I Love How You Love Me(The Sullivans)(66)

“She stood up for herself. She told him to leave her and Mason the hell alone and has leverage to make sure he does.” He quickly told his brother about the recording and that he needed Rafe to get the best damned custody lawyer on board ASAP. “Where is the bastard staying?”

“You’re planning to hurt him, aren’t you?”

“Hell, yes.”

Rafe could have told him that he needed to tread carefully with such a big name to make sure he stayed out of the press, out of jail. But Dylan knew that if Brooke had been threatened, his brother would do whatever he could to avenge her…and protect her.

Rafe gave him the name of Richard Bentley’s hotel and the suite number.



* * *

Dylan knocked on Bentley’s door hard enough that he would have made a hole through the heavy wood if her ex hadn’t opened it. One little crack was all he needed once the doorknob turned, and then Dylan was pushing in and slamming it closed behind him.

Fear immediately leaped into Bentley’s eyes. Of course, by now Dylan had seen plenty of pictures of the guy, both in Rafe’s report and online. But Richard Bentley had been smug and totally in control in all of those images. Now, there was naked fear on his face.

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing?”

Dylan slammed his fist into the guy’s jaw, enjoying the crunch of bone on bone.

That one hard punch was enough to have the guy begging. “Take my money. My wallet’s by the TV. Take whatever you want, anything from my luggage, from the room.”

With anyone else, the pathetic begging might have stopped Dylan from doing more violence. But what this guy and his family had done deserved more than one punch. Richard needed to feel enough pain, and enough fear, that he would never dare come near Grace or Mason again.

Dylan slammed his fist into her ex’s gut. “I’m only going to tell you this once, so you’d better pay attention. Stay the hell away from Grace and her son. Forever.”

The guy’s eyes got big. “You’re a Sullivan. The one she’s fu—”

Dylan’s hands were around the guy’s throat before he could finish the word. “She told me what happened. Everything that happened, everything you and your parents tried to get her to do. I know she has it all on tape, every last word those sick people said to her. If you try to force her up against the wall to try to get at a kid who isn’t yours in any way, you’re going to pay.”

The guy was gasping, wheezing now, but Dylan didn’t want him to pass out. Not yet. Not until he heard every word.

“I know you think you’re powerful. I know you and your family have probably won every legal battle you’ve ever been in. Between her word against yours and your parents’, you probably think you could win because of your track record with charity. Even after hearing what she has on you, you might still be cocky enough to think you’ll win. But Grace and her son, they’re with me now. With my family. And if I were you, I wouldn’t make the mistake of taking on a Sullivan. We’ll tear you apart so fast and break you into so many pieces that your family will never recover.”

Dylan had to force himself to drop his hands from around the guy’s neck before bones were crushed. The bastard dropped to the ground, clutching his throat with both hands as he tried to choke down oxygen.

“Jesus, you’re crazy.” Her ex could barely scratch the words out. “You could have killed me.”

“You haven’t even seen crazy yet,” Dylan said in an ominous tone, even as he smiled a joyless smile, one full of the promise of more pain than the guy could imagine even after nearly being crushed beneath Dylan’s hands. “If I ever hear that you’ve come near Grace or her son again, if you ever try to sneak contact with them, if you ever threaten them in any way at all, my family will hit yours from all sides. We will leave no stone unturned. We will drag up every dirty, messy, ugly thing you and your ancestors have done, personal and business, for the past hundred years. And we will make damned sure the entire goddamned world hears about it all.”

The guy had scooted back from him by then, still on the floor, with his back against the wall. “We don’t want anything do with them anymore. It was a mistake. All of it was a mistake. Coming here. Ever being with her in the first place.”

“You could have had everything.” Dylan had seen stupid before, but never on this scale. Money and power often took everything good and bad about people and amplified it—but whatever good there might have been in Richard Bentley had long been buried by the cocky belief that he could get away with anything because no one could touch him. “One misstep and I’ll make sure you’re left with absolutely nothing. Do you understand?”

“I won’t speak to her,” Richard said, his voice a whine of pain. “Won’t do anything to her or the kid. I’ll make sure my parents don’t, either. We won’t bother her again. Never again.”


Dylan didn’t trust the snake’s words, but he trusted the fear he saw in his eyes, which said more than any spoken promises would have. He forced himself to rein in the rage still burning through him. Any more violence, however satisfying, would only take him down to her ex’s level.

Without giving the worthless heap another look, Dylan left the building and headed for the harbor. He needed a fast, wild sail tonight to clear his mind and burn through his frustration, and most important of all, to figure out a way to win Grace and Mason forever.