Page 28 of Danger Close

His question surprised me. I didn’t know what to say. No one, not even Trinity, had ever asked me about what it was that haunted me in the nights. I averted my gaze when his eyes became too much for me to handle.

“Answer me, Princess.”

I acted submissive, just as I had been made to over, and over, and over again. His wrath was painful. That was true. But his gentleness? That was even more unbearable.

“Hey!” Greg called. “Cobra!”

That sweetness in my ex-husband disappeared. He straightened and the air shifted.

“You can follow us back to the farm, or stay here,” Cobra yelled, his eyes still on me. It felt as tangible as a caress. It made a blush crawl up my cheeks, until I almost shivered under his scrutiny.

Cobra opened the passenger door and pushed me into the low-riding car.

Again, I complied. Any rebellion had been sucked from my bones, leaving me a hollow shell.

“You and me?” The coolness I felt when Cobra’s eyes turned to Greg was like being doused with cold water. I shivered, but not from the fear of his sharp scrutiny, but from the overwhelming desire to request his attention again.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

“We’re going to have some fucking words, later.” Cobra was threatening the boy.

What for? For showing me kindness? My lips pulled back as I tried not to weep. I blinked back tears, because I should have known. Only one person had ever shown me kindness, and the destruction that I brought down on her life still filled me with absolute guilt. Was I rubbing my bad luck on Greg now, too?

No. I could not let that happen.

“Mama Guerro!” Greg jogged over to us. “Are you okay?”

He reached out a hand to me, but Cobra pushed it aside, squaring up to the young man with cold cruelty.

“I told you,boy,” Cobra said, “You can follow us to the farm, but stay the hell away frommy wife.”

My breath hitched at that word. That insipid four letter word that blossomed through my heart, confusing me. Wife. He’d called mewife.

Greg ignored him, looking at me with concern. “Ma’am? Are you okay?”

Men like Ray, and I suspected Cobra as well, would think nothing of killing someone as kind as Greg. That was the great injustice of our world, wasn’t it? The gentlest creatures are always the ones that get hurt, while the devil wins.

“I will knock you out right here and now if you get any closer to her,” Cobra growled, leaning in towards Greg.

The quiet calmness of his tone was how I knew he’d be capable of incredible violence.

As he lifted his fist, ready to punch Greg, I hastily cried out, “I’ll be fine.”

I was far from fine.

“He won’t hurt me.” Not worse than Ray, at least. “I can take care of myself.”

Because I had no other options.

I would not let anyone else get hurt because of me. No kind heart with the audacity to think they could make a difference in my bleak fate would find themselves broken on a hospital bed. Not again. Not anymore.

I might be a very stupid woman, but I learned from my mistakes.

Greg’s head tilted to the side with an expression of abject pity.

Greg snarled and stood up, eye-to-eye with Cobra, “I’m going to be on your tail. Don’t think I won’t pit maneuver you if you get off course.”

“You want to try me?” Cobra got right up against him like they were two MMA fighters before a match, practically nose to nose.