Blood & Rust (Lock & Key #4) Read Online Free

banked over me.
    Unbelievable.
    Unfair.
    Fucking insane.
    I rose from my chair. “The irony here is, I was the one complaining that there wasn’t enough sex, any sex. And, at the first chance you got, you went out and got yourself laid?” I dragged out the words for a facetious effect for my own benefit, more than his.
    “You left, Tania! You left me!” His face reddened.
    “Yes, yes, I did.” I curled my fingers into fists to steady the trembling. “So, tell me. Did you like it? Did it feel good? Was your dick happy?”
    He only stared at me, his arms folded across his chest.
    A wave of dizziness overtook me as I grabbed my bag and my car keys. “I have to get out of here.”
    “Sure! What the hell? That’s what you do best, taking off.”
    “Holy shit, Kyle! Why didn’t you tell me?” I charged toward him. “I came back here and stayed, and you touched me. You should’ve told me.” I stepped back against the table. “Did you use protection with her at least?”
    “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth.
    “Good job. Very organized of you.”
    I shoved myself out the screen door, and it slammed behind me as I charged toward my car, gulping in air against the rising tide of nausea.
    “I want to live, not just exist. Not just shuffle along,” I had said to him in a well-rehearsed, polite speech before I’d left for Meager the last time. I’d said it to give him something to think about.
    He’d done more than think on it. He’d taken action, a step that said, I’m alive! This is what I want! That was for sure. He’d broken out, made a move. He had done it.
    I was pathetic.
    Fortunately, we lived in the no-fault divorce state of Wisconsin. In typical fashion, I’d jumped the gun and spoken to a lawyer about how to proceed. My enthusiasm always got the best of me—one of the things about me that, after a while, had annoyed Kyle—because I’d often retrace my steps and pull back. Now, I’d call that lawyer and put the process into fifth gear.
    “Tania!” Kyle’s voice rose from inside the house.
    I climbed into the Yukon, slammed my door, and gunned my engine.
    No, the waiting was finally over.
    I swung out onto the road, but by the time I hit I-94 West, the anger had turned to a flood of hurt and regret and tears.

“THANK YOU FOR THE DRINK , but I can’t accept it.”
    “Why not, honey?” The older man peered at me from under his ratty baseball cap advertising a local car dealership. I’d lay down money that his seat at the cafe counter was his second home.
    I had stopped for a quick bite at a small restaurant about half an hour outside of Sioux Falls, eager to get back on the road toward Meager.
    “I do appreciate it, but I’ve got a lot of driving ahead of me, and I’m staying away from booze.”
    “Ah, naw, you can’t leave.”
    A bony hand clamped around my arm, and my back stiffened.
    “You should stay, pretty lady.”
    “I’m not staying. Now, get your goddamn hand off me.”
    He only laughed. “You gots attitude, huh?”
    I picked up his bottle of beer. “Maybe you’d like this Bud all over your crotch to cool you down?”
    “Let go of the lady,” came a stern deep voice from behind me.
    The older man’s lax gaze suddenly tightened, training on someone over my shoulder, someone much taller than me. He released his hold on me, and I jerked my arm away.
    A warm hand landed on my lower back. My body flinched at the contact, and I swiveled.
    Pale blue eyes leveled at me, and a sculpted full mouth pressed into a firm line with wavy blond hair passing his angular jawline and gold scruff delineating the abrupt lines of a familiar face.
    “Butler?”
    “We’ll leave you to your beer,” Butler muttered to the man, his hand wrapping around my elbow.
    “Don’t git your hopes up,” sneered the old man.
    “She was waiting for me, buddy. No contest here.” Butler led me to a table at the other end of the cafe.
    “Thanks for the save. You didn’t have to.”
    “I didn’t