“That, I don’t know. That’s why Vance is here.” I looked to Vance and back at Brock when he kept going. “He works for Lee too and he doesn’t owe me. I’ll owe him but he’s gonna nose around and see what he can learn so I can prepare for whatever Heller’s planning.”

This should have pissed me off.

It didn’t.

It scared me.

And it scared me because that night Brock threatened Damian, Damian decided to take Brock down a peg. He might be facing serious jail time but that wouldn’t matter to him. Brock had not only threatened him; he’d shut the door in his face then he stood in my living room at my window and waited until Damian did what he was told, something Damian wouldn’t take kindly in a serious way. And last, but not least, he stood between Damian and what Damian wanted.

I knew from experience that Damian could play dirty, mean, and as nasty as nasty could be to get what he wanted. He might be looking into Brock but if he didn’t find anything, which he wouldn’t, then he’d still find a way to fuck with Brock’s life. And fucking with Brock was fucking with me, fucking with Rex and Joel at a time when that situation was tenuous at best, and fucking with Brock’s family, who I’d come to care about and were in the throes of their own turmoil.

But, bottom line, first and foremost, he’d be fucking with Brock.

And I couldn’t allow that.

So I made a decision.

“I need to make a statement to him,” I announced.

“Come again?” Brock asked, and automatically my hand fisted in his flannel but I didn’t notice it.

“Tomorrow,” I whispered, “I’ll go into the station with you and I’ll press charges against Damian. Assault, battery, and rape.”

The room filled with crackling electricity that snapped vicious against my skin.

And this wasn’t coming from Brock.

It was then I remembered we had an audience and I looked to the men at his bar.

At what I read on their faces, I tensed.

Uh-oh.

“Sweet Tess,” Brock murmured, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the men at the bar and Brock kept talking, “I didn’t share. They didn’t know.”

I closed my eyes tight, turned my head to face his chest, and clenched his shirt harder.

Damn, now I was blurting that shit out willy-nilly.

I felt Brock’s big, warm hand over mine at his shirt, pushing in hard so I had no choice but to unclench and he pressed my hand flat to his chest as he whispered, “Hey.”

I pressed my lips together and continued to scrunch my eyes closed.

He gave me an arm squeeze.

“Baby, hey.”

I opened my eyes and tilted them up to him.