Even before I opened it, I knew who it was. The small window sat high enough that few people showed in it, and I could see the shadow of a head through the curtain. If I’d had any doubts, Keen’s reaction would have alerted me. She leaped toward the door, barking fiercely, hackles up.
I sighed. I couldn’t say I was surprised. “Just a minute,” I shouted and grabbed Keen by the collar. She protested every step of the way, but I dragged her to the bedroom and shut her in. That accomplished, I opened the door and faced the Sasquatch.
His dark expression hadn’t changed since I’d seen him last, but now I had some sympathy for his situation. “Come in,” I said. “Want a beer?”
“Ain’t a social call.” His voice had guttural tones, more like a growl. From the bedroom, Keen howled and scrabbled at the door. Had I been wise to shut her away?
“How can I help you?” I leaned against my table, keeping my body language neutral even though my self-preservation instincts had kicked into full gear.
“You kissed Chloe.”
Wow. She told him? Bet she didn’t tell him who started it. Tempted as I was to enlighten him, I doubted he would believe me, anyway, so I decided on a different kind of honesty.
“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you guys were still together, and now I know, I’m out.”
The dark eyes glowered at me and his huge hands curled into fists. “Stay away from her.”
“I won’t touch her again, but Peter and I are friends. If she’s there when I visit him, there’s not much I can do.” Be damned if I was going to avoid Peter too.
His big frame stiffened with tension. I kept my body loose as I leaned against my table, shifting a foot beneath me in case I needed to move fast. Keen had stopped barking and scratching, but in the silence, I could hear the continual rumble of her growl through the door.
“Chloe’s mine.” The way he said it sent a frisson of ice down my spine.
“Does she know that?”
“She. Is. Mine.” Before I could even so much as flinch, he took a step right into my space. He reeked of gasoline and oil from the cars he worked on, and beneath that, an animal rankness that made my head spin. His anger radiated off him in waves.
I should have moved away, but instead something within forced me to straighten, to push back. He read it in my expression and retreated a step, his face contorting into a snarl. I curled my upper lip away from my teeth in a crazy mimicry of Keen. Despite the differences in our height, I matched his glare with my own and got a front-row seat to the ignition in his eyes.
The fist came at me like a blur, and no one was more surprised than I when I caught it with my open hand. The force of his blow rocked my body through my stiffened arm.
“Dillon!” Fingers appeared on Dillon’s shoulder, pulling him away from me. Peter spun the younger man to face him. Dillon towered over him, but Peter’s anger expanded his personal presence to fill my small kitchen.
“Haven’t you been in enough trouble this week? Now you’re attacking Liam?”
“Stay out of this, old man.”
Peter’s pale-blue eyes blazed. “I. Will. Not.” I had never seen him so angry. He took a step into Dillon’s space as he continued. “You want my help, you abide by me. And leave Liam alone.”
Dillon wants Peter’s help? Other than personality lessons, what did Dillon need help with? The guy had rage issues. And his attitude toward Chloe was downright scary. Obsessive, stalker-type scary. So yeah, I guess Dillon needed Peter’s help, and so did Chloe.
The man in question kept his gaze locked on Peter’s, but something shifted in his stance, a slight lowering of the shoulders and chin, before he spun on his heel and left.
Peter looked at me. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault,” I said, becoming aware that my hand hurt like hell. I debated, but I needed to know. “Is Chloe in over her head with that guy?”
He didn’t answer right away. “Some things you don’t know, and I can’t tell you,” he said. “Dillon has issues. We’re trying to help him.”
“He said Chloe belonged to him. That sounds a little unbalanced.”
Peter’s face paled, but he nodded. “Maybe you shouldn’t come by for tea. Until things cool down.”
My heart sank, and for a moment, it was as though a pit opened beneath my feet. Memories surged—helplessness, terror as my world dissolved around me. Get a grip, Liam. You haven’t thought about that crap in years.
“Give us a few days,” Peter said. “I need to get a handle on things.”
I thought of the human mountain that had just stalked out the door. “Peter . . . be careful.”
He nodded, and I saw shadows of everything he wasn’t saying in his eyes. When he left, I let Keen out of the bedroom. Suddenly, I didn’t want to stay in my suite for the evening. I felt cut loose, like a ship that had lost its anchor. Sitting at the table, I scratched Keen. Man, I need to get a life.
On that thought, I punched in a number and reached Greg, one of my few friends. He’d been a client at the clinic, and we’d joked around enough to know we shared a sense of humor. After a few outings, we’d attained the point of casual friendship.
I was in luck. He was, as he put it, between relationships and bored stiff, so we decided to see a movie in Winnipeg.
I disconnected and looked at Keen. “Sorry, girl. I’m ditching you for humans. But I promise I’ll leave you a bone to chew
