Page 48 of Danger

“You’d really do that?” she asks.

I hold her gaze, even if it costs me. “Yeah. I would.”

Maybe in the next life I’m not the kind of man you keep your distance from. Maybe I won't come pre-ruined, and maybe I would have a chance with a woman like Winnie.

Then the bell over the door rings, and I don’t have to turn around to know who it is. The bar goes quiet. Every muscle in my body tightens, every sense going sharp.

I barely glance over—just enough to be sure.

Rylee.

And the look on her face tells me the night’s about to go straight to hell.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

winnie

“Shh!Everyone shut up—I can’t hear,” Sawyer snaps, waving a hand behind her without looking.

Five of us are crammed into a back closet that for some reason has a window overlooking the back deck—this space was clearly meant for cleaning supplies, not five grown adults.

We’re a ridiculous arrangement of knees and elbows, stacked at different heights so we can keep Danger and Rylee in view. Someone’s knee is pressed against my ass. Sawyer’s shoulder is jammed against mine. There is nowhere else I’d rather be.

Except maybe inside a coffin.

I did offer to go out there with him.

He gave me that calm, unsettled look and said, “I got it, Winnie. Stay inside.”

Which is cowboy for: Please save yourself from this dumpster fire.

So, now I’m hiding in a closet I didn't even know existed with an audience, watching my fake boyfriend have a serious talk with his extremely real ex.

Out on the patio, Rylee paces, mouth moving quickly. Danger leans against the railing with that lazy, don’t-bother-me posture—but his grip on his drink is tight. His brow is arched like he’s one wrong sentence away from walking off.

And I can’t tell if I’m more worried he will… or that he won’t.

I’m so transfixed I almost don’t notice Charming, Trouble, and Rogue whispering behind me.

“Poor bastard,” Trouble says, shaking his head.

“She’s definitely groveling,” Rogue says, squinting to make out what’s happening. “Doesn’t feel right just standin’ here when he’s going through misery out there.”

Rylee's lips are moving nonstop, but Danger's expression is giving that he'd rather take a kick to the balls from a bull than stick around for the end of the conversation.

And some ridiculous part of me wonders how it would feel to have anyone look at me with that level of frustration. Like I wasn’t optional or forgettable, just seen.

Maybe even angry because they once cared so impossibly much about me.

Great. Now I’m nauseated thinking about how much he must have loved her.

“What do you think she wants?” I whisper, though I’m not sure why because no one else is being quiet.

“She wants him back,” Trouble says simply.

Sawyer lets out a sound like she just swallowed something rotten.

“Who does she think he is? Ken?”