He swung her up and put her on her feet in front of him. Claire felt the world spin. She sank down to sit on the pavement, legs folding under her. Her hands held her head on tight. The cold concrete seeped right through her jeans and into her bones, but at least the nausea passed.
Grunt crouched down beside her. He tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Go away. We’re not dating. I don’t want to be around you.”
“Sure you do. You’re mine,” he said.
Claire groaned. Too much wine. She never drank wine. She wasn’t much of a drinker at all. Sure, she’d tried pretty much everything as soon as she’d become legal at eighteen, but she didn’t like any of it. Now and the
n she’d have a cold beer, but that was about it. Her head ached; her stomach swirled. She definitely shouldn’t have touched the wine. It was Grunt’s fault. All his fault.
“I’m not yours,” she said.
“Baby, we’re gonna talk this through when you’ve sobered up. If you hear me out and still want me to go, I’ll go. Until then, you’re still mine.”
“No I’m not.” She looked up at him, fury coursing through her. “You kidnapped Jena. Snatched her from outside her work. Scared her. Terrified Matt. What kind of man are you? What happened to the honour of a marine? This wasn’t honourable, Grunt, it was despicable. I was right when I said we don’t know each other. You might tell me who you are but your actions speak louder than anything you have to say. An honourable person doesn’t snatch people off the street. A good man wouldn’t have kidnapped my brother’s girlfriend. You said you’d never hurt a woman and then you did. What does that make you? How can I trust you? Take yourself back to America. This thing between us is over.”
Grunt ran his hand over his face. “I had to take Jena, otherwise Frank would have done something without me and Joe there to watch him. The only thing standing between Jena and Frank going nuts was us.”
“What about telling my brother? You know, the cop? Maybe he would have come up with a smarter plan.”
“What could he have done? Nothing. Frank would just have hidden and taken Jena anyway. Trust me, you don’t want Frank around Jena without someone watching her back.”
“Trust you?” Claire glared at him. “Did you just say trust you? Are you insane? Megan warned me about this. She warned me about you. She said you had stalker tendencies, that you would hurt me, that you couldn’t be trusted. She was right. You work for the mob.”
“I don’t work for the mob. I told you this already. I took one job with Frank Di Marco. He isn’t even full mob.”
“No, he’s just a criminal who wants to hurt Jena.” Claire struggled to her feet. “I’m finished with this talk. I’m going home. Alone.”
She turned to stalk away from him, but the ground was moving and she wobbled on her heels. Grunt’s arm wound around her waist.
“You’re gonna get hurt. Let me take you home.”
“No.”
“Don’t be stubborn. I’m only taking you home. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
“No. We really won’t.”
Grunt grunted and picked Claire up, as though she weighed no more than the preschoolers she taught.
“Put me down.”
“No.”
Fine, she fumed. Let him go all He-Man. She didn’t care. She sat stiffly in his arms as he carried her the short distance up the high street to her house. Exhaustion overcame Claire and she found she was rapidly past caring about his manhandling of her. Slowly, her muscles eased as his warmth overwhelmed her senses. It was his damn scent that undermined her anger. It made her want to curl into him and sleep.
She rested her cheek on his shoulder, tucking her face into his neck, and did what she needed to do. She went to sleep.
The doc arrived at the pub, took one look at the room and burst out laughing. Soon after he left in an ambulance with Kirsty’s mom. As they wheeled her away, Margaret was still reassuring everyone present that the break wouldn’t interfere with her knitting. Kirsty had been called and went to the hospital with her mom. Lake stuck around to ferry the other women home. Abby went to the castle to spend the night. She wanted to be near Katy and was in no state to take her daughter home. That left Jena, a room full of damaged furniture, a disgruntled business owner and the town’s only cop.
Dougal’s frown looked wrong on his face. It was like seeing Santa grumpy. It didn’t work. “Come in tomorrow; we’ll have a wee chat,” he told Jena.
Yeah, that was going to be a blast. She nodded solemnly and let Matt pull her to her feet. He wrapped a hand around her upper arm and led her to the door. People gave her cheery waves and called out, telling her they’d enjoyed her dancing. She smiled and waved back.
“Get in, princess.” Matt opened the passenger door of his car.
Jena did as she was told, mainly because she wanted to go home and this was the easiest way.