Chapter 38
Tyler drifted back into our circle like smoke.
A fucking snake.
His movements were too practiced. He had a glass of whiskey in his hand, and his smirk curled as if no one else in the room mattered to him.
“Hell of a turnout,” he said, his voice booming just enough to draw attention from everyone nearby. “I almost didn’t make it. Family tragedy kept me longer than I’d planned.”
He took a slow sip, savoring it. “My sister, Carmen, died in the woods, and wolves ate her face off…”
Or carved in precise detail to look like it.
“Whole damn ordeal. She always loved the fanatics. Funeral, lawyers, and everyone weeping for the little saint. You know how it is.”
He shrugged. Shrugged. Like he was talking about a flat tire, not a sweet woman’s death.
“Truth be told,” he went on, his eyes flickering between us, “The whole thing was a nuisance. Lost so much work over it. Time I’ll never get back.”
My gut tightened. I didn’t know Carmen, at least not her life. I knew her body and how hard to press before it broke, but I didn’t know her story. The way he said it, her own brother, like her death was nothing but an inconvenience…it made the hair at my neck bristle.
Xanthy’s fingers curled tighter in mine, her polished nails digging into my skin. Her face had gone pale, and her lips pressed thin.
I leaned down, my voice low. “You okay, baby girl?”
She didn’t answer, just gave the slightest shake of her head.
Tyler chuckled, swirling around the ice in his glass.
“Ah, but life goes on, right? Always does. People die, the rest of us drink, and keep moving.” His eyes met mine, glinting. “No use dwelling on the dead and gone. Isn’t that right, Doctor? You have to put the sheet over their head and move the fuck on.”
I want to put a sheet over your head.
I held his stare, my jaw tight. “Grieving a life lost is part of the process. Taking that away would be selfish.”
For a flicker of a second, his smile faltered. Then it was back, all smooth and practiced.
Xanthy tugged at my arm.
“Let’s go, Shiloh,” she whispered, much too soft for anyone else to hear.
I let her lead me away, but I didn’t stop watching him. Tyler tipped his glass in a mock toast, his eyes glued to me.
He unsettled me.
Not just for what he was, but for what he revealed in the woman I should have protected. The way her light dimmed in his presence, the way her body folded in on itself. It was too much. I needed to be there.
In that moment, I knew tonight with Carrington wasn’t just about a choice between two paths.
It was about facing shadows.
Hers. His. And mine.
Tyler didn’t stay on the far side of the room for long. He drifted closer again, circling back to where Xanthy and I stood near the edge of the crowd. A shark drawn to blood in the water.
“You clean up real nice,” he complimented, his eyes locked on her as if I wasn’t even there.
His grin was wide and lazy. A bit too blurred from the whiskey.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come tonight. It must have shaken your tail feathers hearing about Carmen in your neck of the woods.
But, guess I should’ve known—you always did love the show. ”
Xanthy stiffened, but forced a polite smile. “It’s more of a familiar obligation.”
Tyler tilted his head. “Obligation, huh? That’s one word for it.
” His gaze slid down her dress, shamelessly, crawling over her curves until I wanted to rip his eyes out of his skull.
Not because I cared to cover her body, but because of how small she became.
“Though if you ask me, you look more like temptation than duty, Alexandra.”
My jaw clenched.
“Careful,” I said, low and in warning.
He laughed, and the sound was piercing. “What, can’t a man give a compliment to a dear old friend?
Don’t be so sensitive. Possessive is an ugly color, Doctor Anderson.
” He finally turned his eyes on me, a smirk hardening.
“She’s not porcelain. She knows how to handle attention.
Don’t you, Baby? If I recall, you can handle a lo—”
“I said enough.”
Tyler raised his hands in mock surrender, his whiskey sloshing.
“Relax. You look ready to put me through a wall. I’m just talking, buddy.” Then he leaned closer to Xanthy, lowering his voice but not enough to keep me from hearing. “Maybe later, you and I can catch up—just the two of us. Like old times.”
Her fingers crushed tighter around mine, and the tremor in her grip betrayed the calm she tried to portray.
Her poise and determination were cracking.
I stepped in front of her, my body blocking his view.
“You don’t fucking talk to her like that. Not now, not ever. I’m not possessive. Xanthy is free to make her own decisions. I am protective of the choices she makes for herself. And you, Tyler, are not one of them.”
For the first time, a flicker of challenge sparked in his eyes. He studied me for a long minute, then smirked wider, as if he enjoyed the fire.
“Touchy,” he drawled. “Guess I found the nerve. Good to know where your line is.” He knocked back the rest of his drink, savoring the last drop. “But here’s the thing, Shiloh. You can draw your little lines. But don’t be surprised when men like me cross them.”
The words hung in the air like smog.
Xanthy tugged at my arm again.
“Please,” she whispered, more urgent this time.
I didn’t move, not right away. My blood was pounding too hot, too fast in my ears. My fists itched to rearrange his smug face.
Tyler grinned at my hesitation, tilting his glass in a mock toast again, this time to me. “That’s what I thought. You’ll learn sooner or later. Don’t pick battles you can’t win. Or you’ll be patching up your own face when you lose.”
I’m gonna kill him.
With that, he turned and sauntered off toward another group, as though nothing had ever happened, like he hadn’t just pissed on every boundary in the room and threatened me.
Xanthy sagged against me, her breath unsteady, creating a spike of rationality behind the blind rage.
“Let’s get out of here,” I murmured, wrapping my arm around her shoulders.
She nodded quickly.
As I led her away, I felt Tyler’s shadow still on us, heavier than the smoke, whiskey, and noise. For the first time that night, I wasn’t thinking about the wedding, or Carrington, or any of it.
I was thinking about how easy it would be to silence a man like Tyler.
Forever.
The music throbbed behind us, though muffled by the heavy doors as we stepped into the night air. Crickets hummed in the distance, and the smell of damp grass was pleasant and sobering. Xanthy’s high heels clicked once against the concrete before she stopped, her shoulders shaking like a leaf.
“Xan—” I said, going to take off my suit jacket and drape it around her.
“Don’t.” Her voice was thin and final. She wrapped her arms around herself, staring out over the parking lot lit by orange lamps, ignoring my outstretched hand with the garment. “I just…I need a second alone to think.”
“Yeah, okay. Just please take the jacket.”
She sighed, reaching out and taking the warm piece of clothing. I stood a foot away, my hands jammed in my pockets, my chest still tight with the urge to go back inside and break Tyler’s fucking jaw.
“He shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. Shouldn’t have even looked at you. I’m sorry, Alexandra.”
Her laugh was brittle. “That’s Tyler. He doesn’t stop. Doesn’t know how to. For years of my life, he was all I knew. Him…and Carmen.”
I turned to her. “You’ve dealt with this before, haven’t you? Who is Tyler, Xanthy?”
Her silence was the only answer I needed.
“That’s the fucker who broke your wrist the night we met, isn’t it? The abusive asshole of an ex? He hurt you.”
It wasn’t a question.
She pressed her lips together, her jaw tightening.
“He was…cruel. Back when we were younger. Back when I didn’t know how to fight back.
I thought it was normal, the way he talked to me, the way he treated me.
Carmen made things better. She found me ways out…
and now she’s gone.” She dragged in a shaky breath.
“It wasn’t until much later that I realized it was all wrong.
After I met you, and could see how a real man loves a woman. ”
And a man, apparently.
My fists clenched. “Why didn’t you tell me who he was?”
“Because you can’t undo the past, Shiloh.
” She finally turned, her pale eyes glossy, but fierce.
“Because I knew you’d want to fix it, and some things…
some things can’t be fixed. You can reset the broken bones and use makeup to cover up the bruises, but you can’t take away the pain and fear in my heart. ”
The lamps caught her face, pale and trembling, but still carrying that iron edge I always admired.
“He said something about his sister,” I muttered, my voice low. “About Carmen’s death being a nuisance to him. What the hell kind of man talks like that?”
Her expression flickered. For just a second, I swore I saw her falter, like a door cracked open, something heavy and unrelenting pressing against it. Then she shook her head quickly—the poise and regal calm returned.
“Tyler doesn’t feel things the way normal people do. He uses people. Even family. You saw very little of it.”
I stepped closer, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. “If he lays a hand on you again, if he even breathes wrong in your direction, I’ll fucking end him.”
Her lips parted, her eyes darting up to mine.
She didn’t tell me no.
She didn’t tell me to calm down.
“You don’t know what that man’s capable of,” she whispered.
“You don’t know what I’m capable of, Alexandra Harding.”
Her throat worked, swallowing back the words, and then she shook her head again. “How can I, when you shut me out? Please, Shiloh. Just…hold me.”
I wrapped my arms around her and let her sink against me, her body trembling. My blood was still boiling in my veins, but my mind kept circling. Carmen, his sister, heard the venom in his voice when he spoke her name. And beneath it all, one thought curled up like a snake.
If Tyler had hurt Xanthy the way I knew he could, and broken the strong resilience she showed me from day one…then maybe the choice I came here to make tonight wasn’t really mine to begin with.