Lori Foster (19 page)

“Well.” Fisher taunted Avery with a narrow stare. “Apparently he wasn’t fast enough to avoid that knife, now was he?”

Going pale, Avery started to argue, but wasn’t given a chance.

“And what if he’d been killed?” Meyer demanded. “What would have stopped those goons from coming in after you?”

Sonya gasped at the possibility.

Avery waved off their concern. “Meyer, really, give me some credit. I had the door locked. Besides, I’d already called the cops. They got there just as Rowdy wrapped things up.”

Rowdy could feel Fisher, Meyer and Sonya staring at him with the same type of horror reserved for a train wreck. Hell, he could even hear their thoughts.

They were wondering what someone like him was doing with someone like Avery. They were blaming him for Avery’s new bloodthirsty tendencies.

They wanted him away from her, pronto. And to be honest, he couldn’t blame them one bit. Put Pepper in a similar scenario and he’d feel the same.

No way did Avery miss it. She was too astute for that.

So she...what? Wanted them to know what he was capable of? But why?

To rub it in, as Fisher had said? To show them just how far she’d gone in her rebellion? He hated that thought, but nothing else fit.

As if she hadn’t already done enough, Avery added, “I’ve seen Rowdy fight a couple of times now. He can be lethal.”

Fine, if that’s what she wanted, then he’d share it all. Rowdy forgot about his back as he relaxed in the chair. “Learning to defend myself came with the upbringing.”

“What does that mean?” Meyer wanted to know.

“My sister and I were raised in a rusted trailer on the riverbank. At five, I was fighting off hungry rats, and I guess I never stopped.” Avoiding Avery’s gaze, he lifted his tea in a toast. “If you don’t learn to fight, you get your ass beat on a regular basis. So yeah, I can handle one idiot with a knife.”

Everything, everyone, fell silent.

Screw them all,
Rowdy decided. He reached across the table to snag up another of the puny sandwiches, tossed it in his mouth and pushed back his chair. “Time for us to hit the road.” Standing there, feeling all their eyes on him, he tipped up his tea glass and finished it off, too.

And without waiting for Avery, he started out of the room. He heard Fisher snicker and thought about going back to beat the shit out of him, but he had never taken his bad temper out on anyone who didn’t deserve it.

Fisher might be annoying, but that didn’t earn him a coat of bruises.

Right now, Rowdy was the only one who deserved to have his ass kicked. He’d been a blind idiot, a complete fool.

As Meyer and Sonya tried to convince Avery to stay, he heard the rise of voices.
Let her,
Rowdy thought.

But he knew deep down he wasn’t going anywhere without her.

Furious, mostly at himself, Rowdy stopped outside the sunroom and, hands on his hips, waited.

A second later Avery came hustling out with Fisher at her side. She shook off the other man, spotted Rowdy and slowed with...relief.

Bull. He wouldn’t let her draw him in again.

“Sorry,” she told him brightly, as if their visit hadn’t gone completely off the rails. “I had to say my goodbyes.”

Sonya and Meyer were right behind her, still spewing arguments for her to stay. When they saw Rowdy, they clammed up.

Good breeding could be a hindrance, huh? Rowdy almost laughed.

“If you want to take a minute to make plans for another visit,” Rowdy offered, “I can wait outside.”

“No, that’s—”

Fisher interrupted her. “Meyer and I can wait with him, Ave. Take your time.”

“No!” She started forward. “I—”

“Yeah,
Ave,
” Rowdy mimicked, stopping her in midstep. “Take your time. Can’t claim to be a gentleman, but I’m not crude enough to leave you behind.” His own bad disposition took him out the door and as far as the driveway. Having Fisher at his back didn’t feel any more reassuring now than it had earlier, but this time Rowdy hoped the creep would do something, anything, deserving a beat down.

Instead, his hands in his pockets, his tone nonthreatening, Fisher said, “Sorry, man. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you to come here.”

“Yeah?” Arms crossed over his chest, Rowdy leaned back on the fender of the bastard’s car. “Why’s that?”

Meyer shook his head. “Now you see that Avery is...well, she’s confused about some things. But she needs to return home. Her mother needs her here.”

“Got nothing to do with me.”

Fisher shared a look with Meyer. “You could fire her.”

The hell he would. Rowdy showed his teeth in mock humor. “I’ll let her know you suggested it, Fish.”

Fisher sighed. “If you want to make this more difficult, I can’t stop you. But for her sake, I hope you reconsider.”

For her sake. Yeah, for Avery, Rowdy would do just about anything.

Sucked that he was only just now realizing it.

She stuck her head out the door, saw him and again her blue eyes went soft with relief. She and her mother came out.

Sonya looked distressed, but Avery said, “I’ll be back soon, Mom. I promise. If you need me, I’m only a phone call away.”

“I don’t want to be a burden.”

Avery smiled. “You could never be that.”

Sonya shivered in the cold breeze, so Meyer went to her, his arm around her shoulders.

“Go on in,” Avery told them, holding her own jacket close around her. “It’s too cold out here.”

Rowdy wanted to snuggle her closer, too, to share his warmth, but he didn’t. He ignored Fisher and said to Avery’s parents, “Thank you for the lunch.”

Meyer replied, “Drive carefully.”

Indecision held Sonya for a second before she stepped forward. “Thank you, Rowdy. I hope we see you again.”

Not likely. He got one side of his mouth to smile, nodded and turned to go. Avery hustled to keep up with him.

Full of confidence, Fisher called out, “We’ll see you again soon, Ave.”

Mouth pinched tight, she ignored him and stared straight ahead. For Rowdy it was a little harder. He wanted to level the smug bastard.

At the end of the driveway, Avery stepped closer, her shoulder bumping his arm. Rowdy moved away from her on the pretense of circling the car.

She stopped and stared at him a moment before going on to open her own door.

If she thought he was a gentleman, then it was past time for Avery Mullins to accept the truth. She’d laid it out for her folks, and he’d be happy to drive it home for her.

He was a street rat, through and through. Immoral when it suited him, driven by his own rules and to hell with what society thought. He and his little bartender had nothing but sexual chemistry in common.

Much as he might wish it otherwise, Rowdy knew that could never be enough.

* * *

A
VERY
TOOK
THE
silence for as long as she could, but she grew more stressed with each minute that passed. Finally she felt as if she’d jump out of her own skin if she didn’t say something.

“My mom says she’s in overall good spirits. They got all the cancer and her prognosis is good. She’s recovering quickly.”

Nothing.

“Cancer is always serious, of course. But Mom assured me that she’ll be fine, that much of the treatment is just precautionary. She said Meyer exaggerated things.”

“He wanted you home, where you belong.”

But she didn’t belong there. Not anymore. She needed Rowdy to understand that. “Mom apologized for Fisher being there. I guess Meyer invited him, and he showed up last minute.”

It crushed her that even now her mother didn’t see what a creep Fisher was. She claimed he had been so helpful to them, that Fisher was every bit as heartbroken by her long absence.

If her mother hadn’t been ailing, Avery would have walked out again.

“She wanted me to take some of my old clothes with me. She disapproves of my jeans, but I’ve really enjoyed being so comfortable.”

Rowdy’s face tightened, but he didn’t reply.

“I think she’s accepting that I made my own way. Especially now that we’ve sort of reconciled. I told her I’d come back more to visit.” When Fisher wasn’t around—that was one stipulation she’d given, and her mother had agreed. “She’ll call to talk, to keep me updated on what’s happening.”

No reaction at all.

“She said she’d really like to get to know you better, too.”

Other than Rowdy’s eyes narrowing more, he didn’t acknowledge her in any way.

Avery knew he’d disapproved of her bragging. He couldn’t possibly understand why she’d done it, and Avery couldn’t tell him.

Better than most, she knew how deceptive Fisher could be. Despite appearances, he wasn’t a principled man, and he didn’t fight fair. As long as Fisher believed that Rowdy was a complete and total badass—which wasn’t a stretch—then he just might leave Rowdy alone.

But if Rowdy knew the truth, no way would he let Fisher off that easy. He thought himself invincible, and in some circumstances, it might be true. In a fair fight, one-on-one, face-to-face, Rowdy would destroy Fisher.

Unfortunately, Fisher wasn’t a dummy, but he was the worst kind of coward. If he ever attacked Rowdy, it wouldn’t be in any honorable way where Rowdy would have a chance to defend himself.

If only she’d known Fisher was going to be there... Damn Meyer for his meddling.

As Rowdy continued to ignore her, her heart grew heavy in her chest. “Rowdy?”

“What is it,
Ave?
”

She winced at the bite in his tone. “Please don’t call me that. It’s some ridiculous thing that Fisher picked up. I don’t like it.”

He turned down a road toward the bar.

They only had a few more minutes. “I’m sorry if that was uncomfortable for you.”

He laughed without humor. “Funny, but Fisher said the same thing to me.”

“Fisher is an ass.” What else had he said to Rowdy? Her heart punched hard at the possibilities.

“Hate to point out the obvious, honey, but he shared your sentiments.”

“No. Fisher and I share nothing.” She reached out to touch him, but without moving, Rowdy somehow made it clear that he didn’t want her to. Crestfallen, she withdrew her hand. “I meant that with Fisher being so hostile... I didn’t know he’d be there.”

“He wasn’t hostile at all,” Rowdy denied. “He cares for you.”

She wanted to scream,
No, he doesn’t.
Instead she tried a deep breath. “We were never together. Fisher likes to remember it otherwise.”
Fisher likes to lie.
“But I never cared for him that way.”
Not how I care for you.
“I guess you could tell that Meyer and my mom wish things were different. They like him and approve of him—”

Rowdy gave another grim laugh.

“Stop that!”

He didn’t even glance her way. “Stop what?”

He’d frozen her out and it hurt. So damn much. “Stop being so condescending, so...cold.”

Rowdy pulled onto the street for his apartment. “You used me, Ave.”

God, how she hated that butchering of her name. But she couldn’t deny what he said. She had used him.

To show Fisher that she wasn’t without resources of her own.

She wasn’t alone, vulnerable.

To show him that Rowdy was not a slouch, and wouldn’t be an easy target. He wasn’t a person who would turn tail and flee the danger.

And that’s what scared her so badly. Fisher didn’t lose. If he couldn’t run Rowdy off the easy way, he just might get rid of him for good.

Rowdy pulled into the bar, then around to where her car was parked.

She stared at him, confused. “What are you doing? We don’t open for two more hours.”

“I figured you’d want to run home to shower or change or whatever.”

“But—” She wanted to talk to him, to reach him. To repair whatever damage had been done...

“I need to go see Marcus.” He reached past her and pushed the passenger door open, a blatant order to get out. “Have to hurry it up if I’m going to get back in time.”

Wow, talk about rejection. Hurt had a death grip on her heart right now. “Rowdy, if you’d let me explain...”

His gaze met hers, and the volcanic emotion there stunned her. “Go ahead, babe. Lie to me. Tell me you didn’t use me.”

Words wouldn’t come. She shook her head, feeling so damned helpless. “I don’t lie.” More than anything, she needed Rowdy to believe that—because no one else had, not even her mother.

Rowdy smirked. “Shoving me under their noses really taught Mommy and Stepdaddy something, didn’t it? Too bad you didn’t clue me in beforehand. I could have unearthed some of my best stories. Like the time I stuffed a human trafficker in my trunk, took him to an abandoned warehouse and taught him the error of his ways with my fists.”

Her lungs compressed, leaving her breathless.

“Or the time I dared a mob boss to shoot me so that Logan could sneak up behind him and get the upper hand.”

She covered her mouth, unable to bear the thought of it. “Stop it,” she whispered.

“Why? You wanted your folks to hear the nitty-gritty. I have some real shit stories we could have passed around the table over fancy finger food. Course, that might not have given you enough time to talk to your mother about her cancer.” He put an arm along the back of the seat and toyed with her hair. “Did you manage to squeeze in any concern, honey? Or were you too busy sticking it to them?”

Chased by heartache, hurt and anger, Avery launched out of the car. It crushed her to know he had such a low opinion of her, making her hands shake as she fumbled in her purse for the keys to her own car, then fumbled some more trying to get the damn door unlocked using the clicker. Tears burned her eyes and blurred her vision.

Once inside, she fired up the engine, then, unable to stop herself, she glanced back at Rowdy. He sat in his car, the engine idling, his cell phone to his ear.

And she knew. He was calling someone to keep an eye on her, to ensure she got home safely.

She deflated with that realization. He was hurting, too; that’s why he’d been so cruel.

But that didn’t make it any easier. Somehow she’d have to make him understand her motives without telling him too much. Regardless of the malicious way he’d just used to get her out of his car, she didn’t have a single doubt what Rowdy would do if he knew the truth about Fisher. Right now he was a disgruntled, wounded bear, but deep down, he was still a protector. He’d been born to it, and for every day of his entire life he’d been fulfilling that duty.