brother hadn’t been there to drag him off the guy, Reid would have killed him. If he was honest, he still wanted to. He wanted to hurt that son of a bitch for what he’d done, for touching her, for daring to speak to her.
But that wasn’t what freaked him the most. What really got to him was the look on Rusty’s face. He couldn’t get it out of his head. The shock, the confusion—the horror.
His father was right. He was nothing but a chip off the old block. He’d always known it. That motherfucker had infected him, had poisoned him long ago, and there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing but keep his distance, go back to the way it was before Rusty exploded into his life. Before she threw light into the darkness that was his world, shining bright, completely rocking his narrow existence.
Avoiding her calls the last couple days hadn’t been easy. Whenever her name flashed up on the screen he’d had to fight himself every damn time not to pick it up, to beg her to understand, to make her believe that hadn’t been him, that he wasn’t that monster.
But that would be a lie. He was that monster. He’d proven it.
Rusty meant something to him. He cared for her in a way he had never cared for anyone else, to the point he couldn’t stomach the thought of being with another woman. He couldn’t imagine ever hurting her that way and truly believed, deep down, he never could. But then how could he risk it? How could he risk her? What if one day she pissed him off, and he lost it with her? What if he did hurt her?
How could he live with that?
He glanced at the clock. It was after five, and he wasn’t getting anything done. Screw this. Grabbing his keys, he left for home. Law would lock up. He needed to get out of there, let off steam, clear his head.
Twenty minutes later he was pulling into his driveway.
And almost turned around and went the other way when he saw who was waiting for him.
He sucked in a sharp breath when he saw Rusty parked there—the woman he hadn’t been able to get out of his head, not since the minute he’d laid eyes on her. She was leaning against her pickup, arms crossed, so damn beautiful, it hurt to look at her. Her long hair was down, straight around her shoulders. She’d showered before she’d come. He could tell because she wasn’t wearing her usual work boots, shorts, and tank. No, instead she had on a green sundress. It was short, showed off her long legs. Her arms were bare, exposing all the colorful ink decorating her smooth skin.
How in the hell was he going to get through this?
Taking a deep breath, he shut off his car, shoved the door open, and stepped out. It was now or never, and the latter wasn’t an option. It didn’t matter how tempting a lifetime with Rusty sounded. He couldn’t have her. “What are you doing here?”