Bound to Darkness (Doubeck Crime Family)

He towers over me. “Yeah, out into the world, I didn’t think you’d fuck it.”

23

KAI

When I find her, I’m so angry I could kill that little man. The only reason he’s not dead in the dumpster out back is because he never touched her. If he’d laid one finger on her, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions.

“Let’s go,” I repeat. It wasn’t a request, yet she still sits on the stool. “I’m not joking, Rose.”

She glares up at me and then faces forward again. “Every single man in my life has thought he knows what’s best for me. You included. And for a long time, I thought I agreed with you. But not this time. This time, you’re wrong.”

I scan her profile, willing her to look at me. “You really want to talk about this here?”

She spins her stool so hard it hits the stopper, almost jolting her off. “Yes, I want to talk about this here. You refused to talk about it with me at your apartment, so now this is our second option.”

I let out a long sigh, trying to dispel some of the anger built up in my chest. I let it go since it won’t do me any good here. Not in this situation, or during this conversation, but I’m not successful. Especially since I can still see fucking Dan out of the corner of my eye.

“Please, come with me so we can talk.” I try not to drag her off the stool, still hoping she’ll come with me without making a scene.

When she keeps ignoring me, I lean in, trapping her between the bar and my arms. “You walk out with me now, or I carry you over my shoulder.”

I’m almost proud of her refusal to budge, or I would be if she wasn’t using her newfound belligerency against me.

“Fine, you asked for it.” I haul her off the stool like she weighs nothing and throw her over my shoulder. Her water goes toppling across the counter, and I throw a $20 bill away from the growing puddle. The bar patrons and the hotel staff watch me carry her out the door without a single word of warning. To be fair, she’s not screaming for help. She’s got her face pressed into my back as she mutters curses against my T-shirt.

I slap her ass once for good measure when we make it to the sidewalk. “Now, I can carry you all the way back like this, or I can put you down, and we can walk together like grown-ups.”

Her answer is muffled by my shirt, so I take a guess and gently put her on her feet. “We can talk when we get home.”

She glares, then turns and marches off toward the high-rise. Thankfully, I don’t have to chase her down any wrong turns. The guards open the door for us, and she is silent on the elevator ride up to our apartment. I’m quiet, even if my insides are roiling. Anger, betrayal, fear…all of it makes a heady soup that threatens to come up at a moment’s notice.

I follow her into the living room and stop beside the couch she throws herself down on. “What the hell were you thinking?”

For a moment, I think she won’t answer. I’m about to ask again with a little more heat, but she opens her mouth, then closes it, opens it again. Then lets out a long sigh of frustration. “You’re an asshole.”

I nod. “Yeah, so what.”

“You tell me you don’t want to sleep with me, or marry me, that I can’t touch you, but you can touch me. How is any of that fair to me?”

I sit down beside her. “Did you miss the part about the orgasms? Women usually like those. Especially when they are one-sided.”

She grinds her jaw. “This one doesn’t. Did you stop to think about that before you decided to take my panties off and lay your claim on me? I could have been perfectly fine without knowing what an orgasm feels like. Now, I keep thinking about it.”

I give her a slow smile, but she glares and shakes her head. “No, don’t even think about it. You aren’t touching me, and you already said I can’t touch you, so…looks like no one is getting any at all.”

It’s my turn to point out she didn’t want anyone within a few feet of her just a little while ago.

Her voice goes shrill, and she storms toward the bedroom. “Well, times have changed, so get it figured out.”

I give her a second, then follow her into the bedroom. “If you want to talk about this rationally…”

She rounds on me from her trek toward the bathroom. “Excuse me? I’m not the one who just carried a grown human being out of a hotel bar, for fuck’s sake.”

“You refused to come with me, and I wasn’t about to let Dan have his second shot at you. Who knows, a few more of those awful scotches, and you might have reconsidered.”

It’s meant to be a joke, but she doesn’t laugh. Tears swim in her eyes, and then she turns away in a huff. I move to follow her, but then she returns, and I have to wipe the smile off my face.

She strips her shirt over her head. That helps get rid of the smile, leaving only lust behind. “What…?”