Page 7 of Cold Snap

Landry

I saw the moment that asshole tried to put his hands on Teresa.

Fucking Aarons! I should have realized my threatening him wouldn’t have stopped him from making a go at her!

And what the hell was she even talking about when she told me to take some blonde to bed?

The only fucking person I’ve even remotely thought about taking to bed was a short, little brunette that won’t stop dressing to give me a coronary.

I also see the moment Oakley walks up to Tommy and decks him. I’m moving before my next breath, but it’s not fast enough. My little firecracker is going off and taking care of her friend.

She hits one of the guys in the dick with a well-placed knee, sending the guy to the floor and balls her fist up to hit another one.

By the time I have her around the waist, she’s kicked one of the men lying on the floor and is raising as much hell as she can.

Even though I have a firm grip on her and she is off the ground, she still manages to kick the spit out of one of the men who hangs out with that asshat!

“Waylon!” The best thing for everyone involved is to take Teresa and Oakley out of the bar and away from the fight.

“I’ve got her.” I look over to see him tossing Oakley over his shoulder.

I hold Teresa to me and fight to keep my anger even and under control. The last thing this situation needs is for me to lose my shit and break a mother fucker for trying to touch her.

“Terry!” Even over Waylon’s shoulder, Oakley finds a way to push herself up and ask after her friend, endearing herself to me.

“I got her, Oakley! You two go!”

Waylon turns, “You sure, man?”

“Positive. Go!”

The warm body in my arms vibrates against me with so much anger she can barely hold it in. “Put me down, Land! You have no right to touch me!”

“Bullshit!” I pull her to the back of the room, where I have an office with a door. Why does her denying me the right to touch her piss me off so damned much I could spit fire? “You hotheaded little…”

“You keep your hands off me! Those bastards deserved what they got!”

I put her down in my chair and yank open one of the desk drawers. She doesn’t see the handcuffs until I slap one on her. When she realizes I’ve locked her to the chair, she goes nuclear.

“What the absolute fuck do you think you are doing?! You psycho! You can’t hold me here like this!”

Well, sweetheart, I’m pretty sure I just did.

“Sit there and be quiet until I come back! I’m going to take care of the aftermath of your little brawl, and then me and you are going to talk.”

“Oh really? I don’t believe I have anything to say to you.”

“That’s funny,” I bend down so our faces are so close they almost touch, “because I have a whole fuck ton of shit to say to you.” Like to remind her to keep her ass away from Aarons if she doesn’t want me killing him!

I straighten and look down at the pissed off little thing.

“Stay.”

I look back one more time once I’m at the door and see her narrow her eyes at me.

We’re going to have a talk about how that dress fits, too, and whatever the hell that chain thing is she is wearing under it that draws every damned man’s eye right to the swell of her breasts.

Yeah, she’s going to take that damned thing off, damn it!

It takes me longer to straighten everything -and everyone- out once I go back out.

I have one part of my mind on the problem at hand and the other on the woman waiting for me back in my office.

About ten minutes after I left her, I open the door and find…

an empty chair, handcuffs still dangling from the arm of the chair.

God damn it!

She must have gotten free and slipped out while I was wading through morons and banning Tommy for life. My temper, so seldom touched, is burning like a fucking funeral pyre.

She ran from me!