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“You’ve been busy, Meggie. You screwing him so he’ll protect you? I’ll bet he’s not the only one. How many others are there?”
She wrenched away from him, although it clearly hurt. Tione expected her to deny the accusation, and was surprised when she didn’t.
“Who I screw or don’t screw is none of your business anymore, Charles. We’re not together.”
Charles shook his head, his eyes flat. “You’re nothing more than a whore. I should have known it when you wore those short dresses and flirted with every man at our dinner parties.”
“You asked me to be nice to them!”
“Not like that,” he snapped. “I just wanted you to hand out a few compliments. You took it too far. You always do.”
“Then let me go.” Walking in an arc around Charles, out of his reach, she circled to Tione’s side. Instinctively, he stepped closer and their arms brushed. A zing of relief passed through him at the physical contact, as if that was what he’d needed to assure himself she was okay.
“Please leave.” She angled her face up to look at Tione, but he didn’t take his eyes off the douchebag opposite them in case he tried to grab her again. “Tee, I don’t want to see him. We have nothing to talk about, and if he doesn’t leave, I have no problem with Trevor gnawing his leg off.”
Tione’s chest expanded, and he felt a hundred feet tall. His girl had spunk, and she trusted him to keep her safe. Winding an arm around her waist, he rested his hand lightly on her hip, the gesture intended to convey to Charles that he was fighting a losing battle. When Megan sighed and leaned into him, the other man’s lips firmed into a thin line and his eyes flicked from Megan to Tione and back again.
“Get in your car and drive away,” Tione said, burning inside with a complicated tangle of emotions he didn’t understand. He focused on the rage. That, he was familiar with. That, he knew how to handle. “Get the fuck out of Haven Bay, and don’t come back. Megan doesn’t want you, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s all you need to know. If you want to touch her, you’ll have to go through me.”
Charles scanned him, no doubt noting the fact that Tione was shorter than him, but also broader. “I’ll go,” he said, “but it won’t be the last you see of me.” He turned to Megan. “When you ran off, you screwed me over. You know I need you for the partnership. You’re supposed to be my ace. If I lose out because of you, I won’t let you get away with it.”
Tione rolled his eyes. He was sick of this guy already. “Don’t threaten her, and don’t show your face in my town again.”
Charles’s expression became petulant, rivaling a sulky child, then he strode past them, jolting Tione’s shoulder.
“Yeah, you better keep walking,” Tione called at his back. He didn’t turn.
14
“Oh, thank God,”Megan said when Charles was out of earshot. She buried her face in her hands. “How did he find me?”
“I take it that’s the guy you’re running from.” Tione moved his arm from her back, and all of a sudden, she felt exposed. She wanted to snuggle back into the shelter of his strong, stocky body, but she didn’t. She needed to stand on her own two legs. Being dependent on a man was what had gotten her into this god-awful mess.
“Yes.” She straightened and tried to meet his eyes, but couldn’t. She was so embarrassed. What must he think of her, now that he’d seen exactly the sort of person she was, and the kind of man she’d been with? All she could say in her defense was that she’d been fooled by Charles’s charm—which he had in spades, when he wanted to—and by his pretty face.
“My ex-boyfriend.” Almost her ex-fiancé. She’d found a ring in his sock drawer when she’d been doing the laundry once. Proposing had been the last piece of his plan to secure a partner position in his old-school law firm. Afraid of what she might see if she looked at Tione, she kept her eyes trained on her feet.
“I’m so sorry you had to intervene like that. I don’t know how he tracked me down. I thought I’d gotten rid of anything he might use to find me.” She’d tossed her phone in a trash can between their apartment and the building where she’d stored her ancient car. All of her clothes had been abandoned, and she’d cut up the credit card he’d given her. She’d even left her treasured kitchenware behind, deciding it was a small sacrifice for freedom.
She saw Tione’s hand move, and then he was cupping her chin and tilting it up. “Hey, look at me. You’re not responsible for what that asshole does, okay?”
She nodded, although she didn’t truly believe it, and he let her go.
“Good, now that we’ve got that cleared up, there’s plenty of ways he could have found you if he has resources, and he looks like the kind of guy who does.”
She scoffed. “You mean money? Yeah, he’s got that. His family are one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most respected in New Zealand, or so he’s always told me. Doesn’t mean they’re not horrible.”
He made a sound of agreement. “Money brings out the worst in people.” He reached for her hand, but stopped short, letting her decide whether or not to close the distance. She did, slipping her fingers between his. “Come back to the cabin. We need to talk.”
“Wait, I need to get my notepad. I dropped it when he…” She let the sentence hang in the air, unfinished. She didn’t want to think about what might have happened if Tione hadn’t arrived when he did. Although she liked to think she’d have screamed bloody murder and drawn someone out of the lodge to help her.
Releasing him, she retrieved her notebook and pen, and then returned to his side so they could head for his cabin. As they crossed the parking lot, she checked to make sure Charles’s car had gone.
“You’re okay,” Tione murmured. “He won’t get to you while I’m here.”
“I’m not one of your rescue dogs,” she muttered, but regretted the words as soon as she’d spoken them. She was being snarky when he’d just saved her ass. It wasn’t that she was ungrateful—quite the contrary—but she didn’t want to be just another stray he took under his wing.
He stopped and looked down at her, brow furrowed. “I know that. But you’ve had a rough day, and there’s nothing wrong with letting someone else carry the load for a while.”
