A lone tear trails down my cheek. “Protect? Really?” I ask, my voice steady, even, and by his reaction, it delivers a blow.
A phone rings. Bailey’s.
“Go, women,” Ty orders. “Your talking is doing nothing. It’s time for me to fix this with Ivy.”
Suddenly, I don’t want them to go. I really don’t.
Bailey’s phone stops ringing and then starts to ring again. She looks at the screen and then slips by Tyson, answering it.
“Tyson,” Cat tries.
“Mother, will you please purchase me a phone and put in everyone’s numbers and drop it off to me?” He reaches into his pocket and hands her a wad of cash.
“Yes, okay.”
“Do that, please.”
“Okay. No problem. Son, can we talk for a quick moment?”
“Trust me,” he looks into her eyes. “Trust me. I’ve got this.”
She looks over her shoulder at me.
“Don’t go. He’s gonna use sex to try to get me to…” I shudder, “submit.”
“Damn right I am,” Tyson tells us.
“You’re a fucking jerk,” I shout.
His eyes blaze with anger.
“And you’re mine! Even when you’re angry at me. And I’m going to show you."
“Angry? This isn’t angry, Tyson. This is destroyed.”
His face falls.
“He loves you,” Cat says. “You’ve got a beautiful gift here, Ivy. Forgiveness is going to be important in the years to come. Be sure you don’t make it so that you can’t ask for his forgiveness if you someday make a grave mistake. Trust me, you never know if you’ll be able to apologize for something or if something or someone will suddenly take that ability away from you.” Her eyes are haunted and that tells me right there that there were things unfinished between her and Tyson’s father when he was killed. There are things she’s haunted about.
“That sucks that something like that happened to you, Cat, but you were married.”
“You’re married, too, sweetheart,” she says.
“I’m not,” I insist.
“Well, you two fix things and then we’ll have a wedding so that you’ll be married in both of your minds.” She blows me a kiss, gets on her tiptoes and he leans down so she can kiss him, though he doesn’t take his eyes off me, and then she leaves.
“Tyson!” Bailey pokes her head in. “Here a minute.”
“Later, Bailey.”
“It’s important,” she insists.
His jaw flexes and he turns and disappears from the doorway.
I sit there a second, blankly, then cover my face with my hands, blowing out a breath… a sigh? I don’t even know.
I get what Catrina said. That whole “Never go to bed angry” kind of thing, but that’s for people in relationships. We’re not in one, not one that I agreed to anyway. And if I had, even if I had, what he did to me wasn’t okay. What he did was a dealbreaker. If we had a deal. We didn’t.
I’m his captive right now. And that’s not okay either.
48
Tyson
I follow Bailey and my mother outside onto the porch.
I don’t know what the fuck to do. One second I want to kiss my Ivy’s feet and beg for forgiveness and the next, I want to throw her to the floor and fuck her, join our bodies and show her how much we belong together.
Bailey’s eyes are huge.
“Ivy’s sister showed up in Arcana Falls looking for her.”
I straighten. “What?”
“She pulled up at the four corners, Cicely called Riley’s office, but Mason answered and went right over there and took Amelia Brennan. Cicely said he identified her as his mate.”
I sit down on the step and catch my breath and try to make sense of this news.
“There was witchcraft at play, Tyson. That could explain everything. We need more information, but it could be why Mase reacted like that. Can I talk to Ivy a second?”
I gesture to the door, but then jump to my feet and stop Bailey before she gets over the threshold. “Wait,” I say.
My mother speaks up. “She doesn’t need this information. She doesn’t need to worry about her sister before her and Tyson reconcile, Bailey.”
My mother has taken the words from my mouth.
“I agree,” Bailey says. “We’re all on the same page. I just want to ask her one question. Don’t worry, I won’t make things worse.”
She goes inside.
My mother has hope in her eyes. “This could be the answer.”
“Is his sense of smell fucked up enough that he’d not recognize that she’s not his, only has similar blood because of a sibling?” I ask. “My nose recognized Aunt Lucy as your sibling, Bailey as Grey’s.”
My mother shrugs. “I’m not quite sure what’s what with Mason’s senses, but I want to talk to our Scottish contacts to ask the questions. The fact that the guys say Ivy told them there’s witchcraft at play is a big deal. I wanted to ask Ivy about that, but she wasn’t very receptive. We’re going to have to call the local coven and get some answers.”