“I was told that you are a businessman, so let’s do business. Let me help my brother,” she continues.

She heard I was a businessman? Has she been asking around about me? If so, that’s not good. “I can’t do that.” I shake my head.

She fists her hands down by her side and her face hardens. “Who do you think you are?” she shouts. “You’re ruining my brother’s life. You’re going to get him killed. I’m going to lose all that I have left.”

I watch as tears start to run down her face, and it takes all I have to remain seated. I want to wipe them away. I hate to see a woman cry. But I can’t help but think that she looks just as beautiful with a tear-streaked face as she does when she’s angry. The way the tears make her dark blue eyes shine. She pulls her trembling lip between her teeth and nibbles on it, and it makes my hard cock twitch. I wonder what it would feel like to be inside those lips. So hot and tight … But I quickly squash that idea as she reaches up and brushes the tears from her face. I know what it’s like to have nothing. No one! I know what it’s like to lose loved ones. But I can’t help her. Not with this.

I stand from my chair, and she takes a quick step back from my desk as alarm flashes across her face.

“I’m sorry. I can’t help you. But I can promise you nothing will happen to him. I need him just as much as you do.” Blane is what I call a secret weapon. I would be stupid to hurt him.

She wipes her tears angrily from her face again and speaks. “You’ll regret this.” She spins around and takes the few steps that separate her from the door.

I quickly make my way around my desk and slap my hand on the door, shutting it as she goes to open it. I spin her around with my free hand and shove her back to the door. She gasps as she looks up at me. Blue eyes wide with fear. Lips parted and body trembling against mine.

My hard cock is a reminder of what I wish I could do to her in this position and why I have her in it in the first place. She just threatened me. Now is not the time to think about sex. I grind my teeth in frustration. “Listen. I’ve tried to be nice, and I’ve tried to be understanding. But I don’t take kindly to threats. Especially from some bitch who is on a power trip.” She gasps. “You want your brother to be safe? Then I suggest you stay out of his and my way.” I lower my face down to hers. I’m so close I can smell her perfume. I can’t help but take a deep breath and the scent of vanilla hits me like a rock to the groin. It takes everything I have not to remove my hand from the door and dig it into her hair while I press my lips to hers. You can’t have her. “So tell me exactly what you’re going to do,” I demand, tightening my hand on her arm.

She looks up at me through long, dark watery lashes. Her eyes roam my face, and she sucks in a shaky breath as she spots the scar above my right eye. Yeah, I have plenty of those. Scars on the outside to match the scars on the inside.

I have her scared to death, and I’m hard as a rock. A fresh set of tears slowly runs down her redden cheeks, and my lips beg to taste the saltiness from them …

“I’m going to stay out of your way,” she whimpers, and it makes my cock jerk. Fuck, I’d love to hear that sound while she was naked and I was buried deep inside of her.

I have to threaten her. I have to make it believable. “If you don’t, there will be consequences. Do you understand that?” I could never hurt this woman; well, not in the way she thinks I would. However, in the bedroom, all bets are off. But physically, that’s not what I’m about, but to her—my tattoos, my scars, and my threats make me a monster to her. How right she is.

She nods her head. “Yes, sir.”

Fuck, those words sound as sweet as candy on her trembling lips. I remove my hand from her arm and the other from the door. I take a few steps back, needing the space between us. Needing fresh air. All I can smell is vanilla as if I have rolled around in it and it’s getting me high. “It’s time for you to leave,” I say flatly.

She spins around, opens the door, and runs out of my office without another word. I walk over to the other side of my office and stand behind my desk as I look out the huge floor-to-ceiling glass and watch as she runs down the stairs, through the club, and out the front door.

I fucked up. I can’t have her afraid of me. I plop down in my chair as I curse myself. I don’t want her scared of me because I need her to trust me. I need her to need me, but I can’t have her running to the cops. She had threatened me, so I needed to do the same. Now, I need to figure out a way to fix that.

I fist my hands and slam them down on my desk making it rattle. “Fuck!” All I know is that Blane had better be worth this.

CHAPTER FOUR

 

TAYLOR

The following week went by extremely slow, and it wasn’t because it was my first week of summer vacation. It was because I spent most of my time in a state of panic. Every person who stared at me made me think he worked for Case. It didn’t matter where I was—the mall shopping or waiting at a stoplight. The man who helped me load my groceries. The hair on my neck always stood, warning me of danger. I even had dreams he sent someone to silence me, and I would wake up unable to breathe. My heart would beat wildly while my body was drenched in sweat, only for me to thank God it was just a nightmare.

I haven’t told Blane that I went to see Case, and I don’t plan on it because it would just cause even more trouble. I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard spot. What am I supposed to do? I feel like my hands and feet are tied. I can’t do anything to help this situation or my brother. And I just wanna bang my head against the wall and scream.

I’ve picked up my phone to call the cops over a hundred times, but then I stop myself as Case’s words replay. There will be consequences. Would Case kill Blane? How far would he go? I don’t know how deep this Case guy is in the drug world, but I do know how much it took from my father. I can’t live with that. What if he came after me just to prove a point to Blane? I can’t take that chance either so, like a coward, I’ve left it alone. I’ve tried to look him up online. I’ve tried to find out if the stories Savannah told me in the bathroom were true about him being arrested and what for. I’m not even sure that type of thing is accessible to the public, but it didn’t matter because it got me nowhere. All I know is his name is Cason, and he goes by Case. I don’t have his last name, and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna ask Blane for it. He hasn't spoken to me much this past week. He spends all his free time in his bedroom with Savannah.

Savannah acts as if nothing has even happened. She and Blane walk around this house laughing and kissing. I even heard them having sex this morning, and I screamed in frustration. Why am I the only one who cares so much about his safety and his future? I know she loves him, but they can’t have a future together if he’s on drugs. Doesn’t she understand that?

So in order to try to keep my mind off it, I’ve been working every day. I even pulled two doubles this week at the coffee shop. I don’t need sleep; even when I lie down at night, I can’t seem to sleep. The times that I do, I wake up in a state of panic. The neighbor’s cat outside my window looks like an evil monster from my nightmares. The sound of the wind makes me think someone is tapping on my window. Things that never bothered me before now have me on high alert.

I pull up to the house after another long double shift at the coffee shop and get out of the car. I go to place my key in the front door when I pause. The sound of something coming from inside the house has my heart rate speeding up. I turn and look back at the driveway. My car is the only one in the dimly lit driveway though. So it can’t be Savannah or my brother. I remember her saying that they were having dinner with her parents tonight. They live only an hour away, and they go over there often to spend time with them. They should be home already though considering it’s late at night.