The Problem with Peace (Greenstone Security 3)

Hopefully they’d boinked each other’s brains out and all was well.

I’d known that Heath would’ve gotten called into this emergency meeting so I was deciding to chance the fact that Polly was home and was going to give me all the details.

And that she’d be smiling.

Really smiling.

But when I got to her door—which was ajar, not unheard of for Polly, since she sometimes left it like that when she’d lost her keys—she was not smiling. Because she was unconscious and bleeding from her head.

And there was someone standing over her.

That fucking prick of an ex-husband.

I rushed toward her on instinct, my hand reaching into my purse for my gun, until I realized it wasn’t there.

I realized that right at the same time Craig—the fucking asshole—punched me in the face. Then I joined my sister on the ground, the punch not enough to knock me out so I twirled in the air to best protect my baby.

Such a twist did not protect my head which whacked against the floor with enough force to knock me out.

Keltan

He had been prepared for Heath to come storming into the office. Anything to do with Polly had him storming, swearing and almost murdering Duke moving some file in his anal as fuck office.

This was under normal circumstances. Or whatever circumstances passed for normal when Polly was involved.

He loved his sister-in-law, not just because of her connection to the woman he loved more than anything in this world, but because Polly was completely and utterly unique. Because it was impossible not to love her. She was sunshine in a fucking person. Everyone saw that. But you can’t bottle sunshine, can’t own it. Can’t hold it down. Many poor fuckers tried.

And watching a man he respected and liked try, and fail, it was fucked. More so when he saw that Polly wanted that man too. And for reasons known only to Polly, she married another man. Maybe because what was between the two of them wasn’t sunshine.

He’d been quietly hopeful about recent events bringing them together.

Especially since Heath had stormed into the office the night Craig accosted Polly and demand they put a rotation on her.

“As much as I wanna keep Polly safe, and I do, no matter how impossible that job is, I don’t think he’s a threat,” Keltan said, planning on paying a visit to Craig. Or more accurately, his fist taking a visit to his face.

But, by the looks of Heath’s knuckles, that had already been done.

“He’s not a threat? He overturned a fucking table in a restaurant in public. Would’ve put his hands on her if Polly hadn’t tased him,” Heath yelled.

Heath didn’t yell. He was cool under pressure. In normal circumstances. In extenuating circumstances.

But not with Polly.

Keltan wouldn’t have believed Polly willingly tased someone—even her husband advancing on her with violence in his eyes—if he hadn’t seen the video for himself.

She was all about ‘do no harm’ and all that shit. It was comical that she was Lucy’s sister since Lucy had suggested they castrate Craig the second she learned about the divorce.

Keltan had been more than willing.

But both him and his wife and held back because of Polly. Because they loved and respected her and hurting anyone she still cared about would cause her pain. And she still cared about the fucker. Remained tight-lipped as to the reasons for the divorce and did not say one bad word against him.

Not one.

So yeah, it had hit Keltan when he saw the video.

“He’s a man scorned,” Keltan said. “He saw Polly on a date. He was drunk. You’re telling me that was an accident?” He nodded toward Heath’s knuckles.

“No way it was an accident,” Heath clipped. “It was violence directed nowhere near Polly. I don’t have a good feeling about this guy, Keltan. Haven’t since the start.”

Keltan raised his brow. “Haven’t since you found out he was marrying the woman you loved?”

Heath didn’t reply.

Of course he wasn’t going to reply to that shit.

But he also agreed with him. Keltan hadn’t liked him either. He was too polished. Too charismatic. Too all over Polly. And not in a way that he didn’t want to stop touching her because he loved her. No, because he wanted to communicate possession. Ownership.

You couldn’t own sunshine. Keltan knew the fucker would get educated on that. He just hadn’t expected it to go as far as the wedding. Granted he’d been distracted leading up to the wedding since his wife had been recovering from the stab wound that almost killed her.

In fact, there was no almost about it.

It had killed her. Twice.

She’d come back.

And he thanked the Lord every fucking day. Thanked her. Since it wasn’t a lord that brought her back to him. It was her.

So he was distracted when Polly had brought Craig into the fold.

Not distracted enough not to do his job—protect Lucy. And he’d failed on a sidewalk weeks before. He didn’t plan on doing that again. Protecting Lucy meant protecting Polly.