by Lexi Blake
“I don’t think I like what’s happening right now,” a new voice said. She looked through tear-filled eyes at the man who had come to stand behind her. He was roughly six foot three, with dark hair he’d pulled back in a queue at the back of his neck. He was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt that showed off broad shoulders and a chest to die for. He stepped between her and Mitch. “You might be paying me, boss, but you’re paying me to protect her, and in my mind that means I protect her from everyone—including you. You need to take a couple of minutes and get your head right before you talk to the lady again.”
“What the hell was that for?” Flynn stared at his brother.
Laurel was still trying to process what the guy with the slow Cajun accent had said. He was being paid by Mitch?
“She’s taken, asshole. And she probably didn’t bother to tell you, but she’s pregnant.” Mitch stepped toward Flynn, looking like a bull about to charge.
The guy, who was apparently supposed to protect her, gently grasped her elbow and pulled her back from the brothers. “Yes, she’s pregnant, and that’s a damn good reason to be civil around her, Bradford.”
Flynn stopped and stared at Mitch for a minute. “You don’t even know who I am. You have no fucking idea who I am.”
Mitch didn’t know what his brother looked like? She tried to step around the bodyguard she hadn’t even known she had, but he was apparently serious about his job.
“Not on my life, chère. Those men aren’t going to listen to you. Bradford’s got his panties in a wad, and the best thing for you to do is let him have his hissy fit.”
“I’m not having a hissy fit and you’re fired, Guidry. And why the fuck would I…” Mitch stared for a moment. “Flynn?”
She tried to shove around Guidry. “Yes, it’s your brother, Mitch. Not that you told me you have one.” She frowned at the bodyguard, who still wasn’t letting her through. “He said you were fired.”
“Ain’t no one firing me but the big guy. When Taggart says I can go home, I will. Though I still probably wouldn’t. I don’t like the look in that man’s eyes.” Guidry kept his gaze on Mitch, though she was fairly certain she still wouldn’t get around the man. “Since this is a family matter, why don’t you take this someplace less public, gentlemen? I think all the testosterone is making it difficult for the other patrons to enjoy their lunch.”
Mitch turned around. “You’re right. Laurel, get in the car. We’ll discuss this at home.”
She looked back and saw that Flynn’s face had fallen. “I think you should talk to Flynn.”
Mitch pointed toward the door. “I think you should remember our contract. You don’t tell me what to do, baby. You follow orders. Get in the car. I won’t ask again and punishment for disobeying me won’t be pleasant.”
“Punishment?” Flynn stepped up.
God save her from over-dramatic men. “I’m fine. He has never and will never hurt me.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” Mitch said in a low growl.
His panties really were in a wad. What had gotten him to stalk in here like an angry bear? Had he thought she was cheating on him with his brother and a chicken salad sandwich? “I’m not going anywhere until I’m sure you’re not going to kill your brother, and you can also explain the Cajun dude who seems to think he’s supposed to protect me. How long has that been going on?”
She was pleased with her calm tone of voice. It was obvious none of the men were going to remain calm, so she had to.
Mitch turned and she watched as he visibly forced himself to chill. He reached for her and then stopped, his eyes closing as he took a deep breath and seemed to mentally count. When they opened again, his blue eyes were icy cold. “Laurel, we’ll discuss this at home. For now, the police need to talk to you. Someone broke into your apartment and trashed the place. This is Remy Guidry. I hired him because someone nearly killed you and I wanted to ensure your safety. He’s watched you when I couldn’t. As for my brother, he’s none of your business and the fact that you would talk to him behind my back makes me question your loyalty—another thing we’ll discuss this evening. Don’t be surprised if I ask for that collar back.”
The room seemed to still, everything around her moving to the background until there was only Mitch and his cold stare. “Are you serious?”
He was cold as ice as he stared down at her. “You’ve read the contract. You know what I require and you defy me at every turn. You sneak in your wants and your desires and I give in. This is what happens. You aren’t capable of being my sub and I knew it the minute I met you.”
Anger flared through her system and before she could think about it, her hands went to the gold necklace around her throat. They’d selected it together, spending the day at NorthPark Mall, trying on pretty jewelry. He wanted it back? She could give it to him. “Well, I’m sorry I proved you right, Mitchell. We don’t have to talk at all.”
It seemed they had nothing to talk about. She tossed the necklace at him. He could use it on the next idiot, and there would absolutely be a next one. He was too gorgeous, too sexy, to not have another woman dangling for him. Likely, as soon as they realized he was available.
She turned and walked out the door, tears clouding her vision. This was what she got for her trouble. The minute she didn’t do what he wanted, he dumped her.
Except that wasn’t exactly what had happened. And she did try to get her way on things he was unreasonable about.
It didn’t matter now. And apparently she had to go and talk to the police.
Mitch was on her heels the minute she stepped outside. “Laurel.”
Guidry moved in beside her. “I’ll drive you to your apartment, and that’s not a suggestion. Just because Bradford wants to act like a jealous asshole doesn’t mean you’re out of danger, darlin’.”
God, she wanted to tell them all to go to hell. She wanted everyone to go away and let her mourn. How could she have a relationship with a man who shoved her away the minute things got tough? He didn’t even recognize his brother? Would he even bother to call and check on the baby now that they were through? Sure, he’d written it into their contract, but seeing how he avoided his father and brothers, she couldn’t know that he’d want anything to do with their baby now.
Mitch was used to walking away.
“Hey, I didn’t say I was through talking to you, Laurel. I’ll drive you to the police station and then I’ll drive you home. We have a few things to work out,” Mitch insisted.
She stopped on the sidewalk and looked back. Flynn had stepped out of the deli and he looked positively heartbroken.
That was what she would likely look like in a few months. When Mitch decided he was done with a person, he was done with them.
She should have listened. He’d told her he was bad for her. He’d said it in plain English. He’d tried to stay away.
In the end, she had to be sensible. Someone was out to hurt Mitch, and right now, they thought they could use her to those ends. It might take a few weeks for Dixon to realize there was no place in Mitch’s heart for anything, much less her.
“Remy can drive me and I’ll be a good client. I understand why he’s here and I’ll cooperate with him until we’re sure it’s safe. I’ll pick up my things from your place later tonight.”
“What do you mean?” Mitch asked. For the first time the chill was replaced with an almost expectant wariness.
He’d really thought she would fall in line? “You say I’m not your sub. So I’ll find a place to stay until my apartment is safe. I’ll call my brother. His building is secure. I think you should talk to your brother.”
“He isn’t my brother,” Mitch returned, his tone savage. “And don’t think this is over, Laurel. Are you forgetting you have something of mine?”
Her hand went to her stomach. “This is a baby and not a piece of property, and don’t you dare try to use our baby against me. Go to hell, Mitch.”
She turned and started back down the
street. This time, he didn’t follow her.
“My truck is close. You should probably go in and let them know you won’t be coming back this afternoon. I’ll call in and let my boss know what’s going on. If you’re not with Mitch, then I need to stay close to you,” Guidry explained.
The last thing she needed was another man watching out for her, but she wasn’t about to let her stubbornness get her baby killed. She nodded, walked into the building and explained about her apartment. She was the world’s worst employee, but her boss seemed to understand. She grabbed her phone, which had finally charged back up.
They were supposed to get a new battery today. Well, Mitch was. He was going to order a new one and then take her out to dinner. She sniffled as she looked down at the phone. He’d called several times and left her texts about getting in touch with him the minute she could.
Why would the man seem so panicked about a woman he could throw away like a used tissue?
Maybe she was the drama queen.
“I’m parked out back,” Guidry explained.
“Of course you are. I might have noticed I was being followed if you’d parked out front.” She understood the need, but was irritated Mitch hadn’t told her.
But then Mitch wasn’t the most reasonable of men.
And pretty much every woman he’d ever cared about had cheated on him.
She turned suddenly and was pleased to see the big strong Cajun stop and look the slightest bit off-kilter. “What did you tell Mitch that had him in a jealous rage?”
To his credit, the Cajun boy didn’t flinch. Still, it seemed like he was the honest type. “I told him you were having lunch with another man and you seemed cozy. You hugged him. You seemed close. You aren’t openly affectionate with other men. I’ve been watching you for weeks and the only men you’ve touched past a handshake are Mitch and your brother. In my defense, I was unaware Mitch had any family at all. Had I known you were spending time with his brother, I likely wouldn’t have mentioned the physical affection. That being said, it doesn’t seem like Mitch appreciated you spending time with his brother.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter now, does it?” She settled her purse over her shoulder and started out the back door.
Guidry escorted her to his massive truck and helped her up. “I’ll bring you back after we deal with the police. I’ll follow you back to Bradford’s place and let you pick up your things. You’re being more reasonable about this than I thought you would.”
She was barely hanging on. She wanted to wail and cry and feel incredibly sorry for herself because she was going to be alone.
She would be alone without Mitch. Or would she? Why should she live the rest of her life alone because Mitchell Bradford was an asshat? She didn’t have to be alone. She’d wasted the last year of her life on him and she was going to have a child by him, but that didn’t mean she had to be alone.
“I’m always reasonable,” she said in a quiet voice. She folded her hands on her lap.
“You’re not being very reasonable right now.” He turned out of the parking lot and toward the freeway.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
He shrugged as he maneuvered through the streets. “I’m surprised you gave up so quickly.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. She hadn’t given up. He’d told her she wasn’t good enough to be his submissive. And he’d never lied to her about wanting to get married. If she wasn’t his wife or his sub, she wasn’t anything to him. He’d proven that utterly. “It doesn’t matter anymore. He made himself plain.”
“Did he?”
“Are you always this chatty with your clients?” How the hell had she gotten here? She was moving toward the police department to talk about the break-in at her apartment. Mitch had let her go pretty easily.
But didn’t he do that with everything? He let people go all the time. Things were harder for him. If she was an old concert T-shirt, he would hoard the hell out of her.
Objects were the only things Mitch could count on, so he tried to keep them. He simply didn’t think he could count on her. His head had immediately gone to cheating. She didn’t deserve that.
But wasn’t it kind of inevitable?
“We don’t have to talk.”
“He was horribly rude to me.”
“Yes. Men in pain are usually horrible. That boy’s got a thorn in his paw and it’s not coming out by itself.” He was quiet for a moment as he sped up to get on the freeway. “You two seemed pretty happy.”
“It was an illusion.” He’d always been waiting for her to screw up so he could get her out of his life. He’d been waiting to do it from the moment he’d heard she was pregnant. This was what he wanted, wasn’t it?
“If you say so. I’m saying as an outside party, you seemed pretty happy, and since you two have a baby on the way, maybe it’s a little hasty to throw in the towel. Or the collar, as it seems. Men will say a lot of things they don’t mean when they’re hurting, and finding out the woman they love is seeing another man behind his back would hurt a lot. I’ve looked into Bradford some and he’s the kind of man who hasn’t had a lot of support in his life.”
He’d had no support. None. She’d been surrounded by family. Yes, they’d been children, but she’d learned to lean on them, to trust and love her brother and sisters.
Mitch had learned that everyone left.
He wasn’t completely ignorant when it came to love. But she’d learned long ago that there was a difference between being ignorant and being dumb. Ignorance was merely an absence of education.
Mitch was a smart man. Could he be taught? Did he even want to be?
She was well aware that tears flowed down her cheeks, but she wasn’t capable of stopping them. Remy Guidry wanted to be her bodyguard? Well, he had to deal with her emotional state, too. And if he wanted to listen, then maybe she should talk. She’d kept quiet about so many things because she didn’t want her family to worry, didn’t want Mitch to look bad in front of them. Guidry seemed to know everything, so she could lay it all out there. And it didn’t matter because it was over.
Yes, she was seeking counseling from her ridiculously attractive bodyguard. “I’m worried there’s nothing for me to do. I can’t go back and erase the things that happened to him. I can’t right the past for him.”
“No, you can’t, but you can make him believe in the future.”
She’d been trying. How could she make him believe in a future when he was so tied up in the past? He kept things forever. Stupid things like old T-shirts and stacks of comic books he never read or looked through any more. “How do I do that?”
“Oh, that’s simple, chère. You be you. Don’t have to be any more than that. I’m going to ask you a question and it’s going to seem silly, but I want you to think about it. Let’s say you got this dog and he keeps coming around your house. He’s growling and barking every time you come outside. Now, most people would be scared. Most people would know that tangling with a nasty piece of dog is gonna get them bit. But there’s a few people in this world who look at that dog and see something else. There’s a few people who see deeper. Even though they’ve never been a mangy dog themselves, they seem to understand what it would feel like. So I’m going to ask you, how would you handle that dog?”
She cried pretty freely in that moment because the minute he’d given her the scenario, she’d known what she would do. “I would feed him. I would put out a dish and then wait. I wouldn’t push him the first couple of times. I would put the dish out and then walk away. After he got used to that, I would stand in the door until he learned it was all right for me to watch him.”
“You sound like you’ve done this before.”
She nodded. “We had this dog when I was a kid. He was the bane of the trailer park. He was quick though. Believe me, some of the residents tried to shoot him because they said he was too far gone. He’d been abused and they told me once a dog got mean, he couldn’t come back.”
; One side of his mouth tugged up and he smiled at her. “You didn’t think so, though, did you?”
“I don’t know why, but he spent a lot of time outside our trailer. I guess there was a warm place or something. He would scare the crap out of us when we would go to school. I was afraid Will was going to do something to him. Not because my brother’s mean or anything. He just took his responsibilities very seriously. So I saved some of my dinner one night and I brought it out to the dog. I did it the night after and so on. He stopped growling at us. He wouldn’t come in the house, but he didn’t bark at us anymore. And then one day I opened the door to go to school and he was waiting for me. We had that dog until he died of old age.”
“Mitch is growling and barking at you because it’s the only thing he knows to do. I promise you that man is telling himself it’s all for the best because you would have kicked him in the end. No one will think less of you for moving on to an easier man, chère. But he’ll be alone because I think you’re his one shot at finding something good. You walk away and he won’t ever try again. That’s something for you to think about.”
She watched the streets go by and wondered if she would think about anything else.
Chapter Ten
“Wow. You are really bad at that.”
Mitch stared at the spot where he’d last seen Laurel and only vaguely thought about punching his brother in his movie star, good-looking face. But that would require him to turn around, and he might never be able to do that again. He might spend the rest of his life watching this spot and praying for her to show up again.
Guidry nodded his way as though letting Mitch know he would handle things from now on and then he, too, disappeared into the building where Laurel worked.
She was gone.
Suck it up. You knew it would happen eventually. It’s better that it happen now before you got too deep.
He was already too deep. God, she was gone and he felt something open deep inside him. A wound that was never fucking going to heal.
