And I wouldn’t let her live that lie. Not again.

I’d just gotten into a snit with her on Friday because of her comparing me to her other boyfriends; there was no way I’d let this go any further without setting her straight.

Except when I finally got to the bathrooms in the back hallway, both were open.

Meaning Lennox had taken the backdoor and not gone to the bathroom at all.

There hadn’t been time.

So I bailed out the back, following the brick sidewalk around the back of the building until I got to the place where I parked my truck.

Then I heard the shallow hissing sound coming from my feet, and I bent down next to the front tire to examine it.

What I saw made my blood boil in my veins as I saw the tiniest of puncture marks in the top of my tire.

That little shit!

Really mad now, I started down the street towards Lennox’s house at a fast clip, a mixture between running and walking.

I was hot, tired, and angry. The idea that Lennox just walked down this street when she had a stalker was really making it to where I couldn’t see straight.

Which was also why I didn’t see what I should be seeing until I was nearly in Lennox’s yard before I saw her.

Well…them.

Lennox was squaring off with someone with a ski mask covering half of her face, and the rest of the blonde hair tumbled out the back, totally defeating the purpose of it.

“Why don’t you leave me the fuck alone?” Lennox screamed loudly.

“Because you fucked my man, that’s why!”

A blast from the past had my body jolting in surprise, and my eyes narrowed on the woman’s hair.

And a sick knot of fear tore through me.

Not fear of her, but fear for my daughter. For the woman that I loved.

Because I knew that woman.

I knew how relentless she was.

Motherfucker, but I’d been dealing with her for the past three days!

“Corrinne, what in the ever loving fuck are you doing here?” I roared.

Yes, I roared,

I might have been a little louder than I intended, but I couldn’t help it. I was pissed!

To find out that she was the one responsible for all of Lennox’s torture, after all this time, really rubbed me the wrong way.

Corrinne spun around, took one look at me, and started running.

“Do not move!” I boomed.

She didn’t get too far, though.

Because the men that always had my back were there.

Downy materialized from the opposite side of the house, catching Corrinne before she could even get further than the property line.

Corrinne hissed and spit, clawing at Downy as she tried in vain to get away from him.

Even though he didn’t know the situation in all its entirety, he knew three things.

1. I was pissed. Pissed enough to yell at whomever was in the ski mask.

2. Someone was in a ski mask, covering all facial markings and identifying features.

3. The person was running. When a police officer said do not move, and you moved, that was probable cause, allowing Downy to lawfully detain the suspect.

Corrinne screamed in helplessness as Downy detained her, pushing her hands behind her back and attaching cuffs to her wrists.

Knowing she was in capable hands, I rounded on Lennox and pinned her with a glare.

“What have I told you about walking alone at night? You have a motherfucking stalker!” I said loudly, shaking in anger.

Lennox crossed her arms, and glared at me.

“What the fuck do you care? How about you just go fuck your date and leave me the hell alone?” She hissed.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“The only woman I’ll be fucking tonight is you. Now answer my goddamn question,” I ordered intimidatingly.

“You can shove that question up your mother…”

I slammed my mouth down onto hers.

Pouring the last three days of pain, suffering, and need into it.

I only let up when I felt her weight start to sink into me.

Her eyes were wide and filled with something I couldn’t quite recognize when I finally let her up for air.

We both panted as we stared into each other’s eyes.

“She wasn’t my date,” I whispered fiercely.

She blinked.

“Then who was she?” She whispered back.

“Another officer’s wife. He got called out while we were leaving, and I was to take her to her father’s bar where she’d left her car,” I explained softly, studying her face and eyes.

“Not that this isn’t sweet and all,” an annoying voice drawled from behind us. “But do you want me to call this in?”

I looked over my shoulder at Downy, who know had Corrinne sitting on the grass with her feet crossed underneath her.

“Yeah, we’re calling it in,” I told him. “Corrinne’s in need of a little intervention.”

“What’d she do to you?” Lennox whispered from my side.

I looked down, gathered her to me, and said what I should have said three days ago instead of yelling at her about something she had no control over.

“Filed for partial custody.”

Silence.

A pin drop could’ve been heard, and I could feel the storm brewing in the way Lennox’s body became tighter and tighter.

Then, with a mighty explosion, she flew out of my arms and started screeching at the top of her lungs.

“Under no circumstance are you to give that child to that hateful bitch! She was the bane of my existence in college, and I dreaded every single fucking day that I had to go to school. The only thing that kept me going was knowing I was passing my classes and she was not. The only way I knew that was because I was tight with the professor who once caught Corrinne in the process of beating me up outside of English Lit class. I don’t care what you have to do, run away to Mexico, put a hit on that woman. I don’t care. Whatever you have to do, do it. But don’t let her get her hands on that sweet girl. She’d eat Reagan up and spit her out, and we’d all be lucky if she lived through the year. Especially now that she knows that you are with me. I don’t know what it is about me, but she hates me,” she hissed.

I blinked.

Then I stepped forward until my mouth was next to her ear, and my body was pressed up against hers.

“Let’s not mention taking a hit out on her in front of six cops…okay?” I whispered softly.

She sniffed delicately, but made no promises, and it was all that I had not to start kissing her again.

God, that woman had my heart.

“That true?” Downy asked loudly.

I turned to find him on one knee in the dirt beside Corrinne, looking into her eyes.

Luke, Nico, Foster, Miller, Michael, Paxton, and Bob, Lennox’s next door neighbor, whom I’d met a few days prior, were all standing around in a half arc at Downy’s back.

“Stupid bitch is just like his bitch sister. They both stole my boyfriends from me. I couldn’t get to the sister, but I sure could get to this one,” she hissed.

My eyes narrowed, and I’d taken two steps towards Corrinne’s direction when a delicate hand grabbed onto my fingers and started to pull me back.

It wasn’t enough to make me actually stop physically, but it was enough, mentally, to make me think again.

Which was also enough to stop my feet from moving forward.

“Get her out of here,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ll be walking back to the bar to change out my tire, and I’ll meet y’all there.”

That last part was said as I looked at Lennox, and her eyes were downcast.

“I’m so sorry,” she breathed. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

I snorted. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine.”

And it would be.

I’d make fucking sure of it.

Chapter 14

Police officers give more than just tickets. Sometimes they give shit’s, too.

-T-shirt

Bennett

“What happened?” Lennox asked as I slid into bed beside her.

Instead of answering, I rolled into her, giving her a hot, wet kiss before I rubbed the tip of my nose along the bridge of hers.