Free Destroy You (Destroy #3) by K. D. Carrillo

of Jeremy and stared him down before he took a swing.
    “Get the fuck off my parents’ property,” Jeremy spat out.
    Miguel rolled his eyes. “Gladly.” He reached his hand out and demanded, “Antonia.”
    She stepped around Cameron and came to stand in front of me. My heart stuttered for a moment as I thought she might actually go with the fucker to please her parents. I exhaled in relief when she leaned against me instead.
    “No,” she replied.
    Miguel noticed where she stood, and so did her father. “Antonia, your mother and I do not support you so that you can abandon your culture and a suitable match for this…this…” He waved his hand in front of me, unable to find words to describe me.
    Most parents wouldn’t choose me for their daughters. I’ve got the whole bad-boy image going on, but it’s an image that works for me as a bar owner. It screams, “Don’t fuck with me,” and the chicks love it. Not that I indulge anymore, but there was a time I took advantage of what they freely offered me. Now I enjoy the tips they toss my way and the reduction in fights with drunken assholes at the bar. But I hated that Toni’s dad looked at me like I wasn’t good enough for her. All I wanted was for her to realize we would be perfect together. The last thing we needed was another fucking roadblock.
    Toni tipped her chin up, and I recognized the defiance in her stance. “This is Trent. He’s a good guy, Papa. Just because he has some tattoos and a lip ring doesn’t mean he won’t treat me well. He’s always treated me like a lady.”
    “He is not Mexican,” her mother hissed.
    Toni shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me.”
    “Let’s see you support yourself, then. When you come to your senses, give your father and me a call,” her mother retorted.
    “If that’s the way you want it,” Toni replied with false confidence.
    I dropped my hand on her shoulder and rubbed up and down her arm. “Don’t worry, Wildcat. We’ll all help you figure it out.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
     
    Toni
     
    I wanted to punch my parents in the throat for treating Trent like he was something they’d stepped in. “He’s not Mexican.” I couldn’t believe my mother actually spouted that racist bullshit in front of my friends. How could they not see how beautiful he was? It wasn’t the way he looked, although his appearance certainly got my heart racing. It was the way he smiled at me differently than I’d seen him smile at anyone else. His eyes glazed over, and the corner of his mouth curved up.
    I’d seen that exact look before. Aiden got it every time Becca stepped into the room, and I’d seen it on Reed, too. It was like they were in on a secret no one else knew. I wasn’t innocent. Becca and I partied hard our first couple years of college. Miguel was the only guy I’d had sex with, but I’d made out with plenty more, and they were usually satisfied enough that they didn’t complain over a technicality. Enough that when a man’s arms wrapped around me, I recognized their urgency, their drive to find their release, but I’d never felt cherished. Especially when Miguel’s arms were around me.
    That was until Trent wrapped his hard, colorful arms around me. We burned so hot I was slightly afraid I’d eventually be consumed by the fire between us. But when he found me bruised after Kate’s ex-husband attacked me, he comforted me. That’s when I knew he really wanted me and not just a one-off session under the sheets.
    I think that scared me even more. What if I gave in? What if I let myself believe Trent and I could be more than friends? Would I survive the heartbreak when he eventually caved to the numerous offers of no-strings-attached sex he received every night? Odds were that one of the women that threw herself at him would appeal to him. Maybe if we were fighting, or he was bored, or I don’t know what, but Miguel certainly would have taken them up on their offers.
    “Let me