Page 33 of Property of Yak

Two birds, one stone.

“While normally I’d agree with you, right now I don’t. I’m trying to keep you safe, and I can’t fucking fathom why you are trying to stop me from doing that,” I snap.

“Language,” she scolds.

“I don’t understand you, Julie. At all. You’re more concerned with the way I talk than you are about living.”

“That’s not true. Now let go, I need to get to work,” she half-heartedly protests.

I look down and see my hand is still wrapped around her upper arm and let go so fast like she burned me.

I begin to pace the small floor of her living room. “Fuck,” I curse.

“I’m starting a curse jar. Every time you cuss, you’ll need to put a dollar in it. You don’t need to have such a potty mouth,” she says, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

I smile even though my body is on edge.

“Done,” I tell her, taking out a dollar and handing it to her.

She looks shocked. “Thank you.”

I sigh. “Look, I get it. You’re a strong, independent woman who doesn’t like being told what to do. Hell, any other time I would admire the hell out of that, but not on this. You literally ended up on the worst person ever’s radar. The man thinks he’s a damn king and that everything he wants is his. He doesn’t take no for an answer on anything. I’ve told you all the ways your home is breechable. I’ve laid it all out for you. I’m not asking you to put cameras up. I’m telling you.” She opens her mouth to protest, but I hold up my hand and continue. “Only you and I will have access to the cameras through an app. No one else. I’ll only look if I get an alert. I’m not going to be sitting somewhere with my cock in my hand watching you every chance I get. That’s not my style. I’m just genuinely trying to keep you safe in the only way I know how. That’s it. I need you to let me do my job. I know you don’t like it, but you walked into a hornet’s nest when you crossed through the club gate. This isn’t up for discussion, I’m sorry.”

Should I tell her I plan on adding a security system? Yes, but that’s a fight for another day. I just can’t…not right now. I’m barely holding it together as it is.

I turn to face her and watch as she swipes a tear away with a shaky hand.

“I’m not trying to be difficult,” she says quietly.

“I know you’re not.”

I do, and hell, I can’t really be that mad at her. She doesn’t know me from Adam, and I’m asking her for a lot to blindly trust me.

“Is it really that serious?” she asks softly.

“It’s serious enough that if I thought you would do it, I would send you away until the threat could be eliminated,” I tell her honestly.

When she flinches from my words, I stop holding back. I walk over to her and gently cup her cheeks between my hands.

“I didn’t want this for you. I tried to keep you out of it but failed. Not even your father could save you now. You’ve been marked, and it’s up to me to try and keep you safe, but in order to do that, I need you to let me,” I murmur.

Her whiskey-colored eyes search mine, looking for deception, but she finds none.

“You’ve saved me once before,” she whispers.

Even though her voice shakes, I hear the certainty in it.

I nod. “I did, and I will again, but you have to let me do it my way.”

She takes a shuddering breath. “Okay.”

“You mean it?” I ask, heart racing.

“Yes, but I need you to be honest with me. Lay it all out. I don’t like surprises, Jameson.”

“First, I need you to never call me Jameson outside of these four walls. Especially if you are around any of my brothers. We don’t use government names.”

“That’s…a choice,” she says carefully.