I stilled, unsure of what to say.  I was fairly sure I knew what he meant, but I struggled to believe it.  His fiancé had meant a lot to him, so I wasn’t convinced he actually meant he felt more with me.  Before I could question him, his phone rang and he gave me an apologetic look before answering it.

I’d question him another time.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Blade

I leant back in my chair, distracted from my work.

Layla.

It had been four days since the barbeque at Madison’s house.  Four days since I’d admitted to her I felt more for her than I’d ever felt for another woman.  Four days since she’d pulled away from me a little.  Nothing too noticeable, but I felt it.  It was in the way she didn’t say everything she was feeling, in the way she didn’t touch me quite as much as she had before, and in the way she fucked me.  Up until four days ago, she’d abandoned herself during sex.  She’d shut her mind off and gone with it.  Now, I could almost hear her mind ticking over.  It caused her to hold back, to not give herself to me completely.

I need to fix that.

My phone rang, breaking into my thoughts.

Scott.

“What’s up?” I answered it.

“Just wanted to keep you up-to-date with the Ricky situation.  Griff’s advised me the drug shipment has been delayed.  Seems the cops in New South Wales busted them on the way, so now we have to wait for another lot to come through.  It could be a week or more, though, because they’ve got too much heat at the moment.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, brother, that’s one way to put it.”

“Okay, let me know when you know more so I can get the guys ready.”

“Will do,” he said before hanging up.

I stood up and walked to the window.  As I stared out at the river, I thought about how things had changed in my life over the last few months.  Between my relationship with Scott improving, and my new relationship with Layla, things had changed a lot.  For the better.  Even my relationship with my mother had shifted, and the changes she was making in her life were for the better.  Finishing off Marcus would be the end of a lot of things, as well as the beginning of so many more.

We need to make this happen soon.

“Donovan!”

I turned to find Layla stalking through my office door, followed by Merrick, with an angry look on her face.  She was wearing denim shorts and a fitted singlet that accentuated her breasts.  I was instantly hard, but when she began talking, that was quickly forgotten.

“I’ve just had an altercation with a man called Phil Deacon, and I’m fucked the way off.  He said that you know him, and I’m guessing, from what he said, you’re definitely not friends, but I want to know where to find the bastard so I can go and give him a piece of my fucking mind.”

Fuck.

“Calm down, sweetheart, and tell me what the hell happened.”

She took a deep breath.  “I was sitting in my car at the shopping centre when the asshole got in and sat in my passenger seat.  He introduced himself and said he was a buddy of yours in the construction industry, but that you’d pissed him off, and he wanted me to talk to you about it.  Said that he bet I had sway over you, and that I could convince you to walk away from some job he wanted.  And then the fucker ran his finger across my neck and said something about him hating it if you had to deal with two lost women in your life.”

“Fuck!” I thundered, anger bursting through my mind.

Merrick cut into the conversation.  “Fucking hell, Blade!  I knew we should have taken care of him when we had the chance.”

I flashed him a warning with my eyes.  “Leave it, Merrick.”

“No, you’ve gone soft, and it’s time you fixed that shit.”

We glared at each other until Layla interrupted.  “Well, I want a word with him before you fix shit,” she said, her angry eyes showing me how worked-up she was.

“No, you need to stay out of it,” I barked, a little more forcefully than I meant to.

Her eyes widened.  “You don’t get to decide that, Donovan.”

Fuck, I’d pissed her off even more, but my mind was closing in on me with worry over her safety, and I struggled to control my emotions.  “Yes, I do,” I dictated.

As Layla and I stood locked in a battle over her actions, Merrick muttered something under his breath and left my office.  I waited for her reply, not confident she would back down.  I’d wanted a strong, independent woman, but, fuck, in situations like this, I wished my preferences lay with women who didn’t have that streak in them.

Eventually, she huffed out a breath and said, “I’m coming with you when you go to see him.”

I raked my hand through my hair.  “Fuck, Layla, you don’t understand what’s going on here.  Phil’s not a man to underestimate, and I won’t have you anywhere near him.”

She raised her eyebrows.  “You won’t?  What makes you think you can control me?”

“I don’t want to control you.  I just want to keep you safe, and the only way to do that is to keep you away from him.”

Her phone rang, cutting through the tension between us.  I watched her answer it and frown.  She turned and walked away from me, speaking in a hushed tone.  I left her to go to find Merrick.  He was in his office on the phone.  Looking up, he motioned for me to come in, and as he ended the call, he said, “Ben’s finding Phil, and then you and I are going to fix this fucking situation up.”