He tilted his head. “You promise?”
“If I had,” I asked, my voice cracking, “what difference would it have made?”
“Well, for one, Hayes wouldn’t have been the one who kicked your door in. Grayson would have.”
“It didn’t—” I swallowed the glass in my throat. “This didn’t happen when Rossy was with me.”
He was silent.
“Rossy wouldn’t let anything happen to me.”
“I know that.”
My brows snapped together. “You do?”
His lips twitched, and I started to relax, thankful that goofy Ash was still in there somewhere. I concluded that angry Ash was a force to be reckoned with. “Rossy served in the British military for twenty years, leading special missions. He may not look like it now, but according to his record, the man was a force of nature. It’s not a surprise to any of us that he protects his girls so fiercely.”
I stared at him, my mainframe short-circuiting as it tried to process this information. “Rossy?”
“When you tell Hayes and he gives us a name,” he began, his voice cold once more, “you need to let him do what he needs to do.”
“I—”
“Red Snake will be there to back him up, but Hayes will lead this,” he said, ignoring me. “We protect our own.”
“I’m not—I’m not a part of Red Snake, Ash. I’m just Carrie’s coworker.”
He pushed off the wall and came to me, stopping a foot away. He was a few inches taller than Hayes, which meant I had to lean back slightly to keep eye contact with him. “No, Margo.” Hiswords a dark whisper. “You’re family, and now that Mitchell has claimed you, you’ll always be protected. Always.”
“C-claimed me?” I sputtered, my chest starting to heave. No, he didn’t claim me…he left me…he didn’t want me.
I’m a mess and he’s perfect. The two don’t mix.
Ash was quiet but gave me a single nod.
“No, you don’t—”
“I saw the way he looked at you just now, babe. Never in the decade that I’ve known him has he looked at a woman like that.”
I was afraid to ask, my pulse jumping as my heart perked her head up, but still, I asked. “Like what?”
A tender smile found his hard features then. “Like you’re the reason he gets up every morning.” He turned, leaving me with that as he asked, “Where’s your broom? I’ll get your floor cleaned up.”
“Ash, I can—” I swallowed my words when he turned around, his gaze hard. “In the closet at the end of the hall,” I answered. There was no point in arguing. Suddenly, Carrie’s words from last Christmas hit me.
Red Snake men always get their way in the end.
Goose bumps spread down my arms like wildfire. I couldn’t just sit here until Hayes got back. I needed to do something; I needed my hands to be busy so I could shut my mind off. At least for a little while.
Thirty minutes later, when, as promised, Hayes returned, I was knee-deep in spice organization. I looked over my shoulder to find him standing in the doorway talking to Ash, their expressions serious. Those green eyes slid over to me, and my entire body heated to a point where the pain in my face seemed to fade. He left the new trim, door, and hinges outside.
Hayes’ eyes dropped from my face to the spices surrounding my crisscross applesauce position on my kitchen table. “Give us a sec, Doss,” he said, not taking his eyes from me.
Ash shot me a wink before heading outside to put the new trim on, and I returned to my mission: checking the expiration dates on every bottle. I heard Hayes move, the old floorboard creaking under his weight. When the loudest creak sounded, I knew he was at the mouth of the kitchen by the phone. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn’t have the strength to look up. Instead, I started rambling.
“I have a really bad habit of wandering down the spice aisle every time I go shopping because I live with an irrational fear that I’m going to want to make something but not have the right spice. For some reason, I’ve convinced myself that I’m always out of an essential—like cinnamon.” I gestured to the small collection of cinnamon in several brands to my left. “I have enough to last me the next three pumpkin spice seasons and then I’ll still have enough left over to make twelve batches of snickerdoodles. Still, I can’t stop myself from impulsively grabbing it—or garlic salt.”
He moved again and I felt his body heat on my right side. I kept my eyes to the table, my heart skipping a beat when his hands appeared by my knee as he leaned over me. Still, he said nothing.