Page 109 of Psycho

I narrowed my eyes on him. “I think the question is, what the hell didn’t you do? Wanna tell me why there are fucking men in the King’s Men’s city? Three of those fuckers shot at me.”

And I wasn’t even fucking pissed about that.

The fact that Lainey was with me at the time, and anything could have happened to her…

My fists clenched.

I would destroy this entire city if anything happened to her.

“Three strange men?” Connor asked.

I shook my head. “More than that. A group of ’em, by my guess.”

I didn’t know who those little fuckers were, but I was sure they were working with someone. By the time I sent men out to see the damage I had done to their bikes from the shots, all the men and bikes were nowhere to be seen.

It would have been like they weren’t there in the first place if I didn’t have the fucking bullet wound to show for it.

I walked up to him and pulled on his hair until he was looking at me. His brown eyes watered.

“You are gonna find out who those men are. You slacked off, and now there are fucking men in my city. Uninvited men. Make sure it doesn’t happen again, or you won’t be so lucky going away with nothing more than a broken nose to show for it. Got me?”

One of my jobs at the club was to ensure there were no fucking surprises in the city. One of the ways I’d achieved this was to employ fuckers like Connor to keep his eyes and ears to the ground. And in exchange, I let him operate his little drug dealing business, as well as provide some protection to the fucker.

He should have known there were men in the city and told me about it beforehand.

The fact that those shitheads were even able to get in undetected didn’t bode well for me. And I didn’t know where the fuck they were hiding orwhowas hiding them.

I tightened my grip on Connor’s hair at the thought.

He reached up for my hand but otherwise didn’t try to ease it away. “G-Got you.”

I let him go, and he fell back to the ground on his ass.

I walked away without saying another word.

19

LAINEY

I wokeup Monday morning to Micah sleeping beside me in bed.

It was one of those rare occasions that I actually woke up before him, though it shouldn’t be all that surprising since I didn’t know what time he had actually come home last night.

I tried to wait up for him but fell asleep at midnight.

I turned around and took in his sleeping face, and my heart pinched as mixed feelings started to boil to the surface.

It wasn’t exactly fondness for the fucking man—no, it couldn’t be, because there was no way I would be stupid enough to feel fondness for a man who took me to settle my dad’s debt, a man who had stalked me for three years now. But hell, my feelings for him were so much more than what I had felt for another human being, and that included my shit sperm donor.

But on top of thisuneasyfeeling I felt for the man, there was also anger and resentment.

And not because I was being kept here by him like some sort of fucking prisoner, but because he fucking left yesterday after touching me—sointimately.

After he had made me come and made me feel vulnerable.

I didn’t even know why I was feeling like this.

It wasn’t like I had felt like this with Garrett after he drove me back to the trailer from date night.