Chapter 18 #2
I could feel everybody watching, could feel the Bennett brothers shifting around us, trying to decide if this was romantic, concerning, or a situation that required someone putting me through a fence.
But I didn’t care. Not right then. Not when she was looking at me like I had pulled a secret out of her body by kissing her.
“I don’t know what you think you know,” she said, voice low enough for me only.
“Enough.”
“You don’t.”
“Then tell me I’m wrong.”
Her mouth closed.
Exactly.
Luke stepped forward, beer bottle hanging loose in one hand. “This is adorable, but maybe let the girl breathe, Mercer.”
I laughed once. “You do not want to make this about letting her breathe.”
His eyes hardened and I watched the mask drop.
Finally.
The charming family friend mask shattered, and something mean looked out in it’s place.
Ryker moved closer. “Dempsey.”
Luke ignored him. His attention stayed on me. “You’ve been here what, twice? Think you know her?”
“I know she relaxes when I touch her.” I lowered my voice, still clear enough for him to hear. “And she goes pale when you do.”
Pip’s fingers dug into my shirt.
Luke’s smile disappeared.
Knox stopped laughing.
Daniel’s expression changed at the grill.
I didn’t look away from Luke.
There was no taking the sentence back, and I didn’t want to. Let it sit there. Let every man in her family feel the wrongness in the air, even if they didn’t understand the reason for it yet.
Luke recovered fast, but not fast enough. “You’re reaching.”
“Am I?”
“She likes attention. Always has.”
Pip’s whole body went rigid and my temper snapped its leash.
I moved before anyone else did, closing the space between us so fast Luke barely got his hands up before my fist drove into his jaw.
The sound cracked across the driveway.
Pip gasped behind me. Someone shouted. Daniel cursed. Luke stumbled back two full steps, beer bottle shattering against the pavement near his feet.
Then Luke came at me.
Good.
I wanted him to.
He swung wide, sloppy with anger, and I slipped it easily before burying a punch into his ribs hard enough to fold his breath.
He grunted, staggered, then grabbed the front of my shirt and shoved me backward.
We hit the side of a parked truck with a metallic thud, but I barely felt it.
Adrenaline sharpened everything. His hand twisted in my collar.
His face was close now, eyes vicious, breath hot with beer and humiliation.
“You don’t know shit,” he hissed.
I smiled, he was scared now. Not of losing the fight but real fear that I knew and it only solidified that I was right all along.
I may not have details, but I knew this mother fucker was the very reason she hated arrogant, cocky and entitled athletic men.
This piece of shit is the reason she lives in constant fear.
“No,” I said. “But you just told me plenty.”
He tried to drive his shoulder into me, but I hooked an arm under his, turned, and slammed him back against the truck instead. The impact rattled the door. Someone yelled my name. Ryker barked for both of us to break it up, but nobody had hands on me yet.
Luke swung again, shorter this time and it clipped my cheek. Pain flashed, hot and bright, but all it did was make me laugh.
Pip’s voice cut through the chaos. “Cade!”
That stopped me more than Ryker ever could have. Not because I was done but because her voice was scared and no matter how bad I wanted to fuck his world up, my rage would never over power her fear.
I looked over my shoulder.
She stood near the edge of the driveway with both hands pressed to her mouth, eyes wide, hair hiding one side of her neck. Aura had one arm around her like she was ready to hold her back or hold her up, and looked seconds away from committing a felony.
Pip wasn’t scared of me.
But she was scared of what happened next.
Fine.
I could control that. I shoved Luke away hard enough that he almost tripped over the broken bottle, then stepped back with both hands lifting slightly at my sides. Not surrender. Just enough to show Daniel and Ryker I could stop when I decided to stop.
Luke wiped blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb and laughed like he was trying to make the whole thing look mutual. “Real classy. Guess money doesn’t buy control.”
I looked at him, breathing hard, cheek stinging, blood warming under my skin where his ring or knuckle had caught me. “You think I lost control?”
His jaw tightened.
I stepped closer just enough that Ryker’s hand shot out and caught my shoulder. I allowed it for now. My eyes stayed on Luke. “I’m not scared of you.” I took a step until we were chest to chest.
Luke’s mouth curled. “You should be.”
I tilted my head, studying him like he was a bad play developing in slow motion. “There it is.”
“What?”
“The threat.” I smiled, slow and mean. “You hid it better when we had an audience laughing.”
Luke’s eyes flicked around the driveway. Daniel was staring at him now. So were Knox and Kellen. Ryker’s expression had gone flat in a way that didn’t belong to brotherly teasing anymore.
Luke saw that too.
Good.
Let him feel the ice crack.
“I was talking about hockey,” Luke said smoothly.
“No, you weren’t.”
Pip stepped forward. “Stop. Please. Everybody just stop.”
I turned then.
She looked wrecked, and that pissed me off all over again. Not at her. Never at her. At the fact that she still thought stopping this meant protecting everyone else. At the way her eyes begged me not to keep pulling at the thread because she knew what waited under it and I didn’t.
I walked to her and nobody stopped me.
Aura’s arm tightened around Pip for half a second before she let her go, her gaze meeting mine with something like warning and relief tangled together. She didn’t trust easily. I respected that. But she moved.
Pip looked up at me, furious and pale and shaking with it. “Why would you do that?”
“Because he deserved it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.” She cried softly and I knew then she wasn’t defending him, she was terrified of him and this shit stopped here.
I caught her chin lightly between my thumb and fingers, forcing her eyes to stay on mine when she tried to look away. Her breath hitched, but she didn’t pull back.
“Do not lie to me.” Her lips parted and I lowered my voice, but I didn’t soften it. “You can lie to your brothers. Lie to your dad. Lie to yourself if that’s how you get through whatever hold the piece of shit has over you. But you don’t lie to me.”
Her eyes shone suddenly, and fuck, that nearly ruined me.
“I can’t do this here,” she whispered.
“Then say that.”
Her throat worked. “I can’t do this here.”
“Good.”
“Look at that. The bitch gets a shiny new leash and she already forgot who taught her to heel.”
Pip flinched.
I turned so slowly I felt every Bennett man tense with me.
Ryker stepped between us before I could move. “The fuck did you just say to her?”
Luke’s brows lifted. “Come on, you can’t see this guy controlling her?”
“Are you dense?” Ryker said, voice cold now. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
For the first time all afternoon, something like real uncertainty crossed Luke’s face.
Daniel set his tongs down on the grill side table with careful, terrifying calm. “Why don’t you head out, Luke.”
The yard went silent enough that the cicadas in the trees sounded loud.
Luke stared at Daniel. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“Over him?” Luke pointed at me, blood still at the corner of his mouth.
Daniel finally looked at his daughter, rose colored lenses shattered and he looked back at Luke. “Over my daughter.”
“You’ve been running your mouth since you got here,” Knox snapped.
Luke’s gaze cut to Pip. I stepped slightly in front of her before he could even finish the look.
He smiled then, not the public one. Not the easy family-friend version everyone had trusted for years. This one showed teeth.
“This isn’t over,” he said quietly.
I stepped closer before he finished breathing the threat, all pretense gone now, every polite mask I’d worn for her family left somewhere behind me the minute he called her a bitch.
“Let me make this clear in a language even you can understand.” My voice stayed low, but it carried enough that the driveway went still around us. “Everything about me should scream not welcome.
Luke’s jaw tightened.
“No more cornering her. No more scaring her. No more touching her. No more her.”
“What is he talking about?” Ryker asks him, but I’m not finished.
“I don’t give a fuck about old friends, history, or whatever twisted little fantasy you built in your head because people let you hang around long enough to mistake access for ownership.
” I stepped in close enough that he had to look up at me, close enough for him to feel every inch of the height difference between us. “I exposed you today.”
His eyes flicked past me toward the Bennett men and there it was. The panic under the charm.
“I’m letting you walk away once. Right now. With whatever dignity you can scrape off the road.” My voice dropped colder. “But if you so much as breathe in her direction again, I’ll end your ass.”
Pip’s fingers grabbed the back of my shirt.
Luke’s jaw worked once, then he turned and walked toward his truck, posture loose like this had been his choice, like he hadn’t just gotten thrown out of a family yard he’d clearly believed belonged to him.
The truck door slammed hard enough to echo.
Gravel kicked up beneath his tires as he pulled away too fast, leaving smoke, tension, and every unasked question hanging in the driveway.
Nobody spoke for a second.
Then Kellen, because apparently survival instincts skipped him entirely, muttered, “So… ribs?”
Knox smacked the back of his head.
The absurdity of it cracked the silence just enough for people to breathe again.
Conversations restarted awkwardly around the edges.
Kids whispered. Daniel stared down the road long after Luke disappeared.
Ryker’s eyes stayed on Pip, then me, then the spot where Luke had stood like he was trying to reconstruct a crime scene from scraps nobody had meant to drop.
Pip still had her fingers twisted in the back of my shirt.
I turned toward her and she let go immediately, like she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t.
I hated that.
My cheek throbbed. My knuckles burned. There was blood on one of them, probably his, maybe mine. I didn’t care.
She looked at my face and went pale. “You’re bleeding.”
“So is he.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It wasn’t a joke.”
Her eyes flashed, angry now, which was better than afraid. “You’re impossible.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I did not say thank you.”
“You will.”
She stared at me like she wanted to slap me and kiss me and maybe scream into the nearest grill.
Perfect.
Alive.
Still scared, yes, but less swallowed by it.
I stepped closer, slid my hand around the back of her neck, careful of the hair hiding whatever she didn’t want me to see, and pulled her into me.
Not a gentle hug. Not a soft little comfort moment for the audience.
I tucked her against my chest like she was mine to shield and let my mouth brush her temple.
She resisted for one second on principle. Then she sank into me. Right there in front of everyone. And, fuck, that felt better than winning the fight.
“You’re safe, Pip. Just breathe,” I muttered against her hair.
“I am breathing.”
“No, you’re deciding on fight or flight.”
“That’s basically cardio.”
A laugh scraped out of me before I could stop it. I tipped her face up, letting my thumb skim her jaw. “You’re untouchable with me, Pip.”
Her eyes held mine, wide and overwhelmed.
I could see the denial trying to climb back up. Could see her preparing to shove this into some box labeled adrenaline or benefits or Cade being Cade because admitting what it really meant would cost her more than she was ready to pay.
So I kissed her again. Shorter this time. Hard enough to make the point. Soft enough to tell her I knew exactly who was watching.
When I pulled back, her breath was gone, and the yard behind us had gone suspiciously quiet again.
Knox’s voice floated over. “I swear, if you two make me emotionally process something before dinner, I’m leaving.”
Pip pressed her forehead to my chest and groaned. “I hate this family.”
Daniel cleared his throat. “Bug.”
She stiffened.
I felt it immediately and kept my hand at her waist.
Daniel’s voice was careful now. Too careful for a man who usually threw love around like a football. “You okay?”
Pip lifted her head, and I watched the lie form.
I leaned close enough that only she heard me. “Don’t lie to him. Let him see you.”
Her breath caught as her eyes cut to mine.
I didn’t blink.
She swallowed, then looked at her dad. “I’m… not hurt.”
Not the whole truth, but not a lie either.
Daniel’s expression tightened like that answer gave him less comfort than a clean yes would have. Good. It should. Ryker noticed too. So did Knox. One by one, the men who loved her started looking at the shape of the thing instead of the noise around it.
Pip’s hand found mine at her waist. Like if the whole yard wanted to look, they could. I wasn’t scared of Luke. I wasn’t scared of her brothers. I wasn’t scared of the truth she was still trying to hide.
And if Glory Days thought for one second that I was the kind of man who would see fear in her eyes and politely look away because the situation was complicated, then he had read me worse than he played hockey.
Which, after today, was saying something.