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Her head fell forward, and she wouldn’t look at him.

“Lyric, you need to tell me what this is about. If I did something to upset you...”

Her head shot up. “You’ve been nothing but good to me. Last night... it was everything and so much more than I expected. This is not about you and me.”

“I hope to be free to spend time with you without all this other—”

She put her fingers over his lips and shook her head. “You’ve already explained you’re doing something that is important and separate from me. And I’m sorry I’m making you worry that there’s something wrongbetween us when there isn’t. Not at all. I promise you that.”

“Then, stop holding back on me, and tell me what has you upset or scared or whatever it is.” And then it dawned on him. And he should have thought of it first. “Rick. You said he didn’t hurt you. But?”

She pressed her lips tight. “I don’t have time to explain it all. My sister is probably waiting downstairs.”

He held her arms, his hold gentle but insistent. “She can wait. And so will I for however long it takes you to spit it out.”

“He threatened me.”

Viper shot up in bed. “What?”

“He’s upset that I didn’t return to the bar last night.”

Fury stirred inside him. “So he threatened you.”

“I’ll fix it when I see him.”

“Youdon’t need to fix anything.Youdidn’t do anything wrong. Don’t let him make you think you owe him something. You don’t.”

“I don’t want to deal with him at all, but I promised that we’d write together.”

He soothed her with a soft stroke down her hair. “That was before he threatened you. What exactly did he say?”

She tapped her phone screen, then turned it to him so he could read the last several texts he left her last night. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“Because you seem to have a lot going on, and I didn’t want to make my problem yours, too.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “Did you not think I would help you? Or care that someone wants to hurt you?” It pained him to think she didn’t feel like he cared.

“It’s not that. I just knew that I’d have to take care of it myself because no one is really supposedto know we’re seeing each other. And I didn’t want you thinking about me when you’re doing whatever you’re doing.”

Viper’s heart sank and his throat clogged because she was right. He couldn’t help her. Not in the way he wanted to help her. All he had to do was show up at the bar and make it clear to this asshole that he and Lyric were together, and if Rick went after her, he’d have to go through him. But he couldn’t do that without putting Lyric in more danger. With Rick and the people he was trying to take down.

“M, it’s okay. I can pull my family in if I need help. You’ve made it clear how you feel about me. And that’s what really matters.”

“Yeah. But right now is when you need me, and I can’t do what I want and you need me to do.”

“I can fight my own battles.”

“This guy is unstable at best and dangerous at worst. I don’t want to find out the hard way that he’s worse than either of us knows.”

“I’ll be careful. And I want you to do the same. Because if you think I wouldn’t stand between you and whatever danger you’re facing that caused that to happen to you last night, you’re wrong.” She pressed her hand to his cheek. “I appreciate that you want to help. I really do. But I’ll handle Rick. And if it comes to it, I’ll call my cousin, Hunt. He can play bad cop and warn Rick to stay away.”

“A guy like Rick doesn’t listen to warnings.”

“Then, he’ll find I’m not meek. I will stand up for myself.”

“I’m scared that won’t be enough.” Actually, he was terrified of something happening to her. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”