Page 70 of Kane

Cy shook his head in frustration. “I didn’t get his name, but he was definitely Old Money, and he definitely had a history with your lady.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I think he might have thought she and I—” He cleared his throat. “He asked if I was the one who scratched up her face with my beard. If she was sleeping with me while they were still together.”

Mother fucker. His jaw clenched. “Was this before or after he put his hands on her?”

“I knew something was up when he went storming into the trailer. He looked like he was ready to burn the place down, you know?” Cyrus cracked his knuckles as he spoke. “I followed him, but he was a little ahead of me. He’d already hit her once by the time I got inside.”

“And then?”

Cy’s hands balled into fists. “When he called her a whore, I let him go long enough to clock him in the face. I didn’t count on him going for her throat afterward. I had to call Evan and Brick to help me pull him off her.”

His instincts tugged him in separate directions. The drive to find this guy and kill him was a fire in his veins. But the need to protect Mandy, to comfort her, and help soothe whatever pieces of her the attack left broken, jagged, and raw…that duty was paramount. He would keep her safe, full stop.

“Where is this guy now?” More importantly, was Mandy still in danger?

“We were going to hold him for the cops, but your girl wouldn’t let us. She was afraid he’d manage to turn it back around on one of us—get me or Evan thrown in jail.” He scoffed. “The day I’m afraid of a prick like him will be the day I need to trade in my nuts for a handbag. But she was kind of freaking out, so Brick took him out of here. Evan really cleaned his clock. Don’t know if the guy will be eating any solid foods for a while, much less coming back around here to make more trouble.”

Seemed like he owed the new guy big time. “Thanks for everything. I’m going to get her home.” He flashed Cyrus a look, meant to convey the depth of his gratitude, then rounded the back of Mandy’s car to approach the driver’s seat.

He was going to kill her ex, but first, she needed him to take care of her.

When he climbed behind the wheel, she hadn’t moved from her curled-up position on the passenger seat. “Hold on, sweetheart. I’m talking you home.”

She finally lifted her head. “Not mine.” Her voice was like sandpaper. “Yours.”

She wanted to go to his place? The idea hadn’t even occurred to him, though it probably should have. Her ex had no idea who he was, much less where to find them. He simply never invited women over; something about the idea of a person he may never want to see again imprinting herself on his personal space. It wasn’t the case with Mandy, though, was it? She was already imprinted on every part of his heart, body, and soul.

“You got it. Buckle up. We’ll be there before you know it.”

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

Amanda

Amanda wasn’t sure what she expected Kane’s apartment to look like. Something cheap or messy, maybe? Dirty clothes on the floor or empty beer bottles on the coffee table. Not the clean, comfortable space he led her into.

She focused on her surroundings, forbidding her thoughts from reliving the events in Xander’s trailer.

All Kane’s furniture matched. The plush brown sofa against the wall clearly came from the same set as the overstuffed chair near the sliding glass door. The same unblemished walnut used on the coffee table made up the two end tables and the small entertainment center supporting the TV.

A landscape print hung, framed, on the pristine cream-colored wall. The beige carpet felt soft beneath the pads of her sore feet.

A prickle of shame climbed inside her. Why wouldn’t he have a nice place?

Because he’s in a nasty-ass biker gang,a sharp voice hissed in the back of her head.

Kane was more than just the club, though, wasn’t he?

The way his brother and his father talked about women—the way they put their fucking club above their family, their jobs, basically everything—it turned her stomach. But the club meant something different to him.

After all, he’d never treated her like trash. Hell, even when he had every reason to hate her, he’d worried about how she was doing after Mike’s crash. Even when he was hurt, even when he thought she kept him from his own child, he gave her a chance to explain. He listened. He was reasonable.

Now he took care of her. He wasn’t going all caveman, beating his chest, trying to track down Nathan, though she had no doubt he wanted to. No, instead he opened his arms and his home to make her feel safe. And it worked. At this moment, she wasn’t the least bit worried about her ex. Maybe he’d seek retribution for this, but not here and not now.

Kane stepped in close behind her and put his hand on her shoulder. “What can I do? What do you need?”

She turned into his arms. His warmth seeped into her bones. “I want to lie down,” she murmured. Her throat protested with the effort to speak.

Lacing his fingers with hers, he led her into his bedroom. His bed nearly took up the entire room.