Not expecting her to say something like that, I focused on her intently to see if I could spot a lie. When I saw nothing but truth, an angry shock consumed me.
I remembered that scar on the back of Reese’s neck and her determination to hide it. Eva’s words swirled back through my head—another loser asshole hurting her—and it replayed there until I realized someone Reese had dated must’ve gone after her with that knife. She’d come right out and told me she had a bad history with just one guy. She had thought she’d fallen for some fucker, and in return, the bastard had cut her.
Son of a bitch. I’d kill him.
“Who hurt her?” I demanded. “Hurt her how?” Except I’d already guessed everything.
I clenched my teeth while a cold fury spread through my limbs.
Eva only smiled. “She’s not to be played with. If you want to play, you’ll have to settle for me.”
I snorted. “Pass.”
“Oh, I’m sure I could change your mind.”
When she grabbed my package through my jeans, I was done.
I surged to my feet and dumped her off my lap, right onto the floor in an angry heave. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
I started to storm off, but then Reese appeared in front of me. Drawing in a sharp breath, I braced for her to either wallop me or read me the riot act for shoving her cousin to the floor, but instead, her accusing finger didn’t even shake in my direction.
“Eva!” she hissed harshly. “What the hell are you doing? That’s sexual assault.”
Eva merely sniffed as she picked herself up and dusted off her backside. “Whatever. He’s a prostitute, ReeRee. He’s nothing.”
I sucked in a breath. It was one thing to be called that and to believe it because I lived it, but letting Reese hear it sprayed around so casually stung. I didn’t like her thinking I was shit.
But I guess she didn’t buy into Eva’s accusations. She retorted, “He’s a human being! He has just as many rights not to be harassed every time he turns around as you or I do. And how dare you do this to Alec? Were you seriously just going to cheat on him?”
Lifting her nose with a sniff, Eva muttered, “You’re blind if you can’t see I just did this for you.”
“Me?” Reese gaped in disbelief. “I guess I’m totally blind then. How did you do this for me?”
“He’s not good for you. I was trying to keep him away from you.”
Sighing, Reese rubbed at a spot on the center of her forehead. “Believe it or not, E, you don’t have to bother. Mason and I are just friends.”
Eva shook her head sadly. “Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that, sweetie. Maybe someday our dead Grandma Dixon will actually believe it.” Searing me with a glare, she hissed, “You know better than to pant after her.”
Then she sniffed and stormed off.
Reese remained next to me. Afraid to even look at her, I closed my eyes briefly before sucking up the fear and just turning her way to blurt, “I’m sorry.”
Her face crinkled with confusion before she said, “For what?”
I lifted my hands only to let them fall hopelessly at my sides. “I just knocked your cousin to the floor.”
“You don’t have to apologize for that,” she told me. “I’m surprised you didn’t dump her off your lap sooner.”
And now I felt like an idiot for not shoving Eva away sooner, because I’d certainly wanted to, I just hadn’t thought I should. It still felt weird knowing I’d hurt her, even in a minor way. And last night, I’d grabbed Patricia’s wrist as roughly as I could.
A fear unfurled inside me, making me wonder if I was coming apart at the seams. It didn’t matter if they’d deserved my treatment, I couldn’t believe I’d hurt two women in less than a single twenty-four-hour period.
As if reading all the guilt spiraling through me, Reese gripped my arm and then hugged me. “I never meant to bring the wrath of Eva down on you.” She winced apologetically.
Not expecting the contact, my muscles contracted in confused surprise. “You didn’t,” I insisted, afraid to hug her back because I might not ever let her go. “I brought it on myself.”
So she ended up pulling back all on her own to scowl at me. “Just because you had some misguided notion when you were eighteen, thinking you had to do something drastic and unnecessary to save your family, doesn’t mean you deserve to be treated with such constant degradation by every woman who crosses your path.”