War’s brows rose.
Slowly, Gary opened his eyes. “You—you didn’t hit me.”
No shit. “Question three. What was the point of those fake photos?”
“For you to leave her.” Now he was speaking quickly. “Business has been slow, and I—he said double pay. He wanted me to find something to break you up. I told him about your past, but that didn’t work. This was the next option.”
“It was a screw-up of an option. I trust Rose. Fool me once, then I’m a fucking prick. Fool me twice…” His jaw locked. “And I will make you wish you’d never been born.”
“Oh, God.”
“You came at me with a gun, Gary.”
“Unloaded! I hate guns! Can’t st-stand them!”
“You lied about my girl.”
“Sorry?”
“I’m hunting a killer, and you are wasting my time. I don’t appreciate having my time wasted.”
A lick of fire appeared in Gary’s eyes. War knew the fool was going to attack even before Gary’s chin notched up and he snarled, “Yes, well, I don’t appreciate you punching me!” With that bold declaration, Gary swung at him.
The blow barely scraped War’s shoulder.
In return, War drove his fist into Gary’s stomach. All of the air heaved from the PI. “Good talk, Gary,” War snapped. “Real good talk.” The rage was getting too close to breaking through his control. War stepped back. He was done with Gary. He turned away. Moved around that big filing cabinet.
“You cocky sonofabitch!”
War glanced back. Gary was heaving the whole freaking filing cabinet at him. War’s fist flew out and slammed into the side before it could crash into him. “Bad move, Gary.” The rage cracked through the ice that had surrounded him. “Now you’ve pissed me off.”
***
She was standing on the porch waiting for him. Odin had been swinging in the hammock. Not talking much because…Odin. But keeping her company and keeping a close watch on the property.
War approached slowly and climbed the stairs that led up from the beach. She could see the tension that was cloaking him, and nerves had her arms curling around her own stomach.
“See? He’s still in one piece.” Odin’s unconcerned voice.
War opened the screen door. Stopped short when he saw her. A lot of emotions flashed on his face. Longing. Need. Pain. Anger.
“What happened?” Rose asked.
“Not secure out here.” The gruff words were aimed at Odin. “Didn’t you think you should keep her inside?”
“I consider the porch to be inside. It’s a screened-in porch. Besides, I had an eye on her.”
War’s jaw tightened as he focused on Rose. “Billy wasn’t tailing you. That was just a lie. Gary is still working for Dylan.”
Relief swept through her because she had trusted Billy, and she hadn’t wanted to be wrong about him. Her gaze darted over War, and a quick gasp came from her. “Your knuckles!”
He looked down.
“What happened?” She hurried to him and reached for his hand. Hadn’t she told the man not to return with so much as a scratch? Rose thought she’d been exceedingly clear.
“Gary decided to try dumping a filing cabinet on me. See, he didn’t like the way I responded when he pulled a gun on me. The idiot thought he’d retaliate. No big deal.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That…that is a seriously big deal.” She whirled and, keeping her grip on him, tugged him after her. “I’m cleaning your wounds.”
“Hardly wounds. Some scratches. I was walking away. Gary grabbed the cabinet and shoved it down on me. My fist hit the metal.”
Her shoulders tightened “And did your fist hit him?”
“More than a few times.”
She led him to the sink. Turned on the water. Carefully washed his scraped knuckles.
“I was feeling pretty pissed,” War allowed. “But all in all, I’d say I was doing a fairly decent job of holding back. Things didn’t get really physical until he pulled the gun.”
Her hand jerked on his.
“Not loaded. Gary said he didn’t like using guns. I think he had the weapon as some kind of scare tactic. Like the sight of it was supposed to make me back down.” A pause. “Obviously, I didn’t back down.”
“No.” Fear squeezed her heart. What if the gun had been loaded?
“He set me off deliberately. He wanted me to attack.”
She grabbed a cloth. Patted his fingers dry.
“How did he set you off?” Odin asked.
Rose gave a little jump of surprise. She hadn’t heard Odin follow them inside.
“He had some bullshit pictures of Rose with other men. Dylan wanted him to do anything possible to break me and Rose up, so the jerk thought flashing those pics would send me over the edge.”
Her head turned. She met War’s eyes. “Pictures? Of me?”
“Knew they were fake. Like I said before…I will always trust you. You told me there hadn’t been anyone since us. I believed you. Damn well didn’t believe him.”
The tension built between them as she gazed into his eyes. Those deep, dark eyes. “I should have gone with you.”
His expression hardened. “Rose, it was all a setup. He didn’t have intel for us. It was—”
“That way, I could have been the one with the bruised knuckles because if he’d flashed those fake photos with me there, I would have charged at him.” Gary was a problem that needed to be eliminated.
War’s stare seemed to heat as he stared at her.
She backed up and her hip bumped against the open drawer. The slightly open drawer. His utensil drawer.
Automatically, War’s gaze dipped to the drawer. She saw his eyes widen. A flash of surprise.
“Yeah, I think it’s my cue to leave. You’ve obviously got surveillance on Rose covered for the rest of the night.” Odin’s voice seemed overly loud. “I will just see myself out. No, no, really, I got this. Don’t trip over yourselves helping me. I think it will probably be a good idea for me to spend the night at the apartment over the bar.”
“Odin,” War said.
“Yeah?”
“You’re talking a lot. You do that when you’ve got a secret.” His head swiveled toward Odin. “She found it?”
A nod from Odin.
“Right.” A muscle flexed along War’s jaw. “Night, Odin.”
Odin threw up a hand in a quick wave as he strode away.
War reached around Rose. She did a little shimmy to give him more room. He fully opened the drawer. Only—the ring wasn’t there.
Alarm flared in his expression.
Her fingers slid into her back pocket. She’d changed into jeans while she waited for him to return. She wiggled her fingers in the pocket and then lifted the ring. “Are you looking for this?”
Chapter Eighteen
He looked at the ring. Then at her face. “I can explain.”
“You can? That would be great. I’d love to hear what you have to say.”
Okay. Do this. “I love you, and I want to marry you. I knew it pretty much right after meeting you so…yeah. I had the ring. I was waiting for the right moment.” No sense telling her he’d planned for that moment to be the night everything had gone to hell. No sense mentioning he’d had a catered meal waiting. Candlelight. The whole deal. Or that the next day, when he’d gone after her, he’d had the ring with him then, too. But he’d seen the flowers on her desk. Rose hadn’t been there and—