Business as Usual #2
He leans in, elbows on his knees, and drops his voice until it's almost intimate.
"I drove out to your street. More than once.
I'd sit at the end of that gravel road with my engine off and look at that sad little house of yours.
" His thumb moves slow across his bruised knuckles.
"And I swear to you, I could feel her in there. Behind those walls. Close enough to touch,” he snarls and I have to fight the urge to look away.
“I should have put that door off its hinges and carried her out that first night.
I should have taken back what belongs to me and been done with the lot of you. "
The blood drains out of my face.
He was there. He sat outside our home with Lyra a hundred feet away, and the only thing that saved her was his own arrogance.
A coworker passes my open door, phone pressed to her ear, laughing at something on the other end. My eyes cut to her on instinct, and I consider yelling out to her.
"You know, that’s very rude," Crispin says in his sharp tone, waiting for me to look at him. "It’s polite to look at an alpha when he's speaking to you."
My hands curl into fists, then I drop them into my lap. "I'm sorry." I make myself hold his eyes. "I really can't help you. But if you'd like, I can pass along that you—"
Crispin moves.
He comes up out of the chair in the blink of an eye. He plants one hand on my desk, and with the other he fists the front of my shirt and hauls me halfway up over it. The edge of the desk digs into my thighs. Before I can get a hand up to protect myself, Crispin’s fist cracks into my face.
The pain explodes white behind my eyes. My glasses go flying.
He lets go of my shirt just as fast, and I drop back into my chair hard enough to roll it into the wall. My ears are ringing, blood already running hot over my lip.
I fumble for the tissue box, yank a handful out, and press them to my nose, my hands shaking. When I finally look up, Crispin is looming over my desk, straightening his jacket.
He looks down at me like I'm a waste of his time.
"You're going to have Bennett call me tonight," he says.
So damn calm. "If he doesn't, I'll tell Aldric his daughter is being defiled by a pack.
I'll make sure he knows she's being passed around like a party favor.
And I promise you, the courts will strip you and your degenerate friends of any right to her, and give her back to me.
And you," he glances around my office, then smiles, "will lose everything. "
He reaches into his breast pocket and pulls out a business card. He flicks it at me and it bounces off my chest and lands in my lap, spotted red where a drop of blood catches it.
Then he walks out.
I sit frozen, tissues pressed to my face, listening to his footsteps recede down the corridor. He’s walking so slowly, a man with all the time in the world. I don't move until the sound of them is gone completely.
Then my breath goes ragged all at once, dragging in and out too fast, and my whole body starts to shake.
Fuck.
"Dr. Cruz?" A page bounces into my doorway with a form in her hand, bright and oblivious. "I just need a signature on—" She stops and her eyes go round. "Oh my gosh, your nose."
"It's fine." My voice comes out thick and wet. "Nosebleed." I try to smile.
"Ugh, I hate those." She winces in sympathy, already backing toward the door. "I get them constantly in the spring, it's the worst. You should pinch the bridge and tip forward, not back, everybody does it wrong."
"Thanks." I pick up my glasses off the floor, noticing that one ear piece has gone crooked, then I grab my keys. "I should probably go get it looked at. It's really gushing."
"Yeah, definitely. Feel better." Then she's gone.
I don't remember standing up.
But before I know it, I’m rushing down the stairs at the back of the building, instead of taking the elevator. I keep one hand cupped under my nose and slip out the rear door into the parking lot. The sun is way too bright, making me squint.
I get into my car, pull the door shut, and finally let my hands drop. I can already feel the blood starting to work its way down my lip.
Flipping the mirror down, I narrow my eyes, trying to see damage.
It looks worse than it feels.
There's blood crusting at my nostrils and smeared across my mouth, and under my left eye the skin has already started to turn dark. By tonight it'll be a proper black eye.
There's no way I’ll be able to hide this from Lyra.
I think about the omega in that little yellow nightie, lit up at the thought of crawling into bed with our alphas. Two days of her laughing, and coming, and finally feeling safe.
Tipping my head back, I close my eyes.
I will die before I let Crispin Maleth take that from her. And I mean that all the way to my bones. He can break my nose, take my job. Hell, he can crush my whole career. But I won’t let him come within a thousand feet of Lyra.
I’ll kill him first.
Anger flares inside me, and I pick the bloody business card up off my lap. I look at the tiny phone number embossed on the front, then I start the car.
No one fucks with my family.