Severed Ties: A Dark Stalker Romance (Tainted Love Book 1)
Severed Ties: Chapter 44

Clara’s body has been perfectly still since those fucking words came out of Doc’s mouth. We’ve always had what I would call a strained relationship, but now that he’s gotten between me and my woman, things are about to get a whole lot more tense.

The apartment vibrates with unspoken words, but Clara and I aren’t going to have this conversation with him here. He’s done enough damage. I don’t need the righteous asshole to try to take her away from me. I respect Doc for his care for the women of the Saint James family and, by extension, Clara. Men like the ones he deals with every day are hard, myself included. We’re stubborn and unreasonable, and sometimes the women need someone in their corner. I’ve been that person for Wynter a time or two, but this is different.

Clara and I are still replaceing our feet. I’m still trying to show her she’s not too broken because I am too. But shit like this isn’t going to help. It’s going to put more doubts in her mind, and that’s the last thing I need when I’ve only just started making headway. I can see the walls I’ve been chipping at rebuilding before my eyes.

Doc works on my shoulder quietly, obviously reading the room. Too little too late, asshole. But he shows none of the care and gentleness he did with Clara. He’s rough, and although I’m partial to the pain, it’s not the kind I can get off on. Doc’s never been gentle with any of the men in the organization. Last year I got stabbed trying to get a guy into the tunnels and I swear the treatment was more painful than the stab wound itself.

“Care instructions are the same as Clara’s,” he grunts, shoving his things back into his kit and the bloody gauze into the trash.

“She needs an antibiotic,” I tell him.

He turns his cold glare on me, and a lesser man would flinch. Doc is a terrifying motherfucker, and not a man even I would want to replace myself on the wrong side of, but I can hold my own against the giant of a man, even if the last time we sparred at The Circle, I had the evidence all over my face for two weeks.

“Are you doubting how I treated her wounds?” he growls.

I roll my eyes. So dramatic. “No. Not for the cut.”

Clara wriggles in my lap, attempting to break free before I can say any more, but I just drag her right back against my chest.

“For fuck’s sake,” Doc mutters, opening his kit and throwing a small white box into the middle of the table. “One tablet three times a day with food.” He pauses and looks between us. “I would recommend keeping the kinky shit to a minimum. It’s bad for her to be on these for a long period of time.”

“Noted.”

Doc glances between us one last time before muttering something under his breath. “I’ll show myself out.” He starts toward the door but stops a few feet short. “If this asshole ever backs you into a corner you can’t get yourself out of, call me.”

Before I can bite his head off for even considering the idea that he could take my woman away from me, he disappears through the heavy steel door without another word.

Clara catches me off guard while I’m distracted and shoves herself off my lap, quickly moving to the other side of the room and putting the large modular couch between us as if it would do anything to protect her.

“I’d like to go home now.”

“No.”

“You can’t just say no to me, Tommy.”

“I just did.”

She lets out a growl of annoyance, her eyes darting around the room, looking for something to protect herself, but all it does is cause a smirk to tug at the corners of my lips. My girl’s a fighter. She’ll kick and scream and claw her way out of any situation, but not this one. Because I’m never going to let her go. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next week or even next month. Hell, if the devil tries to take her before he does me, I’ll drag her back down from heaven and then right along to hell to live in eternal damnation by my side. I’m that much of an asshole.

“You may as well have told him you fucked me with our blood,” she snaps.

“Are you embarrassed, little fawn?”

“No.”

“Liar.” I round the couch just in time for her to lunge around the other side, always keeping the large piece of furniture between us as if it would do anything to keep her from me.

“I’m going to call Rayne to come and get me,” she threatens.

A rough chuckle tears from my chest, and I shake my head, continuing my pursuit of her. I need to move her back to the other side of the couch, away from the door. Not that she’d get very far, but the more chances I give her to run, the more likely she’s going to do exactly that.

“Rayne knows you’re here, pretty girl.”

Her mouth drops open, surprise evident in her eyes as they drift closed to gather herself and her resolve.

“They all do, Wynter included.”

Her eyes snap open, a combination of betrayal and hurt flashing through the deep brown.

“I didn’t give them much, just that you were in danger and that I was claiming you, and do you know what they said, little fawn?”

She shakes her head, her body beginning to tremble. She’s going to crumble soon, and I have to get to her before she can fall.

“They said it took me long enough.”