Page 13 of Finding Denver

“I doubt that.”

This just crossed over from threatening to totally childish with astonishing ease. Ranger steps closer to Dorian, head tilted in intrigue.

“How do I know you aren’t in this together?” he asks me. “That this entire thing wasn’t planned so I’d let your brother live?”

I resist bristling in disgust at the suggestion. “Because what the son almost took from you, the father did take from Wilder.”

Ranger looks at me. There’s no sympathy, no understanding, no kindness in his expression. I’m glad, because I would reject it all, anyway.

Instead, he turns back to Dorian and takes out a knife of his own before gripping Dorian’s sweat-slicked face.

“You touched my wife,” Ranger says, pressing the blade to Dorian’s cheek. “She bit out your tongue. Now I’m going to cut out your eyes.” Dorian’s expression morphs into one of total horror as he tries to turn his face away, and Ranger gives him a horrific smile. “This is what happens when you try to take what’s mine.”

I watchRanger from across the suite as he pulls on a fresh shirt that Taf grabbed for him from my room twofloors down. I’d planned on staying after the award ceremony, but I definitely hadn’t anticipated giving Ranger Luxe some of my clothes.

He killed Dorian slowly. It was a little annoying, watching him work, especially when he took his time removing both of Dorian’s eyes and somehow kept the guy alive. It was impressive, but a little showy.

“This is snug,” he says, rolling his shoulders.

Bullshit. It fits fine.

“Not as snug as you were hoping, though.”

He ignores me and adjusts his sleeve. “What was the plan before all this happened? Get Denver into bed?”

“No. Flattered you think I’d have gotten that far, though.”

“You’d have ended up in a similar position to Dorian,” he says. “When are you going to ask me?” He pulls on his suit jacket.

“Ask you what?”

“To end this. To thank you for saving her by sparing your brother.”

I say nothing. It had crossed my mind, of course it had, but it seemed tacky to ask for a favor in return for something I’d have done for anyone.

“Colt, let me make something clear to you.” He closes the space between us, and when Taf bristles, I raise a hand, so he stays put. “I do not care about you. I do not care about Wilder. In fact, I’d have sent you a fruit basket for killing Ethan Defender if I’d known your address. You saved me a job. So, I can tell you I’ll leave you both alone, but it isn’t me who wants Wilder dead. It’s her.” He nods at the bedroom where Denver sleeps. “And I like to keep my wife happy.”

He strides past me and into the bedroom, and when hereturns, Denver is in his arms. She looks so small against him that for a fleeting moment, I want to take her back.

I straighten up off the bar. “You say you want to keep her happy, but you’ll allow her to continue fighting a battle that will kill her.”

He smiles at Denver, his gaze drifting over her face. “One of you will die, but it won’t be her.”

Chapter 4

Denver

Aknock of pain climbs across my temple. Again. And again. And again.

The back of my mouth throbs, and somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I feel hands around my arms, my wrists, someone grabbing me in the bathroom, dragging me through a door as I scream and fight?—

I bolt upright, and it does nothing to calm my head.

I’m home. I’m in our bed. The bed we shared even before we were married.

The sound of the shower from the en suite has me kicking back the comforter and clambering out of bed. Ranger’s back is to me when I open the bathroom door, the open-ended shower revealing his muscular back. He turns to me, and I rush to him.

Water soaks my dress, my hair, and he wraps his arms around me. He holds the back of my head, my cheek pressed to his chest, and I feel safe.