Page 25 of When He Fights
Gray laughed.“You’re gonna protect her.”
“I did it before, didn’t I?”
“You’re gonna keep your control.”
Maybe.That part was still up for debate.“I can do the job.I can eliminate threats to her.”
“And you arenotgoing to kill the guy she’s dating?”
Kane rolled back his shoulders.“I’m not going to pretend to be her freaking stepbrother or cousin.”
“Well, she already has a boyfriend, so you can be her platonic friend who?—”
“I’m the ex who is here to fight for her.”Oh, hell, yes, he was.Warming to the new role, he continued, “The ex who never got over her and will do anything to win her back.”He shouldered past Gray.Strode for the house.For Ana.
“Yeah, okay,” Gray agreed from behind him.“That might work.”
“Ana,I know it’s last minute, but I just got tickets to the concert at that rock casino in Biloxi tonight,” Turner Mitchell told her.
Turner.The man she’d gone out on two and a half dates with in the last month.Turner, a nice guy who owned a taekwondo studio down the corner from the Gulfport Aquarium—the aquarium where she taught her yoga classes.He’d flirted with her for about three months.Had asked her out several times before she’d finally agreed to coffee.She counted the coffee as their half date.Then they’d gone to dinner.And dancing.
Two and a half dates.
Unfortunately, after finally getting back into the dating game, there had been zero chemistry between them.He’d touched her, held her hand, kissed her, and she’d pretty much felt like she was in cold storage.
Ana had already planned not to keep seeing him because, well, what was the point when she hadn’t felt like the relationship was going anywhere?She’d wondered if, because of everything that had happened before, perhaps she just couldn’t respond the same way any longer.After having a lover who turned out to be a brutal killer for the mob—a man who’d come after her and nearly killed her, trust was a major issue.Without trust, intimacy just didn’t seem possible for her.
Then Kane had appeared, he’d touched her, and that sensual surge had flooded through her veins.
So maybe it’s not about trust and intimacy and…dammit, maybe I just am not attracted to Turner.I don’t respond to him the same way that I do Kane.
Or maybe she just was still hung up on Kane.
Perhaps it was some freaking hero complex situation.Kane had saved her life.She’d gotten obsessed with him.
Liar, liar…A low voice whispered through her mind.You were obsessed even before he saved you.
She ignored the voice.Gripped the phone tightly and tried to figure out how to respond to Turner.
But it was just—she hadn’t been able to fully relax with Turner.To let go.And maybe it was because she was lying about her life or maybe he just wasn’t the one for her.
No maybe about it.Definitely not the one.
“The tickets were given to me by a friend,” Turner told her.“Thought we could take in the show tonight.”
At the rock casino.Right.Check.A line of casinos waited down the way in Biloxi, Mississippi, about a twenty-minute drive away from her home on the shoreline.Each casino had a different theme, and the one Turner was talking about had been decked out in extreme rocker style.The casino had an attached hotel and a large theater for shows.
Her phone had rung shortly after Kane and Grayson went out for their air.As if their talk had summoned him, the caller had been Turner.
And he wasn’t quite her boyfriend.Maybe she’d exaggerated that part.As far as fucking him?Nope.Definitely had not happened.Would not happen.
“I remembered you saying that you liked the band.”He rattled off the name.
She frowned.Shedidlike that band, but for the life of her, Ana couldn’t remember telling Turner that fact.
“So when I got the tickets, I thought, hey, Ana would love these.”
“Ah…” She needed to think of an excuse, stat.One that did not involve her saying…Can’t go.Sorry.A killer may be coming after me.
