Page 149 of Misrule
Unfortunately, her time was up.
She shrugged, determined to keep her cool, her pain deep. She didn’t want to have this conversation, now or ever. Yet, she couldn’t keep avoiding it, so she settled on a partial truth. “He wanted me to sign a prenup.” She made herself laugh. “That shit isn’t my style, so I told him to go fuck himself.”
“He finally fucking told you about that dumb shit,” Mortician grumbled.
“Yep, sugar. He finally told me.” It didn’t surprise Roxy that Mortician knew. She’d known he’d had his reasons for his actions.
Guiding her by the shoulder, he turned her to face him, backed up, and slouched, all the better to study her.
“You sure that’s all that happened, Momma-in-law? I knew you were going to be fucking furious. Butyoubroke it off, so shit shouldn’t make you look so devastated or walk around like a fucking zombie.”
“It was that prenuptial agreement and his admission that he didn’t want to marry me in the first place. It doesn’t mean I stopped loving him. I just don’t want any motherfucker who has to be threatened into proposing to me.”
So true. Had that been the end of it, she would’ve been one mad bitch. Hiswords, though… His view of her…
Mortician dropped his hands and went to the coffeemaker. The pot was empty. “Sit down,” he instructed. “Let me make you some coffee.”
“I don’t want anything, except time to myself.”
Pausing, Mortician kept his back to her before heaving and turning around. “What the motherfucker did to you?”
“Nothing, baby,” she lied, lowering her lashes and moving to the stool at the counter.
As she sat, he stalked over, halting across from her, on the other side of the counter. “Knox was a frustrated motherfucker, wanting to have my rules lifted. I know that contributed to the argument. My boys told me they heard y’all shouting after you fuckingsneakedto catch up to Knox.”
She scowled at him. “I’m a grown woman, Mortician. If I wanted to talk to Knox, that’s my business.”
Tapping his fingers on the counter, he studied her. “If you broke up with that motherfucker only because of the shit you said, you’d be cross with my fucking ass for interfering. The fact you not, proof that more shit than what you admitting to happened.”
Frustration filled Roxy and she glared at Mortician. “I’m not one of your fucking marks that you interrogate before you decide on my fate.”
He smiled at her, but it wasn’t nice. She’d heard rumors about the club enforcer—Mortician, her son-in-law, Bailey’s husband, her grandchildren’s father—but she’d never witnessed his chilling countenance firsthand.
“You fucking crushed, Roxanne. It’s written all over your goddamn face.Younot a mark, but that motherfucker is. I warned him not to fuck with you. Fucking with you, fuck with Bailey, and not a motherfucker in this world fuck with my woman.”
“What do you want me to say?” she shouted. “I’m not giving you the go ahead to fuck Knox up.”
“I’m not asking you for permission,” he shot back. “I don’t like seeing you like this. Eyes all red and swollen, like you have a fucking industrial-grade pink eye that’s so contagious your fucking eyes popping out of your goddamn head any second. Even your nose and lips look fucking swollen. You well fucking past a hot mess. You more like a blistering cauldron of fuckedupness.”
“Boy, fuck you,” Roxy growled. “In a minute, my foot is going to be a blistering cauldron straight the fuck up your goddamn ass.” She jumped to her feet. “What the fuck do you want me to say? Knox and me are over. That doesn’t mean I don’t love the motherfucker. We just don’t fucking belong together.”
“ROXANNE!”
The earsplitting call boomed into the house. Lawd, Jesus! Was Knox fucking insane?
“ROXANNE!” he cried again.
Mortician rolled his eyes. “Some motherfucker been watching too much ofA Street Car Named Desire.”
“PLEASE COME BACK TO ME!I LOVE YOU!”
Amusement lit Mortician’s eyes.
“Not a fucking word,” Roxy ordered over her shoulder, hurrying to the door. She needed to stop this disaster-in-the-gruesome-making. Before Knox said something he shouldn’t, she needed to get matters in hand.
Outside, she found Knox sitting in a chair on her porch. It was the one he always sat in whenever they enjoyed fresh air in the mornings or evenings.
His amber gaze fell on her and he drew in a shuddering breath. “Roxanne,” he breathed.
