Aaron threw back his head and laughed, making even more people turn to look in their direction.
This is turning into something even bigger than a shit show. A shit circus? Shit extravaganza?
Aaron snarled, his pretty face twisting into a hideous mask of hatred. “You’re talking about of your ass, you fucking cunt. Once I own this place, it’ll become even better than before. I’ll have the only gym in the state withmeas a member, and fighters from all over the world will come to train with me.”
Oh…he did not!
“Oh, God,” Tessa choked. “Are you seriously fucking with me right now?”
Skathi couldn’t help it, she chuckled, her blank expression slipping enough for a smile to curled her lips.
“Aaron was always bigger in his own head than in his pants,” Skathi remarked dryly, making Tessa howl in laughter, Shannon gasp, and Aaron growl.
“You fucking bitch,” he snapped, moving forward, his fist raised.
Now…the fool knew better than that.
Raising her arm to block his punch, Skathi was shocked when a plate-sized hand appeared, snatched Aaron’s fist from midair, and held it in a vice-like grip.
“You touch my woman and I will tear your fucking arms off and fuck you in the ass with your own thumbs.”
Odin.Oh gods….What was he doing there? And he’d just witnessed her humiliation at the hands of her ex-husband—her biggest mistake.
Suddenly, the day had become too much; her long-suffering patience turned to dust in an instant. Bright, violent, red anger filtered over her gaze, filling her with virulent rage that made the blood in her veins catch fire.
Howdarehe? How dare Aaron try tohither? How dare he come intohergym and speak toherand herfriendas if they were garbage? How dare he bringher, the home wrecker, the gold-digger, the life ruiner?
And how dareOdincome here and interfere right when she had the chance to kick the hells out of Aaron? She didn’t need Odin’s help to bring Aaron down a peg. She’d just never had the opportunity before. And when the chance to beat his ass finally came, Odin had to show up and muck things up.
Skide!She bit back the curse to keep a tight rein on her temper. Jaegers were silent hunters, trained to face down even the most horrendous situations with uncompromising grit. She’d be damned if she let either Aaron or Odin see that they’d gotten a rise out of her.
“Who the fuck are you?” Aaron growled, his body tensing under the glowering of a larger, more menacing male. Beside Odin, Aaron was like a toddler posturing at a bigger kid on the playground.
In answer, Odin squeezed Aaron’s fist, making the puce-faced man whimper.
Apparently, SEALs were no match for Vikings.
Taking a single, long stride toward Aaron, Odin stopped not even a foot away, using his height and massive size in his favor. Aaron, though a former SEAL, didn’t look nearly as frightening or capable of violence as the man in faded denim, a leather vest, and tattoos.
“I’m the man who doesn’t fucking appreciate you coming up to my woman, talking shit about her, and daring to raise a fucking fist at her,” Odin answered, his voice a seismic event; deep, rumbling, and devastating.
“Yourwoman? You’re fuckingher?” Aaron said, mocking disbelief in his tone. He gave Odin a once over, his sneer twisting. “At least a big motherfucker like you won’t get flattened by her fat ass in the sack—”
Aaron didn’t get to finish his slander before a fist embedded itself in his gut, propelled there by a coolly furious Norse deity.
Doubling over, Aaron stumbled backward, nearly pushing Shannon over. Tessa reached out to help keep the pregnant woman upright, but dropped her hands once Shannon was safely on two feet, glaring daggers at Tessa.
Ungrateful witch.
Bending down and bracing his gigantic frame on his knees, Odin spoke directly to the red-faced man, struggling to draw a breath, his voice eerily calm and yet heavy with intent. “I told you to keep your ugliness about my woman to yourself, motherfucker. Now, why don’t you see yourself out?”
Odin stood to his full height and lifted a chin to three men on the periphery watching with pursed lips and rage in their eyes. They obviously hadn’t liked what Aaron had said or tried to do, and she knew those men…they were good men. But how did they know Odin—and it was apparent they did, because after his chin lift they came running, grabbing Aaron by the arms and dragging him to the gym’s front doors.
He wasn’t the owner yet.
A sputtering Aaron could be heard shouting about how he would make them all pay once he owned the place.
Stunned by the acrid venom and utter malice in Aaron’s voice, Skathi swallowed down the rising bile and turned on her heel. She needed to get the hells out of the gym and home where she could damn well breathe and think and probably drink a little too much wine as she tried to digest what happened.
