Strike ( Book 4: Stronger Series )

46. A New Domino

I was just about to finish the season finale of The Fall when Carla, Clive, and Owen walked into my newly decorated J-Den. It'd been finished this morning as six men carried all of the furniture, curtains, and decorations I'd selected and placed them where I'd instructed. The whole thing was done in two hours, my electronics hooked up, lights plugged in, and my ass planted on my comfy light gray square sectional with a million accented throw pillows. I was officially surrounded by a room of soft grays and mauves with strings of lights dangling from the wall, giving the room that soft twinkly look I secretly loved. I had mirrors mounted on every wall, most of them obviously decorative, but they had been strategically placed to prevent Darren or anyone else from sneaking up on me from any angle. Even Camaro was enjoying her new squishy bed that she'd barely left, chewing on a new toy I'd picked out for her.

So when my new haven was breached with unwelcome intruders, I couldn't help but scowl at them. I was still trying to mull over my conversation with Sid, and I didn't want to deal with anyone.

"Darren would like to speak to you," Carla said as she handed me the phone.

I took the phone, hit the End button, and plopped it on the mirrored coffee table in front of me before returning my focus back onto the screen in front of me.

Carla actually gasped to the point where I almost laughed.

"How could you do that?" she nearly shrieked. "Call him back right now and apologize!"

Fuck, that made me giggle. "I think I'll pass. He's only calling to annoy me anyway."

"I don't care! Call him back!"

I stood and headed toward the bathroom, giving them my backside as my way of dismissing them. A bath sounded better than dealing with them.

"Listen here, you ungrateful little whore. He does all this for you, and you turn around and disrespect him like that? That's not how a wife—"

I turned and decked her right in the mouth before she had a chance to even finish her sentence. Her ass hit the floor before Camaro was on her feet, growling at her in front of me, before Clive and Owen even had a chance to react, their stunned faces an image I would never forget. I didn't know this woman very well, but I was going to lay down the boundaries immediately before she got too high for this position that she had been so eloquently gifted.

"Listen closely, Carla, because I'm only gonna say this once," I said as I stood over her. "Be very careful with what you say around me. I don't know who the fuck you think I am, but shit like that won't fly with me. Do your job, mind your business, and stay the fuck out of my marriage, and maybe I'll tolerate you. Got it?"

Carla's hand was still covering the lips that I could see were already swelling and bleeding down her chin. That would be the last time I allow someone who didn't know me to call me a whore and lecture me about Darren. They didn't know a goddamn thing about me and him and what he'd put me through, so I wasn't going to give them even a moment of breathing time to spew shit they knew nothing about.

When I raised an eyebrow after not getting the acknowledgment I expected from her, she tilted her gaze back to Clive and Owen in confusion.

"They're not going to help you," I answered for her. "The most they'll do is tell Darren what happened, and you'll have to explain to him what you did to deserve that kind of reaction from me. It's not a conversation I would look forward to, but it's one you can avoid in the future if you remember to keep your ill-informed opinions about my life to yourself. Now do you understand?"

Clive and Owen basically gave her a shrug-nod to confirm the truth of my words, giving her the means to look back and regard me, her expression one of regret and worry.