When the driver side door opened, turning on the overhead light, Jason spotted me sitting in the passenger seat and slowly rose to his feet as West came around to help me out.
“Jesus, baby, what the fuck?” He rushed the truck as soon as West threw my door open and reached in to lift me out.
“I’m not your damn baby,” I seethed. “And it’s the middle of the freaking night. Go home, Jason.”
“What the fuck happened to you?” he asked, ignoring my order.
With me tucked in his arms like a bride about to be carried over the threshold, West turned and kicked the truck door closed, pinning my ex in place with a glare that even I found a little scary. “Back off.”
“Fuck that!” Jason crowed, turning his attention to me. “Did this asshole do this to you? I’ll kick his ass. Just say the word.”
West gently lowered me to my feet with more care than a man his size should have been capable of. Once I was steady on my own, he turned and put himself between me and my ex. “You can try, motherfucker. But you won’t succeed.”
I let out an annoying puff of air. This was the last thing I wanted to deal with at the moment. Well, second to last. The absolute last thing I’d want to deal with right now was my skeevy landlord. Placing my hand on West’s side, I applied pressure so he’d step out of the way. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. It wasn’t him. Look, Jason, I’m tired, and every inch of me hurts. I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with this shit tonight. Just go home.”
“No way.” He looked at me then with such longing in his eyes that I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. I squashed that niggling of pity down by remembering how he’d ended things with me. We’d been talking about moving in together and getting married, for God’s sake. You would have thought that warranted more than a lousy text that said This isn’t working for me anymore. If you leave my stuff in a box on your front porch, I’ll pick it up after work tomorrow.
“You shouldn’t be alone right now, Stell. Let me take care of you.”
I would have laughed if it wouldn’t have hurt so damn bad.
“She’s not alone,” West said in that gravelly voice of his. “She’s got me to take care of her, so you can go now.”
A little thrill worked its way through me at that declaration, then I remembered he was just pretending in order to stick it to Jason. But then I remembered what he’d said back at the bar earlier about not being able to get me out of his head. And that was after he’d busted me picking two different guys’ pockets.
If only I had the time or inclination for any kind of relationship right now. But I couldn’t focus on how my girly parts fluttered every time he looked at me. Not with this threat against my family looming over my head.
“Stella, who the hell is this guy?”
“That’s not your concern. All you need to know is that I’m hers, and you’re not fucking welcome here, so I suggest you leave in the next five seconds, before I make you.”
Uh oh.
I’d never seen Jason turn such an unnatural shade of reddish-purple before. He looked like he was about to breathe fire at any moment, which was totally out of character for the Jason I’d known when we were together.
Then, just when I thought his head was at risk of popping like a balloon, he let out a bellow and launched himself at West. “I’m gonna kill you!”
“Oh my God, Jason, stop!” I cried as he swung a left hook at West’s face. West dodged the blow easily enough, his expression remaining one of boredom as Jason geared up for another swing.
“Jason!” I shouted, then cursed when the pressure from my lungs pressed against my ribs. I’d have stepped between the two men if not for my injuries. But given the circumstances and how utterly useless I was, I might as well have had a bucket of popcorn for all the good I was doing just then.
Jason attempted to land three more blows, none of them coming close, and apparently, after the last one, West had gotten tired of watching my ex skip around like Rocky Balboa, because he cocked his arm back, and with one jab, sent Jason ass-first into the concrete.
“You’re done,” he informed my ex in a cold voice. “Don’t come back here again. I find out you did, I’m not walking away after one punch.”
With that, he moved back to me, plucked me right off the ground, and started carrying me toward my front door.
A woman could really get used to this.
Twelve
West
This really had been a night of firsts for me. Usually, I was able to keep my cool under most circumstances, I was actually known for it, especially around work. But I’d been on edge since Stella’s call came through, her thin, pained voice asking me to help her.
It was sheer luck I’d found her in that parking lot when I did. If I’d gone out the front of the bar instead of following the path she’d taken earlier, it would have taken so much longer, a thought that tied my stomach in knots.
It hadn’t been until we were leaving the hospital, after I knew there wasn’t any lasting or internal damage, that the tension in my neck and shoulders started to ease. Then we pulled into an apartment complex that had seen much better days—about sixteen years ago—and the thought of her living here alone raked at my nerves.
The icing on that cake was when we pulled up in front of her building and that fucker was sitting at the curb, waiting for her in the middle of the goddamn night. I couldn’t remember the last time I hit someone outside the boxing ring at Alpha Omega, but I would have been lying if I said I didn’t enjoy laying that son of a bitch out.
I’d never had anyone affect me on the level Stella did. I barely knew this woman, and I was half insane with worry, then with jealousy over that ass clown trying to wedge himself between me and her. It wasn’t rational, that was for goddamn sure, but the way I felt around her was a high that felt so damn good, I decided to chase it and see where it led. Of course, that would have to wait until I got this shit with O’Brien sorted. But once that was no longer hanging over her and her family, I had every intention of moving in. I wasn’t expecting this feisty, stubborn, sexy woman, but I’d lived long enough to know the best things happened when you’d least expect it.
I could hear her ex in the background wailing about his shattered nose and calling out to Stella. “Please, baby,” he shouted. “Gimme another chance.”
What a fucking tool.
“For fuck’s sake,” I grunted as we moved toward Stella’s apartment. “That guy? Seriously? What the hell did you ever see in him?”
“In my defense, we didn’t exactly start out because his personality won me over. I basically said yes to the first few dates because he was hot and I liked looking at him.”
I glanced down at her, one brow arched as I fought back a grin. “Hotter than me?”
She rolled her eyes, but I was still able to make out the way her cheeks turned pink. “Is there another human being on the planet hotter than you?” she queried. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“You’re good for my ego, grift,” I said on a chuckle.