Page 12 of Toxic

“Which normally you would use to get into her pants,” he pointed out.

“I’m notthatmuch of an asshole,” I growled.

He looked over at me with a smirk. “You absolutely are.”

Yeah, alright, he wasn’t wrong. And he wasn’t wrong about how I was feeling about Billie. Which was shocking as fuck. But I wasn’t exactly ready to tell anyone a damn thing. I was still trying to understand it myself. After years of hearing Dad say that it hit you this way, it was mind blowing that it was actually true. She’d damn near knocked me on my ass.

I needed to process everything before I decided what I was going to do about it. No. That was a lie. I already knew what I was going to do about it. But I still needed to fucking wrap my head around it. Then I’d charm the pants off my woman and claim her. “Shut up,” I told Butcher because the fucker was still smirking at me.

“You going to be as bad as Lock?” he asked.

“You’re one to talk,” I shot back. “You kidnapped your woman just to keep her close instead of telling her you wanted her to be yours.”

He shrugged. “Worked, didn’t it?”

I chuckled. “Yeah. The only woman on the planet that would have worked on.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Think there’s any way to use this situation to get Keely back into town?” I asked. I needed the attention off of me for now.

“You think Lock will do anything about it if she does come home?” he replied.

“I don’t think he’s going to be able to resist. He’s going to lose his shit soon and doesn’t even realize it.” Our president was a ticking time bomb. He didn’t know yet what the rest of us did. He’d found his old lady. He was trying to resist it, though who the fuck knew why. He was only hurting himself in the long run as he stuck his head in the sand. At some point he was going to have to face reality.

“You going to be like Lock?” Butcher asked again, putting the fucking spot light right back on me.

“No, you stubborn asshole. I just need a fucking minute to breathe.”

He chuckled. “Thought so.”

My best friend was a dick. But he wasn’t wrong. Somehow the guy who didn’t know shit about how people ticked had me figured out better than anyone.

CHAPTER 5

Billie

My eyes popped open as the alarm vibrated in my pocket. It was four a.m., and I looked over at my grandfather. I’d made it back before visiting hours ended and they’d let me stay at his bedside. He’d woken up sometime in the middle of the night. The doctor had told me that was a very good sign. Gramps hadn’t been able to tell me much about the attack. It had all happened too fast for him to know what was happening or who the men were.

I needed to get back to the ranch so I could walk Toxic through the morning chores. Sneaking out of the room, I spoke quietly with the nurse outside. “I’ll be back in a few hours,” I told her.

“You should try to get some rest, Honey,” she told me, her gaze sympathetic.

“Thanks.” There wasn’t time for rest. Not when animals needed feeding. I’d gotten a couple hours of sleep last night,but it wasn’t exactly comfortable in the hospital chairs. I’d fallen asleep with my head on my grandpa’s bed, bent over and now my back was screaming at me. I was twenty-nine years old. My back shouldn’t be acting up, but that was what happened when you over exerted yourself.

I raced back to the ranch and pulled in right behind Toxic and Butcher. They were prompt. I could appreciate that. “Morning,” I called out.

Toxic’s deep brown eyes zeroed in on me. “Did you getanysleep?”

For some reason the concern in his voice made me defensive. “Of course.”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

My eyes narrowed on him. “Well, I did.”

“Okay.” He frowned at me. “Why don’t you go take a shower? We’ll handle everything out here for now. I’ll start with the birds.”

“I haven’t shown you anything yet,” I argued. I wasn’t sure why I was resisting. A shower sounded amazing. I was dusty and dirty from yesterday’s work.

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