Burn (Breathless #3)(62)

They chatted about casual topics. Gabe and Mia’s honeymoon dominated most of the conversation as Mia recounted their trip to Paris. After their meals were served and they’d eaten, the dessert menus were passed around and Josie excused herself to go to the restroom.

Mia and Bethany got up to accompany her and the three women headed toward the ladies’ room.

Josie finished first and waited outside. She heard a door open and turned to see if it was them, but her mouth fell open when she saw Michael walk out of the men’s room that was just across from the ladies’ room.

He looked like hell!

Their gazes met and held a brief moment before his flickered and he looked hastily away.

“Michael?” she whispered. “What on earth happened to you?”

She could swear fear flickered in his eyes. He couldn’t leave quick enough and Josie was too stunned to do more than stare after him as he hurried away.

There wasn’t a spot on his face that hadn’t been bruised. And it was ugly. Lip split, swollen eye.

“Josie?”

Josie whirled to see Mia and Bethany standing there, looks of concern on their faces.

“Do you know that man?” Mia asked. “Is everything all right?”

“I knew him, yes,” Josie murmured. “And everything is fine. Let’s go back for dessert. I’m sure it’s there by now.”

The entire way back to the table, Josie’s mind was a whirlwind of what the hell. She hadn’t imagined Michael’s face or the fact that he’d damn near broken his neck getting away from her. And she hadn’t imagined the fear in his eyes. Why would he be afraid of her?

Ash’s gaze was sharp when she sat down. He didn’t miss a thing and his eyes narrowed as he looked at her and then over to Bethany and Mia as if he thought they’d done something to upset her.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded. “You’re pale. Did something happen?”

“Not here,” she said under her breath.

Without another word, Ash stood and reached for her hand. She followed openmouthed behind him as he dragged her out onto the patio to stand in front of the fountain. He pulled her to him, cupped a hand to her cheek and stared intently into her eyes.

“Tell me what happened,” he said bluntly. “Did Mia or Bethany say anything to upset you?”

She shook her head, her thoughts still jumbled. She couldn’t keep the one prevailing thought out of her mind, even though it was ludicrous. Wasn’t it?

“I saw Michael,” she blurted out.

Ash’s face darkened with fury, his eyes sparking. “What? Did he say anything to you? Did that bastard follow you here? Why the hell didn’t you immediately come to me, Josie?”

She held her hand up to halt the flow of questions. “This is his favorite place to eat. He and I ate here often. And he’s always here on Sundays. I would have been more surprised if I hadn’t seen him.”

Ash swore. “You should have told me, Josie. We would have eaten somewhere else.”

She swallowed and glanced up at Ash. “He looked terrible, Ash. He looked like someone beat the holy hell out of him.”

“Did he? Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Maybe now he won’t raise his hand to another woman.”

“Tell me something, Ash. Did you have anything to do with him getting the crap kicked out of him?”

It was a plunge. A reckless question spurred by the fear that had swamped her the minute she’d seen Michael. She remembered Ash’s resoluteness that he’d take care of it. That she didn’t have to worry about Michael anymore. She’d thought they were just words to comfort her. Spoken in the heat of the moment. Everyone had moments like that. It didn’t mean they followed through on them!

His eyes flickered and he stared evenly back at her, his lips tight.

“I won’t lie to you, Josie. So be careful what you ask.”

“Oh God,” she whispered. “You did. Oh my God, Ash. What did you do? How could you? And why?”

“You have to ask me why?” he bit out. “What the f**k, Josie. He hurt you. That son of a bitch had you on the floor. And you don’t think that’s reason enough to make sure he never does anything like that again?”

The blood drained from her face. She wavered, unsteady on her feet. Ash cursed again and then reached for her, pulling her against him once again. He stroked his hand over her cheek, pushing back her hair.

“You put yourself in my care, Josie. That’s not something I take lightly. And when you gave that to me, when you submitted to me, it also gave me the right to take care of any threat to you. You need to deal with that. Accept it. Because it’s not going away. I will not hesitate to do it again if you’re ever threatened.”

“Jesus, Ash. You can’t do stuff like that. What if he reported it? You’d get arrested. For God’s sake, you could go to jail!”

His expression softened. “Not going to happen, baby.”

“How do you know?” she asked desperately.

“I took care of it. That’s all you need to know. This doesn’t touch you, baby. Wish to f**k you’d told me we had a good chance of running into him here. I would have never stayed. I want you to forget about it and him.”

“How am I supposed to forget seeing him that way? Now I’m not going to be able to sleep for worrying that the police will come and arrest you. Ash, this could f**k up the rest of your life! It’s not worth that. Nothing is worth the rest of your life.”