Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“I told you to stay away from me.” I press a pointy end of glass into his skin and draw blood.
Annika slowly lifts herself off the floor, but my pulse is racing so hard I barely register that she’s moving toward the baseball bats lining the wall.
She arms herself with one.
But thankfully neither of us have to use our weapons because the bell over the door rattles and someone walks in, and relief seeps into every pore when I see it is the sheriff.
Immediately, Annika lets her bat-swinging arm drop to her side. But Gaston doesn’t move. He just stands there, those black eyes burning straight into my soul.
“What the fuck is going on here?” the sheriff demands.
Only then does Gaston move. He swings around to look at the sheriff, a charming smile lighting up his face. “Ain’t nothing but fun and games, Sheriff.”
“Don’t look like fun and games to me,” the sheriff says, bringing his gaze to me. “You okay? Although, that broken wine bottle tells me you’re not. Want to tell me what’s going on?”
But my throat has closed over with cold fear. I try to swallow but my throat is tight.
“We were talking and things got…” Gaston looks at the jagged wine bottle in my hand and smiles. “Spicy.”
I drop the rest of the bottle and it smashes on the floor beside his feet. But I don’t drag my eyes from him. “You come near me again, I’ll kill you.”
I don’t even recognize the words that leave my lips. But they vibrate violently between us.
Gaston’s smile slips, maybe because he can see I’m not cowering in his presence anymore. And that maybe, just maybe, I mean it.
His gaze burns across at me. “You hear that, Sheriff? My friend here just threatened to kill me.”
The sheriff takes off his hat. “She did? Funny, I didn’t hear her say a thing.”
A dark cloud passes over Gaston’s face. But he doesn’t say anything. He simply rips his gaze from me and stalks out of the store.
“Now do you want to tell me what happened?” the sheriff asks.
Annika picks up the box of cupcakes. “Like he said, Sheriff, ain’t nothing but fun and games.”
Taking my hand, she leads me out of the store.
CHAPTER 28
BELLE
Inside the car, Annika doesn’t start the engine immediately. She pauses before she looks across at me. “You okay?”
“Yes, but I’m not the one who got hit in the face.”
She reaches up and touches the bruise forming around the broken skin on her cheek. “It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing. We should get Priest to have a look at it when we get back to the clubhouse.”
“No need. Nothing a little ice and makeup can’t fix.” She puts the crumbled box of cupcakes on the back seat. “You did well in there. You might make a good old lady after all.”
“One fit for the president?”
She raises an eyebrow. “We’ll see. What you do next will determine that.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you tell Beast or don’t tell Beast about what just happened with Gaston.”
My eyes widen. “Of course I’m going to tell him.”
I want him to break Gaston’s face for it.
More than once.
“And it’s up to you, of course.”
“Aren’t you telling Ryder? Or your cousin, for that matter?”
“Neither of them need this on their plate right now. This is what being an old lady is all about. Protecting our men.”
“What do you mean?”
“Things are tense already. They both need to focus on what’s happening with the club. And Beast has to make a lot of decisions that carry an enormous amount of weight. Telling him about this will distract him. You’ve got to consider if this distraction is going to put him in harm’s way.”
“I want him to know.”
So he can set fire to Gaston.
Or do something equally as painful.
Maybe with a blowtorch.
Annika looks out the windshield. “Even if he does something stupid because of it?”
“Like what?”
She brings her gaze back to me. “The moment Beast hears about Gaston putting his hands on you, he’ll let his emotions get the better of him. He’ll go rogue. Mow down everyone and everything in in his way to get to Gaston and then cut off his dick and make him eat it.”
The thought, if I’m honest, gets me a little excited when I picture it.
Watching Beast annihilate Gaston is right up there in the spank bank beside a shirtless Beast, fresh from the shower and wearing nothing but a tight pair of boxer shorts that outline his giant—
“He will defend your honor or do something equally as stupid,” Annika adds.
She’s wrong. Because Beast doesn’t feel that way about me.
Even if yesterday felt more like the real thing than an act to fool the clubhouse staff. Him not coming home last night was the reminder I needed that this is nothing but an act.