Khan (Bowen Boys, #2)(20)

“They won’t believe you. I can’t harm you. It’s in our DNA not to harm our mate.” She left the door open and came to the bed. He thought she was going to forgive him, but she pulled open the drawer. Suddenly, there was a gun in her hand and she was aiming right at his head.

“It’s not in my DNA, and I will hurt you. Now you either get out of here right now or they’ll take you away in a body bag.” More than the gun she held to his head, he believed her because of her voice. It was low, mean, and full of truth. He moved off the bed and stood up. When he reached for his shirt, she jumped on the bed. “I’m not f*cking with you any longer. Get out of here.” The gun went off an inch from his head, and he watched her steady hand. She’d do it, he realized. She’d f*cking shoot him. When the others spilled into the room, he glared at her.

“This isn’t finished. You’re my mate and I’m not going to put up with this from you or anyone else.”

“Well that’s just f*cking great with me because I’m not putting up with it either.” She didn’t even look at the door. “Take him away upright or dead, but get him out of here.”

Khan walked to the door and out into the hall. He didn’t look to see if they followed him or not, but went down the stairs and toward the kitchen. The man standing in front of him was going to regret trying to stop him if he was thinking he could. Before he touched him, he turned. He looked at the man holding the gun on him, standing just inside the door, and then back at the man in front of the door who now had a gun too.

“We’ve been told to keep you here. You’re to go to the living room and have a seat or we are to restrain you.” The man by the outside door spoke again. “I don’t want to have to shoot you, Mr. Bowen, but I will if I have to.”

He was ready to tell them to go for it when Caitlynne and another man he didn’t know came through the door. She didn’t look happy, and the man beside her looked livid. He lifted his chin. If she wanted to take him on, then he was more than in the mood for it.

“There have been two murders. Brutal ones. Senator and Mrs. Barr were murdered sometime yesterday in Mrs. Barr’s home. Her throat was slit and he was bludgeoned to death with a poker.” She came into the room and he noticed then how pale she was. “And I brought her here.”

He was confused for several seconds. He didn’t know who she was referring to until he remembered that Walker told him the man’s name that was stalking Monica. Barr. His parents were dead.

“Did he do it?” She nodded as she fell into a chair. “Do you know if he’s aware that Monica is here?”

“I don’t know. He might not be, but when he doesn’t find her there, he’s going to come here. He knows who I am and how I’m related to you. He’s going to figure out eventually where she might be. I have to send her away. Somewhere that no one knows where to find her until we find him.”

“I’m not going to let you do that.” He looked up when one of the men shifted on his feet, but didn’t lower his gun. “I can’t…she’s pissed at me right now and will probably welcome him with open arms over me, but I can’t let her go.”

“Everyone in the household knows she’s pissed at you, Khan. You f*cked this up, and now I have to protect her. Go back home. You can’t fix what she doesn’t want fixed.”

He slumped in the opposite chair from her as she continued ripping his heart out.

“You can’t learn to shut up, can you? You just had to have the last word, didn’t you? Why?”

“I don’t know how to be with her.” He got up to pace and noticed that the men were gone. “Christ, I don’t know what to do. What the f*ck am I doing with a mate anyway? I can’t please her except in bed and then I hurt her. She said I didn’t, but she was out for so long. How is it that I’m such a f*cking * even when I try to be nice?”

“It’s called breathing and thinking before you open your mouth.”

Khan looked up at Monica who looked like she’d been crying.

“Why do you feel it’s necessary to say whatever is on the tip of your tongue? Can’t you just say to yourself, ‘will this hurt her feelings?’ ‘Will this make her want to bash my head in and have her dance in my brains?’ It’s tempting every time you say something that pisses me off.”

“You say stupid shit too.” She turned to walk away and he called her back. “Please, I’m going to try, but I’m not going to change overnight.”

“And you’re not going to change at all if you don’t try. I can’t have you bullying me, Khan. I’ve put up with too much as it is. I’m not as un-normal as you are, but I do have feelings. Feelings that get crushed when you treat me this way.”

“She hurt me.” She turned back to look at him. “When she left me, she hurt me, not by what she did, but because she had hurt all of my family too. I’d failed them because I’d fallen for a human.”

“And that is my fault how?” She didn’t leave when Caitlynne and the others did, but sat down. “I didn’t do anything to you but try to keep out of your hair. You kept bringing me back and pushing me away.”

“Yeah, a yo-yo.” He wanted to reach for her hand, but was afraid she’d jerk away from him. “But it was more than that with Roseann. She had taken not just our secret, but my dignity and my pride. She’d told me that I was less than a man for not doing as she’d wanted and that…”