to face forward. “If I do
this, I can’t see Kara at all. She’s too aggressive; she knows how to twist me
around her finger.”
“Then we can move to a place she doesn’t
know about.”
He shook his head. “No, I have a deal
with Jade, I can’t break it.”
“Then put a restraining order on her.”
“It’ll be a waste of time, like the last
time.”
“The last time?”
“I put one on her a few years back.”
“Really? Why? What the hell happened?”
“One of my exes lied to her ’bout
sleeping with me. Unfortunately, Kara believed the lying ho bag and did her nut
at me. I lost my temper and tossed her shit outta my house, telling her to fuck
off. In retaliation, she took a sledgehammer to my car, so I put a restraining
order on her. She totally and utterly ignored it and wuz back in my bed by the
end of the week—right after she set fire to my ex’s house. Luckily the cops
couldn’t prove she did it.” He smiled, looking like he was thinking fondly of the
bitch.
Beth barrelled ahead, not wanting to
talk about the horrid woman. “Can I stay with you tonight?”
“No, I needa be alone for a few days, doc’s
orders, cos if I flip out again she’ll make me stay longer the next time. Plus,
all I wanna do is sleep. She’s given me drugs that are exhausting me.”
“Then she should give you different
ones.”
“No, I needa sleep and she’ll change
them next week.”
“Okay, then I’ll just stay for dinner.”
“You can’t, Jade has a musician coming
over. He doesn’t want anyone but me home. Just drop me off.”
“Can I come over tomorrow, then?” she
asked, starting up the car.
“’Kay.” He glanced at her. “Are you absolutely
certain you want me?”
“Yes,” she said, and this time she
wasn’t going to let Kara take her man away from her— ever again.
4
Saul
Saul flicked through the files on Ant
Torres’s case, finding it hard to concentrate, the run-in with Beth affecting
him. She’d looked at him with fear, something he hated seeing on her face,
although he couldn’t blame her. He shoved the files aside and placed his elbows
on his desk, resting his head in his hands. He’d gone into the Craven and Torres
job with good intentions, yet had ended up being as bad as the criminals he’d
taken down. Every little thing he’d done as Craven’s right-hand man had eaten
away at him, wearing his idealism down until it what nothing but a pile of
shit. He’d killed people under Craven’s orders, beaten them, tortured them ... like
he’d been tortured. But he hadn’t been ordered to assault Beth ... that had
been purely his own doing, lust getting the better of him.
He looked up at the computer screen and
opened the file on Beth. A picture of a twenty-something Cook Island Maori
woman appeared. She had long black hair, tanned skin, hazel eyes, model-perfect
features... She was the epitome of his taste in women, minus her dumbfuck personality.
Not only was she irritatingly stupid, she gave off mixed signals, ones that had
fooled him into believing she’d wanted him. But she didn’t, she wanted Dante
Rata, a man-whore, who would probably end up cheating on her, which the stupid
woman deserved. While Saul deserved to go to jail for what he’d done to her. He
hadn’t meant to assault her. Again, the woman confused the shit out of him.
Maybe she’d just found him attractive, which was why he’d misread her. When it
came to women, he usually misread them, often confusing attraction for
something more. And he always chose to go after the wrong woman. If there were
two attractive women standing in front of him, one a bitch, the other nice,
nine times out of ten he’d end up with the bitch. He swore, just wanting to
find one woman who didn’t scream at him or dry up his credit cards. But he knew
if a bitch walked in, looking fine as hell, he’d probably still go after her,
no matter how much he knew it would end badly.
A knock on the door, made him