Page 42 of Gonzo's Grudge
The click.
My blood froze.
The front door.
Unlocked. Opening.
In less than a breath, I shifted, rolling her off me and onto the mattress with a startled gasp. My hand shot to the nightstand, fingers wrapping around cold steel. I leveled the gun toward the doorway, heart hammering, every instinct on fire. Pressing IvaLeigh’s naked body behind my own on the bed.
The door swung wide.
And there she was.
Catalina.
Her striking, black hair wild around her face, eyes sharp as knives. But the years had carved deeper lines around her mouth, more bitterness than age. I did that to her. I marked her in the worst of ways.
“Really, Gonzo?” she spat, her voice sharp enough to cut the room in half. “This is what you’re doing while our son rots in a cage? Playing house?”
My grip tightened on the gun, but I didn’t lower it right away. Old habits. Old scars. Finally, I set it on the dresser, slow, keeping my body between her and IvaLeigh.
“Cat,” I warned, “You don’t just walk into my house.”
“Your house?” She barked a laugh, wild and humorless. “You mean our son’s house. His bedroom down the hall sits empty while your bed is full. The house you should be tearing down walls in, looking for ways to get him out, not—” Her eyes flicked past me. Landed on IvaLeigh, tangled in the sheets, wide-eyed. “Not screwing some little college girl like you’re twenty again.”
IvaLeigh’s face went pale, but she didn’t shrink back. She sat up straighter, clutching the sheet to her chest, meeting Catalina’s glare with quiet fire.
Catalina saw it and went sharper, meaner. “I have never asked you for anything, Gonzo. Never. But I am asking now. Stop thinking with your dick and start using your head. GJ is in prison. He is all that matters. Not this—this game you’re playing.”
Her words hit like fists. Not because she was wrong about our son. Because she was right. Because every night I spent with IvaLeigh, I wondered if I was stealing from the fight I owed GJ.
But before I could answer, she turned fully to the girl in my bed.
“And you,” she said, her voice dripping venom. “You think you’re special? You’re not. He will never be faithful. He doesn’t know how. He will break your heart again and again, until there’s nothing left of you. He will ruin you for life.”
IvaLeigh flinched. Just barely, but I felt it. Only she didn’t look away instead she numbed behind me.
Catalina smiled like she’d won. “Run now, sweetheart. Before he chews you up like he did me.”
“Enough!” My roar shook the walls.
Both women froze.
I climbed from the bed stepped forward, crowding Catalina back toward the door, my chest heaving, every muscle tight. “You don’t come into my house and spit poison at her. You don’t get to tear her down because you’re pissed at me.”
Her eyes flashed. “She’s a distraction! That girl will never survive this world. And you—” She jabbed a finger at me. “You’ll let her bleed for it, because that’s what you do. You drag people down with you.”
My jaw clenched so hard it hurt. “Say what you want about me. But you don’t get to touch her.”
She laughed, bitter and sharp. “Touch her? Gonzo, she has no idea what you are. She thinks you’re some broken knight with a leather jacket. Wait until she sees the real you. Wait until she realizes every promise you make is just smoke.”
My hands shook. Rage and shame, both burning. Because I’d given Catalina those promises once. And I’d broken every damn one.
She saw it. Smirked. “Exactly.”
Behind me, the bed creaked.
“I’m not leaving.” IvaLeigh’s voice rang out, steadier than I’d ever heard it.
