Page 153 of Indecent Lies

She was nervous, he saw this in the way she rung her hands together.

Her gloves were leather and probably cost more than his jacket.

She always did want expensive shit, though she had a daddy who made sure she got it.

He wondered if he was still bank rolling his daughter.

That would cut off Mal’s balls for sure if he was being trumped to take care of his woman.

“What do you want? Make it quick.”

She repeated. “You have kids?”

“Yes, two.” She didn’t get to know it was an attention seeking goat and a noisy cat.

“We…we didn’t know.”

“None of your business, Addison, told you that last year. What are you even doing here?”

“I’m in Denver for a trip with girlfriends, we’re at the Duke lodge.”

She told him really carefully like she assumed he’d trot there after her.

He wasn’t interested in a conversation with Addison.

Hadn’t been in a long time, not since she climbed into bed with his twin.

“I thought we should talk. Malachai hasn’t been happy since you cut him off, Tait. It’s not fair to him.”

“Mal makes his own choices, he doesn’t need you creeping around my house when I’m with my woman in the middle of the night.”

She flinched. “This is all very sudden with Penelope Astor.”

“Also not your business.”

“She was getting married only months ago, Tait. She’s on the rebound, she’ll hurt you.”

Texas laughed with no humor. “Your concern is touching, but you know nothing, woman, don’t even try. If you came because of Mal, it’s noted, now you can go.”

“I’ll make it right with your parents,” she blurted and his spine solidified, eyes narrowed. What in the fuck?

“What?”

“Your parents. I’ll make it so you can be in their lives again, Tait. If you make it right with Malachai. He misses you.”

“Okay, it’s late, it’s fucking cold and I want to get inside to my woman, so I’ll make this plain for you.” Though his voice was aggravated and low, dripping with enough coldness to freeze a penguins balls, he was about to deliver home truths in the form of verbal bullets and he didn’t want her to duck, he wanted her body riddled with his shoot to kill aim.

“I give no fucks about my parents, they made it clear I wasn’t welcome in their lives, I’m good with that because I became my own person, and not their puppet, they know where I am if that ever changes for them. You had a part in that, so own it. They don’t know you like I do, like Mal does, they always thought your shit don’t stink.”

She flinched again and rose a hand to her throat, but he didn’t give a fuck about hurting her prissy feelings either. She came to his door, she had to live with the fall out.

“We’re not family, Addison, you’re just the woman who trapped my brother into this life, we won’t ever be friends, you could say a ton of shit to my parents and I wouldn’t ever thank you. Ships sail, be careful you don’t fall overboard.”

“She won’t make you happy, not long term,” her viper tongue spat out and Texas grinned, there she was. The real Addison Hunt. The woman who threw vicious tantrums if she couldn’t get her own way and wielded manipulation like a highly crafted weapon. “She can’t give you what you need.”

The woman was a queen manipulator and spat out her pacifier if people didn’t buy it.

Texas hadn’t bought her shit for a long time.

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