Luna Junction 2 Forbidden Mate (W) Read Free

had to offer, the vapid Hoffmans seemed
the least threatening so I didn’t feel bad about ignoring Max’s
orders.
    I changed my mind a few moments later
when I opened the creaky door to the Café, my eyes struggling to
adjust to the dim interior. I heard the sound of a glass falling to
the floor and a low rumble which sounded suspiciously like a growl.
After the tumult of the last day, my senses must have been
operating on overdrive because a trill of warning jolted through my
spine. I crouched in the doorway as if I were expecting an imminent
assault and desperately my eyes darted around for a weapon, my
hands itching for the solid comfort of a bow. A bow strung with a
gleaming arrow which was ready to release and meet the threat that
somehow I knew was coming for me.
    The abrupt grip on my elbow was painful
and I scarcely had time to yelp before I was hurtled bodily out of
the doorway and toward the dirt parking lot. I did not understand
what was happening, only that I was being attacked and I had
nothing with which to defend myself.
    My feet left the ground briefly as I
was hauled roughly upright. Dimly I realized I was in the clutched
of a very strong man. Instinctively I kicked out my right foot,
hard, but he anticipated my move and blocked the blow between his
own powerful legs.
    “ Are you fucking crazy?” he
bellowed in my ear.
    Then something sort of broke inside me.
After all, I’d only just hours earlier escaped being slapped around
by one piece of shit. I wasn’t about to meekly endure more trauma
at the hands of a stranger. He had my arms pinned and my leg was
still clasped between his. So I lowered my head and aimed for his
solar plexus. The effect barely moved him back an inch so I
prepared to ram him again when I realized he was shouting my name.
“Acie! Acie! For fuck’s sake!”
    The world stopped spinning for an
instant. Maturity had deepened his voice but I recognized it
instantly. Slowly I raised my eyes and saw a gruff man’s face, and
beneath that the shadow of the boy I had known. “Gideon,” I
whispered.
    He released me suddenly and stepped
back, running a hand through his sandy hair. The door to the café
opened and two pale faces peered out. I recognized old man Hoffman
and one of his daughters. They both looked to Gideon and he nodded.
“I’ll deal with her.”
    Hoffman frowned. “Your brother ain’t
going to be happy.”
    Gideon spat. “When is Michael ever
happy?”
    Hoffman disappeared and Gideon glared
at me. “You gonna be good now?”
    There wasn’t any plan to rush toward
him pell-mell with my limbs striking out in all directions but
there I was, and howling like a banshee besides. Gideon stumbled in
surprise for a moment but subdued me easily, turning me bodily
around, his arms in a vice grip across my chest. I panted and
struggled for a moment, then went limp.
    “ Don’t do that again,” he
breathed fiercely in my ear.
    My teeth were clenched as I tried to
slip free from his grasp. “Let me go, you lousy son of a
bitch.”
    Gradually his grip relaxed until I
could free myself. I spun around, disconcerted by the feel of his
warm chest on my back. I crossed my arms defiantly and glared at
him as he calmly removed a pack of cigarettes and from his pocket
and lit one.
    “ That your car?”
    “ So what?”
    He took a long drag on his cigarette.
“So it won’t take long for word to get out that you’re back.
Michael’s the sheriff now.” He exhaled a cloud of smoke. “You need
to leave.”
    I recalled Gideon’s brother, Michael.
He was eight years older and cold as they come. For whatever reason
he had taken an instant dislike to me as a child and I didn’t
relish a confrontation with him. But I still didn’t understand what
I had done wrong. “Is it against the law to enter a restaurant in
mighty Michael’s Luna Junction?”
    Gideon’s glare was toxic. “It is for
you, Jaeger.”
    And with that my defiant resolve
deflated. I had to admit I’d occasionally