Page 39 of Peripheral Vision

She scoots back on her bed until her back hits the wall by her pillows. “I didn’t ask him to message me. I thought that ignoring him would make the message clear. I just didn’t want to hurt him any further when none of this is his fault to begin with!”

“You didn’t want to hurt him,” I repeat slowly, the venom in my tone unmistakable. “And what about me? Do you care whatIfeel, knowing he’s still out there, thinking he has a chance? Knowing he’s still clinging to you? Clinging to what’smine?Males like him don’t understand unless you crush them. He’s like a cockroach who will multiply unless you hit him right where it hurts.”

Her chest rises and falls with quick, shallow breaths, her anger flickering beneath the surface. “You’re twisting this. I didn’t do anything wrong, I did what you asked. I just didn’t want him to?—”

“To what?” I cut in, kneeling on the edge of the bed, my voice a deadly whisper. “To think you’ve moved on? To know that you’ve chosen me instead? To know that you chose to listen to threats and not confide in him?”

Her eyes narrow, her voice trembling. “You don’t get to control who contacts me, you don’t own me.”

“But that’s where you’re wrong. After everything you’ve let me take from you, everything you’ve given me willingly, you’re going to pretend that I don’t own every piece of you whether you’ve vocalized it or not?” I crawl towards her, towering over her.

She recoils slightly but she doesn’t back down. Instead, she lifts her chin, her defiance burning bright. “You can’t scare me into doing what you want.”

“Scare you?” I echo. “Oh, little viper, I don’t need to scare you. You already know what I’m capable of. But what you don’t get to do is play the part of the victim and still hold on to someone who’s been told to stay away.”

Her jaw tightens once more. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

My anger starts to cool down, my teeth unclenching. “Maybe not, but it did, and now you’re going to fix it.” I hold her phone out to her, settling onto my heels. “Block him. Show me you’re serious.” She hesitates before grabbing her phone, and the look that crosses her face tells me she hopes I didn’t catch whatever she portrayed. Her finger shakes as she does what she’s told. When it’s done, she looks up at me, her eyes blazing.

“There. Happy?” she asks, her voice quiet but firm.

I study her for a minute before giving her a subtle nod. “We’ll see. Just remember, I mean what I say. I follow through with my threats.”

Her shoulders are stiff as she slides off the bed away from me. I’m surprised I don’t see scorch marks where she was sitting from the way her fury is radiating off of her. “You got what you wanted, but this isn’t just about him. It’s about you, too. About the way you?—”

“Care about what’s mine?” I cut her off again, my voice sharp. “Don’t mistake this for anything else, little viper. I’m doing this for us. To protect what we have. Even if you can’t see it yet.” She may have given in to me, but she hasn’t surrendered herself fully. Not yet.

Later that eveningI returned to Sins and Sons, leaving Dylan at her house, even though every instinct in my body was telling me to stay with her. When she asked me where I was going, I didn’t bother withholding the truth from her which caused her to bristle, thinking I was going after Callum. I wasn’t, of course, unless he gave me a reason to do so. I had another meeting with Nathan as he had contacted me with some urgency that I found mildly concerning. But I didn’t think inviting another stranger into Dylan's home was a good idea right at this moment, especially not after he was going to hit on her. That was a mole hole I didn’t want to dive into yet.

When I pull into the parking lot, I spot the vehicle that belongs to Callum. Good. I would’ve probably changed all of my plans tonight if I didn’t see it parked where it should be. It’s not that I don’t trust Dylan to do what she’s told, especially when it comes to keeping other people safe, but she would do something just to provoke me. And although that thrills me, it equally frustrates me because it means she’s willing to put herself into a situation that could backfire in one form or another.

The evening has kicked into full swing by the time I walk through the doors, my eyes scanning the room before I find Nathan propped against the bar with his elbow. Since Dylan isn’t working tonight, I join him, pulling out a stool. “What’s so important it couldn’t wait until morning?” I ask, waiting for Callum or the other bartender to take my order.

“This.” He slides his phone over to me, and at first, I’m not sure what I’m looking at, raising my eyebrow in question. The image is dark, as though it was taken at night without flash, and it doesn’t help that whoever took it didn’t bother to focus in on whatever I was supposed to be looking at.

“Afraid I’m no good at Pictionary. Help me out here.” I pass the phone back to him.

He shakes his head, swiping his screen a few times before settling on another image. This one I recognize instantly. It’s hard not to when what I’m staring at is me—well, the back of me anyway, and in front of me, facing me—the camera happens to be focused on Dylan. This is us from this morning when we broke the forest line and were walking back to her house. Looks like I’m going to be having this conversation with Nathan whether I want to or not. But what’s more worrisome is the fact that neither of usnoticedsomebody else in the woods with us.

“Explain, Fletch. Now. Why amIgetting photos of you and that bartender with threatening messages telling us that we need to back off ‘or else’.” He slaps his phone down on the bar, earning us a few curious glances. My eyes immediately dart to Callum where he is at the other end of the bar, because I don’t want him to make any connection between us and Dylan, leaving more unanswered questions for people who have no business being in ours. I’m about to answer him when the other bartender interrupts, taking our order.

Lowering my voice, I pin him with a look that tells him to shut up and listen. “Her name is Dylan. She’s the daughter of Jack, my old seal buddy whose funeral I was in town for. I’m… we… it’s complicated.”

Nathan doesn’t wait for me to say more, his voice low but sharp. “Complicated? That’s it? You’re gonna leave me hanging like that?”

I take a deep breath, trying to find the best way to explain this. “I’m not trying to leave you hanging, Nathan. I get that it might seem like some random thing to you, but it’s way more than that and the furthest thing from simple. Dylan’s young—way younger than me, and everything should be off limits because Jack was like family to me. Hell, they both were. This whole thing, it’s messy because I’m trying to figure out how to balance that respect for him, with what’s going on with her. It isn’t just the age gap. She isn’t just some girl, obviously, and while she might be his daughter, she’s a hell of a lot more than that to me, to the point I can’t let her go any more than I can bring him back from the dead.”

Nathan watches me closely, confusion flicking across his gaze as he processes exactly what I’m saying. “Okay… so what the fuck does she have to do with these threats? Is she involved in something we don’t know about?”

“I think it’s less about that and more about the fact that she’s involved withmeand because of whowe’regetting too close to uncovering. At least, that’s the idea I have. Why else would they feel the need to threaten somebody I care about if we weren’t getting close? This isn’t the first message like this I’ve received from them when it comes to her. They’re using her as leverage to try and scare us off.”

Nathan's eyes scan the bar, as though the threat lay within. “Damn. That’s… well, first that explains why you were being such a territorial ass about her the other night. But how on earth do you plan to keep her out of dangerandfollow through with what we’ve been fighting for years to get close to? Is she aware of what you’re even involved in?”

I shake my head as the bartender sets our drinks down. “Those pictures? They were taken last night. I uh, well fuck it, I was following her because she decided to take a fucking midnight stroll in the woods and somebody tried to kidnap her, and…” I can’t even say the words as they are like acid on my tongue, what came so close to happening to my little viper. “Anyway, I stopped anything from happening, the body is taken care of. But I’m pretty sure it might’ve been the same people we are getting close to. It just so happens that we were unaware there were more of them in the woods.”

He takes a pull from his beer. “You need to tell her what you do, Fletcher, and you need to talk to her about why she was almost picked off like a field mouse.”

I know that, but I know it won’t go over well. I lift my pint while taking a long drink. Fuck, I hate it when he’s right.

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