False Start (Red Zone Rivals, #5)

by Kandi Steiner

And more than any of that, I wanted to hold her. I wanted to pull her into me, brush her copper hair from her face and ask what happened to my girl — because she wasn’t here now.

“I’m fine.” “Who hurt you?” “I’m not hurt.” “Who,” I repeated, slower this time, the strain evident in my voice as I tried to keep my cool. “Did this?” She sighed, shaking her head and looking away from me. Then, she rolled her lips together, eyes falling to the binder. “My ex.”

“Because I’ll light you on fire and dance in the ashes. I am not a weak, helpless thing. I can handle myself. And if you respect me at all, you’ll honor this.”

He inched closer, taking up even more oxygen when he did. “I want to protect you — whether you need it or not. And I feel like I was put here to do that. If your ex is going to be in your life, he’s going to respect you.” He paused. “And Sebastian.”

“I know you don’t need me,” he said, cutting me off. His eyes flashed with something achingly familiar when he added, “But I need you.”

“You calling me trash, Robbins?” “If you’re trash, then I’m a dumpster diver.”

“The only reason I’m letting you live is because I care enough about that woman to do what she asks me to,” he said, and when his finger pointed right at me, I felt it like a bolt of lightning to the heart. “But slip up even one time,” he continued, shaking his head as a damn near evil smile spread on his stupidly handsome face. “And I will risk it all. Understand? I will risk it all.”

BARKING

You can love someone and never understand them. You can care for someone, and also have to draw boundaries with them. You can wish someone well while also realizing that in order for yourself to be well, you have to let them go.