“Where have you been?” I asked as soon as his old bedroom door was shut.

“Thompson had some information. I met with him to go over your case.”

“Don’t you think I needed to be there?”

“So you can tell more lies?”

“This is my problem. You had no right.”

“I could say the same to you but get this… I have every right. It was my father you killed. It was my right you took, and you’re mine. Mine,” he repeated with force. “But don’t worry,” he whispered, calm again. “You’ll have the opportunity to dig a deeper hole for yourself tomorrow morning.”

“Whatever you’re going to do, just do it already. I’m sick of your threats. I’m sick of you treating me like I’m weak.”

“Aren’t you?” he spat venomously.

I didn’t know I would slap him, but it felt good when I did. I moved to repeat the hurt, but he caught my wrist and yanked me to him. “You’re going to regret that.” His voice was too level for the anger I knew brewed inside him. I didn’t have time to analyze it because I was tossed face down over the side of the bed. I wasn’t given time to recover. His fingers pinched my skin as he ripped the button of my jeans apart and stepped between my legs, forcing them open.

“Your niece is in the next room,” I reminded. I was grasping at straws.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to fuck you. Consider this a preview.”

He leaned down so I felt his breath on my neck. It was ragged and deep, and I knew he was warning me how close he was to losing it—how dangerous it would be for him to let go and was I willing to let us risk it?

The answer escaped me just like my common sense.

“I’m worried about us.”

“You should be.” He shoved his hand down the front of my jeans and cupped me through my soaked panties. “You did this.” He flicked my clit, and I moaned against the bed sheets. “But I swear to fuck, Lake. I’m going to fix us.” He plunged inside me, feeding my hunger. I felt his other hand as his fingers threaded my hair and pulled my head back. “When you’re ready, I’m going to take your ass.”

It was more than just a heated threat. It was a promise that excited me as much as if terrified me.

Chapter Seven

KEIRAN

She started to protest, but I shut her up by nipping the corner of her mouth. I felt her pussy clench hard around my fingers and somehow, I felt the same sensation around my dick.

“When you’re ready,” I assured. She nodded looking far too relieved, so I hooked my fingers inside her to catch her attention and felt her gasp against the skin of my throat. “But you will be ready.”

It was a warning and a threat. Two things she didn’t deserve from me. She should have pushed me away and ordered me out, but fuck me, why did her pussy flood my fingers instead?

Even under the worst of circumstances, I could never get enough of how she still managed to come apart at my command.

“Hey, man. I need to you stop whatever freakiness is going on in there. Q just pulled up.”

I listened as Keenan’s footsteps retreated at the same time Lake stiffened. I watched her for a beat, but she didn’t move. It looked as if she had stopped breathing altogether so I pulled her up and fixed her clothes, but she continued to look spooked.

“Lake,” I repeated her name, but it wasn’t until I snapped my fingers that she became aware of me again. “What’s up with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Q shows up and you go catatonic on me.”

She avoided my gaze and talked to the floor. “Let’s just see what he wants.”

“What makes you think he wants something?”

“Seriously?”

This back and forth was getting us nowhere so I took her hand and led her downstairs. Dash, Keenan, and Q were in a corner talking too low to hear. “What’s up?”

“Hey, man. I heard they bagged Lake. I came to see what I can do.”

“It was a bogus arrest. Those pigs must have gotten desperate because they were fishing.”

“Are you sure they were only fishing?”

I felt a nervous twitch at the threat of doom. Or maybe I was just being dramatic. Either way, it didn’t stop me from being suspicious. I’d never seen Q nervous, but he looked ready to buckle now.

“Why? Do you know something I don’t?” Rather than answer, he turned to address my girlfriend. “Tell him, Lake. I’m giving you one chance or I will.”