Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“You’ve dumped your friends for cock.”

Turning away from my office filing cabinet later that week, I frowned at Sabrina. “What?”

Standing in front of my desk with her arms folded, she briefly inclined her head as she conceded, “Okay, so, occasionally you’ll meet me and Tamara for drinks or whatever. But that’s the problem—you only do it occasionally.”

I sighed. “You act like you rarely see me.”

“Spending time with you at work isn’t the same thing. It’s not socializing.”

“True.” There was a low screech of metal as I pulled open a cabinet drawer. “But just because I’m not going out with you on the regular doesn’t mean I’m blowing you off for dick or anything else.” I tugged a file out of the drawer and then closed it. “Dax and I swore we’d spend time together at home like other couples do. As you’re well-aware.”

“Yeah,” Sabrina begrudgingly allowed, “but these past few weeks, you’ve been spending way more time with him than you used to.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Uh, yeah, you have.”

Yes, I had. Because I liked being around him. A lot.

I looked forward to going home to him. I enjoyed having dinner with him, spending time with him, and hearing about his day. And I loved that we’d developed a strong, healthy rapport. None of which I cared to share with my friend, since I didn’t want to admit that I was growing to care for the man I’d married as part of a damn business transaction.

A little annoyed by my emotional situation, I slapped the file on my desk. “I’m a homebody. You know that.”

“You like being at home and cozying up with a book, sure, but you also like to venture out and meet friends for drinks and stuff. Lately, though, you’ve been a total hermit.”

“I’m sorry if I made you feel neglected. Where is it you want us to go? I’ll make it happen.”

She pursed her lips. “Nowhere in particular.”

“What date did you have in mind?”

“I don’t have any in mind.”

I felt my shoulders drop as a long sigh slid out of me. “So, basically, you’re just taking an opportunity to moan.”

Sabrina took a step closer to the desk. “What I’m doing is noticing that you’re happily spending far more time at home than you used to. So either you’re becoming emotionally attached to Dax’s penis, or to him.”

I stilled, my insides seizing. “It’s neither.” The words came out flat and stiff.

Her face went slack. “Oh my God, it’s the latter,” she somehow sensed.

“No, it’s not,” I snapped, sounding defensive even to my own ears.

“Don’t live in denial. It’s boring.”

“I’m not in denial, I’m just … denying it to you.” I returned to my seat. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She took the chair opposite mine, her expression soft. “It seemed a given that you two would eventually develop a companionable bond of sorts—one that comes with sharing important life-milestones together, like having kids and stuff. But I wasn’t expecting it to happen quite so soon.”

I felt my brows draw together. “I don’t know if I could say we’ve bonded. Dax is quite the emotional loner.”

She hummed, thoughtful. “Let me ask you a question. Is he home more than he used to be?”

I twisted my mouth, considering it. “Yes.”

“So maybe you’re not the only one catching feelings.”

“You say it like they’re germs.”

“They infect a person, attach themselves to your insides, and make a home for themselves there. That can be inconvenient if it’s one-sided. But … maybe it’s not with you and Dax.”

I liked to think it wasn’t. Liked to think I wasn’t reading too much into the changes in our dynamics—such as how he’d become slightly tactile, how he sought out my company, how he joked with and teased me, how he was coming to trust me little by little. There had even been more instances when I’d woken to find that we’d closed the distance between us in bed while asleep.

I propped my elbows on the table. “He does do things sometimes that make me think he might care for me, but not in the sense that I believe he feels anything deep for me.” I wasn’t sure if that would ever be the case. “To be fair, though, I might not grow to feel deeply for him either.” It sucked that, however, I strongly suspected I would.

“But you’re not mere friends anymore?” she asked.

“No, we’re more than that.” That was enough for now. It would have to be.

A knock came at the open door as one of our team, Megan, took a single step into the office. She gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry to disturb you, but there’s a woman here to see you. Says her name is Mimi.”

I went very still. Ah, shit.

Sabrina sucked in an angry breath. “Is that bitch for fucking real?”

I’d relayed some of what had happened with Mimi to Sabrina—minus the part where the woman had a thing for Dax. Needless to say, my BFF was now not a fan of hers. Neither was I, but I didn’t intend to send Mimi away. No, I wanted to know what had inspired her to haul ass here. I also had a few things I’d like to say to her.

Sitting up straighter in my seat, I spoke to Megan, “Send her in, please.”

With a nod, Megan disappeared.

I refocused on Sabrina. “I’ll handle this. You go back to—”

“No way am I leaving you alone with that skank,” she declared, folding her arms. “She’s gonna come in here and say more about how Dax shouldn’t have married you and doesn’t care for you blah, blah, blah. You need me here for moral support.”

I shot her an impatient look. “You only want to stay because you’re nosy as hell.”

“Well, you don’t give me specifics,” she defended. “And I don’t like bullet-point versions.”

I pointed at the door, pinning her with a stare that said I would not change my mind. “I’ll come by your desk when I’m done here.”

Her lips thinning, she stood. “Fine.” The drama queen marched to the door, the image of indignance, and almost bumped into Mimi in the doorway. Sabrina volleyed her with a glare that could singe flesh and then stalked off.

Mimi blinked, seeming taken aback by the cold reception.

Uninterested in rising from my seat to greet her politely or any of that crap, I sank back into my chair, interlinked my fingers, and rested my hands over my stomach. I didn’t speak, knowing from my father that sometimes the best way to make a person get to the damn point was to simply look at them blankly.

Glancing around, she leisurely made her way to the seat Sabrina had vacated. “Nice office,” Mimi told me as she sat. “Very chic. A little girly, though.”

I almost rolled my eyes at what was intended to be a taunt. I was a girl, in case she hadn’t noticed. And I had not one issue with “girly.”

She shifted slightly in her seat. “I suppose you’re wondering why I’m here.”

Naturally.

“I suppose you’re also feeling far from pleased to see me.”

Accurate.

“And it’s got to be weird for you to sit across from the mirror image of the only woman who the guy you married has ever loved.”

Hmm, no, not really. I didn’t look at Mimi and see Gracie—the differences in their personalities set them apart in a major way. Especially since their personalities leaked into their behavior. It meant they had different mannerisms, smiles, postures, and gesticulations.

“But I wanted to talk to you,” she added, as if I hadn’t gathered that much by her coming here. “There are things I want to say.”

I raised a Such as? brow.

Sighing, she scratched at her scalp. “I didn’t mean what I said to Dax. I would never talk to the tabloids about him. I was just …”

“Feeling pissed and jealous because he married someone other than you,” I supplied.

A hardness slid into her eyes. “You can’t know what it’s like to want someone and hate yourself for it.”

Maybe not, but I was entirely positive that I wouldn’t have handled the situation in the same ways that she did.

She licked her lower lip in an awkward gesture. “When Gracie died, I felt like he’d be the only one who really understood how bad it hurt, so I often came to him to talk. He loved her so much. I don’t think I realized how much until after she was gone. And the more time I spent with him, the more I came to care for him.” She paused, twiddling her fingers. “And the more I grew to loathe myself.”

“Yet, you keep putting yourself in his path,” I pointed out. “Why do that? The rest of your family aren’t in contact with him. There’s no reason for you to be either.” I, personally, would have removed myself from the equation for the sake of both myself and Dax.

She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe I’m punishing myself for feeling what I feel.”

I inwardly snorted. “You can’t feel that bad about it if you keep trying to seduce him.”

A pink flush crept onto her face. “You’ve seen me when I’m plastered. I don’t exactly have many inhibitions in that state.”

I scoffed. “If that was all it was, you’d just avoid drinking around him. But you do the opposite. Probably because you need some good ole Dutch courage to make a move, but also because you can then blame the alcohol if he turns you down.”

“No, I—”

“You might resent what you feel for Dax. You might wish you could switch it off. But what you wish most of all is that he returned your feelings.”

Her brow furrowed. “You think I have the slightest hope he’d ever love me?” She let out a derisive snort. “I’m very much aware he’ll never feel for another woman what he felt for Gracie. Losing her took something out of him. Or she took something out of him when she left. He isn’t whole without her.”

“Of course she took a piece of him with her. It was hers to take. That’s how it goes.” It didn’t mean he was broken or had some gaping hole inside him, but Mimi persisted in seeing him as if he was half a person.

“Maybe, but he’s always going to cling to his perfect little Gracie,” she clipped, bitterness dripping from every syllable. “A Gracie who wasn’t really so perfect.”

I felt my eyes narrow. “If you have something to say about her, say it. Don’t hint at it.”

Shifting in her seat, Mimi averted her gaze. “I just meant that, you know, nobody’s all good.”

Maybe. Maybe not.

When she’d first insinuated there was something Dax didn’t know, I’d thought that she would have surely told him anything that would break his connection to Gracie. But … I had two sisters who I loved with everything in me. Sisters I’d do anything for. Sisters whose secrets I’d protect.

Mimi might be a tool, but she had loved her twin dearly; she would surely keep a secret for her. Especially if exposing it would taint others’ memories of her.

I could push for more information, but it wasn’t my right to do that. And the last thing I wanted was to learn something about Gracie that had the potential to hurt Dax. We’d promised each other honesty, so I’d feel obliged to tell him, and it would suck large to have to do it.

As such, I let the matter drop and instead asked, “Why are you here?”

Mimi poked her tongue into the inside of her cheek. “I figured you of all people would understand how it is for me. We’re in the same boat. We love Dax. Love a man who doesn’t, and never will, love us back.”

Oh, she just relished taking any opportunity possible to drum the idea into my head that he felt nothing for me.

Her head very slowly tilted to the side as she studied me. “Or are you thinking that will change for you some day? It won’t, you know. Others held that same hope. It was crushed every time.” She paused. “There was one woman I thought he might grow to care for. She was technically a bed-buddy, but they had something. Emotionally, I mean.”

And I was apparently supposed to feel upset and jealous on hearing this—that was the reaction Mimi was so obviously looking for. She craved that response from me because it was how I made her feel—she wanted to level the playing field.

The thing was … yes, it stung hearing he’d cared for others. But at the same time, I would never wish he’d been alone all these years feeling nothing for no one.

“I don’t know if her name is really Angel or if that’s a stage name,” Mimi continued. “She works as a stripper in the club he used to own. That’s how they met.” A sly smirk pulled at one corner of her mouth. “I heard he was like a sex addict with her. It was as if he just couldn’t stay away from the girl. Some said he was obsessed with her.”

Okay, yeah, that made my gut twist painfully.

“But what they had wasn’t just physical. He was very protective of Angel. Possessive, too. He put a stop to the lap dances because he didn’t like her being that close to other men. I could see she meant something to him.”

“You must have hated her, then.”

Mimi’s smirk faltered. “No. I want him to be happy. She made him happy.”

Uh, no, Mimi wanted him to be happy with her, no one else. As for Angel … if she really had been so important to him it was weird that they’d had nothing more than a bed-buddy arrangement. “Just to be clear … you feel that all this is relevant because, what?”

Her face reddened as her taunting expression morphed into a resentful glower. So much scorn and bitterness whirled in her gaze it was a wonder she wasn’t shaking with the force of the emotions.

“It’s relevant because obsession never dies,” she retorted. “His sure didn’t. He’s still in contact with Angel; still heads to the club to check on her; still fixes all her problems for her, like he’s her own personal white knight. He even gives her money if she needs it.”

Hurt tried to bubble up, but I mentally shook it off, sure he wouldn’t keep from me that he played such a strong part in one of his ex’s lives that way.

“You don’t believe me?” Mimi dug her phone out of her purse, tapped the screen several times, and then held it up for me to see. “Look. Look.”

I cut my gaze to the screen, and the bottom fell out of my stomach. It was a photo of Dax and an incredibly beautiful blonde. They stood intimately close on a sidewalk outside the strip club, their bodies mere inches apart as they faced each other. His head was tilted down toward hers, and she was grinning up at him.

My body went stiff as so many emotions blindsided me. Shock. Hurt. Betrayal. Fury. Disillusionment. Every single one of those emotions was a sharp, crippling stab to my tightening chest.

Unlinking my fingers, I fisted my hands and ground my teeth against the primitive drive to punch something; to snatch her phone and throw it across the room; to ream Dax’s ass for taking a shit on my trust and … and … But that didn’t sound like him.

The photographic evidence was right there, yes. But I couldn’t make the betrayal “fit” with what I knew of him. I just couldn’t.

Sitting there, I vacillated between devastation, anger, and disbelief as I took a long, hard look at the picture. At him. Her. The background. The lighting. I searched for signs of tampering but found none. The photo seemed real, seemed …

My thoughts halted as something occurred to me. Something that sent a wave of relief washing through my system, sweeping away the dark emotions that had taken hold of me. I drew in a centering breath, relaxing my fists.

“See?” snapped Mimi. “I can’t say whether or not they’re sleeping together, but they sure look cozy, don’t they?”

I only hummed.

Lines of confusion creased her brow. “This doesn’t bother you?”

“It would … if that wasn’t an old picture.”

She tensed. “What?”

“The dingy nightclub in the background right beside the strip club? It was shut down over a year ago. I know this, because I arranged for several bachelor parties to take place there before ownership of it changed hands. It was given an entire makeover and is now a strip club exclusive to women.”

Pausing, I cocked my head. “Should I be concerned that you used to take pictures of him in the street like some stalker? Is it something you still do? Because if so, I’ll have a problem with that.”

She shot to her feet, her nostrils flaring, clenching her phone tight. I thought she might storm out, but she stayed right there, breathing hard and glaring at the wall behind me.

“What is it you’re trying to do here?” I asked, anger once more flickering to life in my belly. “Hurt me? Sow seeds of distrust? Cause arguments between me and Dax? What?”

Her glare slammed on me, the rage there morphing into … shame?

“If you came here with the half-assed plan to make me believe Dax is cheating on me so that I’d leave—”

“That isn’t why I came,” she said, closing her eyes. Plopping her butt back down on the chair, she exhaled a long breath and then reopened her eyes.

“Really?” I drawled, skeptical.

“Really. I actually had no intention of showing you the photo at all. It didn’t even occur to me until I got seriously annoyed by you sitting there looking all indifferent. I acted on a dumb impulse. And just to clarify, I didn’t take the picture. A friend did; they sent it to me, wanting me to see for myself that he’d moved on, hoping it would make me move on.”

I watched her steadily, not so certain that the contrite vibes spilling from her were entirely authentic. I couldn’t say I’d be moved if they were.

“I came because … I’m leaving Redwater,” she blurted out. “I don’t know when I’ll be back. It won’t be for a while.”

Even as I did a mental fist pump, I kept my expression blank.

“But before I left, I wanted to talk to you alone. I wanted to get a feel for what kind of person you are.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “I wanted to understand.”

“Understand what?”

“What it is about you that would make him give you what he wouldn’t give the others,” she admitted, a pained note to her voice. “He probably would have married Gracie. But those who came before and after her? No, he pointblank refused to take a walk down the aisle with them. Didn’t even propose to any of them.

“I found out that you two had a fling years ago, so I know you have history. But even that doesn’t explain why he’d marry you. He can’t have been pining after you all this time; he wouldn’t have stayed away—Dax goes after what he wants.” She raised her shoulders. “None of this makes any sense to me, and he’ll never answer my questions.”

I got it, then. Just as I couldn’t reconcile the Dax I knew with a man who’d cheat, she couldn’t reconcile the Dax she knew with a guy who’d commit himself to a woman. The issue was that, as he’d once pointed out to me, she didn’t really know Dax. “Look, Mimi—”

“I wasn’t lying about Angel. I mean, no, he’s not in touch with her now. But she did matter to him back when they were involved with each other. So did some of the others in his past. But he didn’t put a ring on their finger.”

“Just because a person matters to you doesn’t mean you’ll want to marry them. Surely you yourself have had boyfriends who, however much you might have cared for them, you didn’t feel inclined to marry.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And why did you feel inclined to marry Dax? He doesn’t love you. We both know that.”

The words sliced me like a hot blade. Shouldn’t. Weren’t supposed to. But they did.

“Maybe you’re wrong,” I said, since I had no wish to tell her about the pact or anything else so personal. “Maybe you can’t read him as well as you think you can. It would explain why you’ve been so certain he’ll never move forward, and why you keep throwing yourself at him thinking he’ll ever do anything but reject you.”

She dragged in a sharp breath. “You can’t honestly think you’ll ever matter to him the way Gracie did.”

“Why? Because you never mattered to him that way?”

She flinched, but I didn’t feel bad. Not after all she’d said and done to Dax, and not after all she’d said and done since walking into my office.

She straightened her shoulders. “Believe I’m wrong if it makes you feel better about doing something as dumb as marrying someone to whom you’ll always be second choice. But I can promise you this: By the time I next return to Redwater, you’ll be out of the picture,” she stated, firm and cocky. “You’ll have reached a point where you can’t hide the truth from yourself any longer, and you’ll have left him.”

“And that’s honestly what you want for Dax? You want for him to be alone? If so, that’s not real love, Mimi. Not even close.”

Her smug look wavered.

I leaned forward in my seat and braced my lower arms on the table. “Now that you’ve had your say,” I began, my voice severe with a harsh edge, “allow me to have mine. Like it or not, Mimi, I’m a permanent fixture in Dax’s life. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to stay. And you need to get your head out of your ass.”

When she opened her mouth to snap a retort, I barreled onward, saying, “You’ve disrespected his feelings and wishes for far too long. It ends now. All of it. He’ll never be yours. Never. He didn’t want you when he was single, and he sure as shit doesn’t want you now that he’s married. Accept that and move on with your life instead of trying to force your way into his.”

She’d looked furious before. Now she looked fit to skin a motherfucker. I half-expected her to launch herself across the table and go for my throat or something. She didn’t. She sneered at me, grinding her teeth.

“You really think you’re here to stay?” She all but cackled. “Oh, that’s funny. Really. Don’t you get it yet, sweetie? When it comes to Dax, no woman is here to stay.” She pushed to her feet. “If you genuinely think differently, I guess all I can really say is … prepare yourself for the rude awakening you’re going to get someday soon.”

“Right back at you.” I remained in my seat as she practically barged out of the office. Letting my head tip back, I sighed long and loud, feeling like I’d been through the ringer.

And I shouldn’t feel that way. The thought of Dax betraying me shouldn’t have made me feel crushed, but it had. No, not simply crushed. Ravaged. Eviscerated. Demoralized.

Yeah, I’d been fooling myself by thinking I was only beginning to care for Dax. The truth was … I’d cared for him for a while now, and those feelings were growing and growing.

Fuck this shit.

Sabrina hurried inside and cast a glance at the door. “Mimi did not look happy just now. What was all that about?”

Not wanting to get into it all—especially when I wouldn’t be able to hide from Sabrina just how dangerously hurt I’d been when I almost fell for Mimi’s little trick—I fudged, “She’s still not pleased that Dax moved on with his life. She felt the need to communicate it yet again.”

It was a damn good thing for her that she was leaving Redwater, because he was not going to like that she’d come here. Not even a little bit.

∞∞∞

Later that day, the sound of the villa’s front door closing snapped me out of the story I was reading. Curled up in my armchair with a hardcover book in my lap, I looked at the vintage wall clock. Dax was home an hour later than usual, but it was no surprise—he’d texted me to let me know that he’d had to attend a last-minute meeting.

On returning home from work, I’d retreated almost immediately to my reading den, needing to immerse myself in another world so I could stop thinking about the Mimi fiasco. I wasn’t much calmer than I’d been when she first left my office. Mostly because I knew I’d have to share what happened with Dax.

A guy should be able to come home at the end of his workday and relax, unwind, and chill. Especially a man like him, whose days were hectic. He shouldn’t have to come home to yet more issues, and I wanted to be the last person to dump them on his lap.

But keeping what happened from him wasn’t an option. Not after the promises we’d made to each other. So I was going to have to tell him something that would piss him off, wreck his mood for the evening, and quite possibly hurt him. I would sure be hurt if one of Lake’s relatives acted in such a way, and I’d hate that Dax was forced to deal with that crap.

In no rush to spill the earlier confrontation to him, I tried to once again bury myself in my book. But, too on edge about the upcoming conversation, I failed miserably.

I was just considering whether to go track him down when I heard footfalls heading toward the den. Moments later, he strolled inside with a casual, easy grace. Despite the rock of aggravation in my stomach, I felt my mouth hitch up slightly at the sight of him.

He hummed. “Thought I might find you here.”

I let out a mock long-suffering sigh. “I don’t have much of a choice in the matter. I mean, you gave me several books. They aren’t going to read themselves.”

Sparks of amusement danced in his eyes. “Right.” He planted his feet. “On another note, my mother is finalizing her plans for Thanksgiving. She wants to know if we’re definitely going to be eating dinner at her table.”

“I told you we would,” I reminded him.

“Yes, you did. But I know that your parents have been trying to change your mind.”

Oh, they’d given it all they had. I had no clue why. It wasn’t fresh news that I was more stubborn than both of them put together. “I refused to reconsider but promised we would have dinner with them next year if—and only if—my dad and Ollie’s behavior toward you improves.”

One side of Dax’s mouth kicked up. “Cunning.”

“Thank you, honey pie.”

And his smile faded. “You really have to stop with that.”

“Nu-uh, I’m on a mission to find the perfect pet name for you. I don’t give up easily.”

“Make an exception,” he said, enunciating every word.

“Oh, but—”

“No, I don’t need or want a pet name.”

“Sometimes, we think we don’t want something. But then when we get it, we can’t imagine life without it.”

“I can safely assure you that at no point would I want anything but to live without it.”

I gave him a haughty look. “I beg to differ, but we’ll see.” I closed my book and took a preparatory breath. “So. Something happened today.”

His eyelids lowered slightly. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“It’s doubtful that you will,” I admitted, setting the hardcover on the nearby table.

“Go on.”

I shifted position, untucking my feet from beneath my butt to straighten my legs. “I had a visitor at work.”

His eyes went slitted. “Grayden?”

I gave my head a slow shake. “Mimi.”

Something dark crawled behind his mismatched eyes as tension crept into his muscles, turning his posture from lazy and casual to stiff and wooden. “She went to your office?” he asked, his voice dead.

I swallowed. “Yes.”

“When?” The quiet question was as abrupt as the lashing of a whip.

“This afternoon.”

One brow slinked upward. “And you sent her away, yes?”

Hesitating, I pulled a face. “Not exactly.”

A hoarsely spoken curse flew out of his mouth. “Why would you agree to see her, Addison? And why the hell didn’t you call me?”

Uh, apparently there was something we weren’t straight on. It seemed best to rectify that problem now. “Where there’s a chance of physical danger, I will call you. Other times? No. I’m not some fragile creature that can’t handle her own shit.”

He clenched his jaw. “I told you that Mimi can get handsy.”

“I’ve got news for you—so can I. If she ever comes at me, she won’t walk away unscathed. So I suppose it’s fortunate for her that causing me physical pain wasn’t on her agenda today.”

“What did she say to you?”

“A lot. To summarize … she would never talk to the tabloids about you, she loathes herself for wanting you, she’s certain you’ll never love me or anyone else, she wants to understand why you married me, and she believes that only one woman from your past other than her sister really meant something to you.” My belly began rolling at the mere thought of the latter part. “Mimi talked about her quite a bit.”

His brow knitted. “Who?” he asked with complete bewilderment, as if he had literally not one idea who Mimi could possibly have named.

“Angel.” Careful to keep my tone even, ignoring the way my gut twisted, I added, “Mimi said you were obsessed with her. Very protective and possessive.”

His frown deepening, he gave a dismissive shrug. “Angel and I had a brief fling—nothing more,” he stated so firmly I couldn’t doubt him for even a second.

And once again, the world became a fabulous, most wondrous place.

My insides no longer churning, I said, “Either Mimi doesn’t believe that, or she just wanted to convince me differently. She certainly tried convincing me that you were still involved with Angel.”

His shoulders stiffening, he did a slow blink. “Say that again.”

“She showed me an old photo that she has saved in her phone—apparently her friend took it from afar and then sent it to Mimi to show her you’d moved on. It was a picture of you and Angel looking quite cozy together while standing outside the strip club you used to own. Mimi tried making me believe it was a recent photo. She was unsuccessful at that, which pissed her off somewhat.”

He stared at me, his jaw tightening, his expression chilling. “She insinuated that I could be cheating on you?” he asked, a rough quality to every word, as if he was fighting back a growl.

Nibbling on my lower lip, I nodded. “Yup.”

A cold rage swam into his eyes, icing them over. His neck corded, he smashed his lips together and dragged in a breath through his nose.

“I don’t know if she went to my office with the intention of playing that game. She claimed it was a spur of the moment idea that she ran with because I remained aloof in the face of her attempts to goad me.”

“Whether or not she planned it is irrelevant,” he gritted out, every word sharp as a blade.

“I agree, I’m just saying I’m unsure if she intended all along to tell such a tale. Whatever the case, she was set on making me feel how she feels—hurt, angry, jealous. But she couldn’t claim you cared for her to wrench such reactions out of me, so she chose one of your past bed-buddies instead.”

“You shouldn’t have given her the time of day.”

I jutted out my chin. “It was my opportunity to get the message across that I’m here for good and she needs to deal with it.” Not that she’d believed me. “I just want her to leave you alone. I don’t like that she does things that hurt you. I don’t like that she won’t accept what you want and don’t want. It’s no different from you wanting to communicate to Grayden that he needs to back off.”

Dax’s mouth set into a hard slash, his eyes flaring. He hadn’t yet told me what got said between him and my ex. All he’d said was that it had been “sorted.”

Shaking his head in incredulity, Dax turned his body slightly and pinned his gaze on a spot on the wall.

I pushed to my feet. “Her behavior can’t be that much of a surprise to you. You had to know before we got married that Mimi might make a nuisance of herself.”

“I didn’t suspect she’d go this far,” he replied without meeting my gaze. “Act out in petty ways? Yes. That’s always been her style. But try to cause serious problems in my marriage? No. That’s a whole other level of vindictive.”

“If it makes you feel any better, she didn’t do it to hurt you. That was an attempt to hurt me.”

His brows slamming together, he turned back to me. “That doesn’t make me feel better at all. Far from it. You’re mine. She has no fucking right to go anywhere near you. And it pisses me off that I wasn’t able to shelter you from her bullshit. I didn’t see it coming.”

Everything in me went all gooey at the protective comment.

His gaze sharpening, he tilted his head. “The photo she showed you … You didn’t even suspect it was recent?”

I sank my teeth into my bottom lip. “I’ll admit, there were a few seconds where—completely taken off-guard—I assumed it was. But cheating goes against who you are. I couldn’t believe you’d do that to me. I just couldn’t. So I took a closer look at the picture, and I noticed background details that clearly spelled out it was from years ago.”

An emotion I couldn’t quite name leaked into his eyes, thawing some of the rage there. Those same eyes roamed over my face with blatant possession. “I don’t think anyone has ever trusted me quite as much as you do.”

The question “Not even Gracie?”was on the tip of my tongue, but I held it back. It wouldn’t be a fair thing to ask. “Mimi also said that you watch over Angel. I’m not accusing you of anything,” I hurried to add. “I just know you’re a protective person, so—”

“Only to those under my protection. I haven’t been in contact with Angel since we ended our bed-buddy arrangement.”

The last knot in my belly fell away. “In better news, Mimi’s actually leaving Redwater for a while.”

He let out a low snort. “Of course she is. She doesn’t want to face me after pulling this stunt.”

He whipped out his phone, unlocked the screen with a press of his thumb, tapped said screen a few times, and then put the cell to his ear. The room was quiet enough that I heard the dialing tone, heard it ring and ring and ring, heard a muffled automated voice, heard a distinct beep.

“Low, Mimi,” Dax rumbled. “What you did today was low. Apparently, I haven’t made myself perfectly clear, so I’ll rectify that now. You are to stay away from Addison. Don’t contact her, don’t approach her, don’t even look at her. Fuck with me over this, fuck with her ever again, and I swear to Christ you will pay in ways you don’t want to imagine.” He hung up with a heavy exhale.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “She won’t believe you. You know that, right?”

“I do. Just as I know that it’s my own fault. Where she’s concerned, I’ve let too many things slide for far too long. No more. If she calls my bluff on this, I’ll make her wish she hadn’t.”

“I don’t think you’ll hear from her again in a while.” A delightful prospect. “She’ll want to give you plenty of time to calm down.” Recalling something, I added, “Believe it or not, she’s convinced that I’ll be gone from the picture by the time she’s back.”

His face hardened. “She’s wrong.”

“Yes, she’s wrong. Let’s hope she doesn’t pull another dick move when she sees that.” But honestly, I wasn’t holding my breath.