Page 12 of A Dance With Devils
“No.”
My brow arches at his forthright tone, body swinging back out of the window to look him over. “Her or the car?”
“Both.”
“That’s not an agreeable answer, Eli.”
“We’re not talking about this any further than we already have done. Go home before I let her brothers let loose on your ass.”
He turns to walk away, as if this is the last he’ll say on the matter.
This matter is far from over as far as I’m concerned. “How is your daughter?”
The sight of his body coming to a stop half way across the lot makes me chuckle and wait for the explosion of frustration that might come any minute. Doesn’t matter if it does or not. We fought about annoyances once before – I won. Will again if he thinks about trying another round of who knows what’s best.
“That has nothing to do with this,” he says, turning back to face me.
I walk forward to meet him, looking over the two apparent brothers in the distance who are still looking for a piece of me on a platter. “True, but if I can’t have one thing to play with, I might need another distraction to temper me. She enjoyed it the last time.”
The instant rage that begins building in him does nothing to dampen my brooding mood. I circle passed him and walk over to the brothers, watching the way the veins in their necks pop out of the skin given their anger about my behaviour. Brothers. Both of them. The older one doesn’t look much like the younger one. Heavier, darker hair. He sneers at my proximity, muscles twitching as he attempts to hold in his rage because Whit’s told him to behave.
Different parents maybe.
“You’re a pain in my ass, Malachi.”
I smirk and spin back to look at him again, as he approaches. “People say that about me a lot.”
He sighs and looks over the two brothers, shaking his head about something, as he turns back to me. “Any chance you’ll let this go?”
“None.”
He nods. Nothing more than that. “What did she ask for?” he says to the brothers, as he gets to them.
“Cooler. Some fucking reminders to not come back,” the older one replies.
He laughs. I’m not surprised. “Cooler it is then.”
Cooler it is.
Chapter 5
Ally
I’ve spent two hours feeling at odds with myself. Two hours trying to feel safe in a space that was safe before this evening. And now it’s gone midnight, my mind is doing nothing more than thinking about a certain man with roughed up clothes who I’ve sent off to a cooler to learn some manners, and I’m wide awake. I shouldn’t be. I should be exhausted like any other normal person after a ten hour shift and the night I’ve had.
I’m not.
Dropping my book on the coffee table, I stand and start the process of cleaning this mess I call home up. It isn’t my home, but it is the place we sleep, live, and pretend to be invested in, because until I can get back to where home should be, this is where we’re safest. Hidden at least. Normal job. Normal behaviour. Normal fucking crap hole to wander around each day regardless of the memories before it.
I sigh and pick up some dirty plates, collecting some pizza boxes on the way back to the kitchen, and then look at the electric cupboard as I come out into the hall. It’s small. I’m not even sure how he got in there being as tall as he is. It’s certainly not somewhere I’ve tried getting into before. Must have been on his knees. Not something I can imagine a man like him doing much of.
I doubt a man that fine is ever bowing down to anything.
And honestly, a week of skin? What did that even mean? Who stalks into houses and gives that sort of ultimatum over? My lips curl upwards at the thought, part of me extremely interested in the idea. It’s been a long time since I met a man that commanding that – capable.
Oh, stop it, Ally.
Gone.
