Watch Me (Dark Obsession #1)(16)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“We traced the feed back here. To your place. The cops know, and they’ll be here any minute to haul your ass in to the station.” Rage growled in each word.

Gwen inched a little closer.

“You torched my home last night,” Chance continued, his voice sharpening even more.

“The hell I did!”

“The home can be replaced…but you sonofabitch…” His hands fisted on that bar top. “Gwen was inside.”

All of the color drained from Ethan’s face. “Wh-what?”

“She could have died!” Chance lunged across that bar, moving faster than a striking snake. He grabbed Ethan’s shirt front and jerked the guy close. “Are you just one of those sick bastards that can’t let a woman go? Would you rather see her dead than with someone else? She doesn’t want you anymore. Get it through your head. Stay the hell away from her!”

Gwen wrapped her arms around her stomach.

Lex was pacing near Ethan’s side. “I bet the computer equipment is in the back. This is going to be a slam dunk for the cops.”

It looked that way.

Ethan’s gaze cut to Gwen. “I didn’t do it.”

Gwen’s lips parted.

“Bullshit,” Lex threw out. “The signal tracks back to you. What? Did you get jealous ‘cause you thought Gwen was hooking up with someone else? You put a camera in her place so you could watch her. You needed to see her, right. Twenty-four, seven. You—”

“I want to protect you,” Ethan said as he gazed at Gwen. His words were rough, raspy. Just like the voice on the phone? “Gwen, listen to me. You’ve got this whole thing wrong!”

“Chance lost…” Gwen stopped and cleared her throat because her voice sounded too weak. “He lost his home, Ethan. The fire was everywhere. Why would you do that? Why?”

Ethan jerked away from Chance’s hold. “I didn’t! Why the fuck would I want to torch this jerk’s home?”

Lex laughed. “Because you thought the jerk in question was screwing Gwen.”

She could feel heat staining her cheeks.

Ethan glared at Lex. Then at Chance. “You think I didn’t know, even back then, how much you wanted her?” He shook his head. “Gwen was the blind one, not me. I could see how you looked at her. Like the lust was tearing you apart. But I got Gwen, not you. She would have stayed with me, if you and her dick of a father hadn’t poisoned her against me. Gwen would have stayed—”

Chance leapt over the bar. He just cleared that thing in an instant. He grabbed Ethan and shoved the other guy into the wall of glasses to the right. Chance lifted his fist and drove it into Ethan’s face.

“No!” Gwen screamed. Chance couldn’t do this, not again. The cops were coming. He’d get hauled to jail with Ethan. She didn’t waste time running around the long bar. Gwen climbed right over the thing. Sure, she didn’t clear it nearly as gracefully as Chance had, but Gwen managed to stumble over the thing.

Ethan wasn’t fighting back, and Chance was gearing up for another swing.

Lex was just watching. No help at all!

“No!” Gwen yelled again. She threw herself against Chance and held on tight. “Don’t do this! Let the cops take care of him!”

Chance had busted Ethan’s lip. She could feel the fury vibrating in Chance’s body. The guy needed to back away. If he didn’t, she knew this scene was going to end badly.

“Please, Chance,” she whispered. “Use some of that famous control of yours.”

But Ethan laughed. “Don’t you get it, Gwen? He doesn’t have control, not when it comes to you.”

She sucked in a sharp breath when Chance tensed. “Stop it!” Gwen ordered. And she meant that order for both Ethan and Chance. But she stared hard into Ethan’s eyes even as she held tightly to Chance. “It’s over. You’re not going to hurt me or anyone else that I care about.”

Ethan flinched. “I would never hurt you.”

Chance dropped his hold on the guy. He stepped back, and his arm curled around Gwen. “Really? Then what the hell were you doing in her bedroom all those months ago? The night you snuck inside? You broke into her place, you—”

“I want to keep you safe, Gwen,” Ethan said. He was staring straight at her, and the guy looked sincere. He was a master actor, obviously, so maybe it was no big surprise that she’d fallen so easily for his smooth lines. He’d seemed to care about her. He’d injected just the right amount of sincerity into his voice when they’d been together before…just like he was doing right then.

“I’m safe,” she said softly, flatly, “when you’re away from me.”

His eyes widened. “No!” He tried to reach for her.

Chance shoved him back. “You just don’t learn well, do you?”

“Gwen, Gwen, listen to me!” Now Ethan’s voice was rising. “I didn’t start any fire. And, yes, okay, maybe I did have some cameras set at your place, but it was just so I could watch you! You don’t understand the danger you’re in. Danger I put you in!”

Chance still had one hand locked around Ethan’s shoulder. “Understand this, Gwen isn’t for you. You stay away from her. You don’t think about her—”

“Gwen!” Ethan’s voice was frantic. That emotionless mask was gone. It had splintered right before her eyes. “I can’t let it happen again,” he shouted.

Again?

“You have to listen to me. I didn’t set the fire. It wasn’t me!”

Lex’s fingers tapped on the bar. “Then who was it?”

Ethan didn’t look his way. “You can’t trust the people near you. They’re working their own agendas. You can trust me. I can keep you safe.”

Lex laughed. It was a rough, angry sound. “Wow, you are a ballsy bastard, aren’t you? Chance, now I see why you beat the hell out of him before.”

She didn’t want anyone getting the hell beat out of them. Where were the cops? Chance had put in a call to the police department before they’d left his office.

“I beat the hell out of him,” Chance said, his voice grim, “because he broke into Gwen’s room in the middle of the night. She’d told him they were done, and the guy wouldn’t let go. He snuck into her place. Into my Gwen’s bedroom, and he was going to—”

“Your Gwen?” Ethan demanded. “Is that what this is about? You’re just trying to get me out of the way so you can finally be with her?” Ethan shoved hard against Chance. A fast, frantic move.