Page 16 of Renard's Deliverance

The sooner she got to bed the better.

“Ahh, so what you’re saying is that I should call one of the Malones. Which one do you want? Alec? Tanner? West?”

Her eyes widened. “You’re not calling anyone, asshole.”

“No? Well, that must mean that you’re going home with me.”

She snorted. “In your dreams.”

“I don’t dream, Gem.” Nope. That was for people with hope, and he didn’t have much of that anymore. “But I am a man of action. So either you turn around and march your ass out to my truck or you’re going out over my shoulder.”

2

The nerve of this asshole.

Get her ass out to his truck or she was going over his shoulder?

Like. Hell.

“You can’t threaten or push her around, Renard,” Devon warned. “That’s not how things work around here.”

This wasn’t good.

She got the feeling that Renard was holding himself tightly in check and that it wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge.

Why did he care if she walked home alone or waited around for Devon?

Made no sense.

“Opal?” Devon asked in a low voice. “What do you want, sweetheart?”

What she wanted was to not be in this situation in the first place.

She’d never had anyone care about what she did or where she was going. Even when she was a kid.

Well, other than Stefan, that is.

And that had entirely been about control and had nothing to do with her safety.

She could tell Renard to get lost.

And she should because he was being a bit of a high-handed dick.

But . . . there was a hint of desperation about him.

As though he had to do this.

“Renard can take me home. Just this once.”

Renard scoffed. “We’ll see about that.”

“Take the win tonight, buddy,” she warned. “But don’t fucking push it.”

Turns out she was a regular bleeding heart.

“Sure, Opal?” Devon asked.

Opal smiled at him. Devon was a good guy. If she was a different person, she might have been attracted to him because he was hot.

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