Page 132 of Bitter Heat

If you’re reading this, you’ve broken your promise to me, and James Roth is back in your life.

She clamped her hand over her mouth to smother her sob. If her father could see her now, he would lose his fucking mind. But what choice did she have? If she didn’t… Several things collided in her mind and her blood ran cold. She turned and found him standing several feet away. He was watching her intently, waiting.

“You came back after he died,” she said numbly.

His neutral expression didn’t change. There was no emotion in his eyes; they were a matte black that revealed nothing.

“That’s why you’re back in the States.” She wrapped her hand around her throat as it began to swell. “If he was alive, you wouldn’t have been able to come near me.”

The silence made her skin crawl.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” she whispered.

After seeing him in action, his motionlessness made the hair on the nape of her neck rise.

She took a step back. “He blackmailed you to sign the divorce papers.”

Like he had in that empty hospital corridor in Colorado, he moved with her, blocking the exit.

“You gave Maximus a reason to dig and uncover something that should have stayed buried,” he said quietly.

Terror ripped through her. She held up a hand as she retreated. “Back off, Roth. This was a mistake.”

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

She let out a raspy laugh that made her eyes fill with tears. “You expect me to believe that after what you did to Thea? After you nearly broke my arm?”

He held out his hand. “Come, let me ice it.”

“Fuck you. Stay away from me.”

His expression hardened. “This changes nothing.”

She halted in her tracks and stared at him incredulously. “How can you say that? It changes everything. First your mother and then a warning from my father from the grave.” A thought slipped through her mind, and she tensed. “Do they both know the same secret?”

He stopped stalking and came at her with purpose. She froze at the sight of him stampeding toward her and pivoted at the last second, darting past him and streaking toward the door. She didn’t hear any sound behind her. She was so close to the door. Maybe Mo or Johan could—

An arm banded around her middle, yanking her to a halt with such force that she thought she was going to puke. He pulled her back against him and buried his face in her hair.

“Don’t you fucking run from me.”

She was so freaked out that she didn’t move, barely even breathed.

“I told you, I’m not going to hurt you.”

He set her down, grabbed her arm, and led her out of the library. She followed in a stupefied daze as he walked into the kitchen and rummaged in the freezer for ice. He boosted her onto the wood island and kept an eye on her as he wrapped a dishcloth around a bag of frozen vegetables. When he prodded her shoulder, she hissed and leaned away from him. A muscle tensed in his jaw as he pressed the bag on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

She kept her eyes downcast, unable to look at him. All she could think of was Thea’s terrified expression. He had been seconds from—

When he cupped her chin, she almost toppled face first off the island in an effort to get away from him. He let out a low growl as he placed her where he wanted her and stepped between her knees, boxing her in.

“Now you’re afraid of me?” he hissed.

“I’d be a fool not to be.”

She chanced a look at his face. He was scowling, and as she briefly met his eyes, she saw that savage rage was still there, just banked. She looked away.

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