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“Who the fuck do you think you are touching what’s not yours?” I growled, lifting him up on his toes as he struggled to push my hands away.
“Daire,” Gavin said. “Daire, stop.”
But I was too far gone now, all the adrenaline from the fight combining with the rage I’d felt at seeing him surrounded.
“Please, let’s just go.” This time he tentatively put his hand on my arm and moved into my sightline. The pleading look in his eyes somehow penetrated the red haze, and I hesitated before looking back at the shithead turning purple.
I jerked him away, sending him slamming to the ground. The group of men that had been surrounding Gavin stepped back, holding their hands up in submission. And even though every fiber of my being wanted to hurt them, to let them see how it felt to be the weak one, I needed Gavin to get the fuck away from here.
“Move,” I said to those still blocking our path, and then I grabbed Gavin’s jacket and hauled him through the crowd.
“Next time don’t bring your boyfriend so you can actually finish the fight,” someone said as we passed.
He didn’t see my quick jab to his throat coming, cutting off his air supply and leaving him wheezing and falling to his knees, but everyone else sure as fuck did—including Gavin, whose eyes were gonna pop out if they got any wider.
I pushed him forward toward the exit, and he stumbled over the rocks before catching himself and scurrying out of the fight space and into the tunnel.
Shit, how had he even found me here? He had to have followed me, but Jesus, what a stupid, dangerous thing to do.
Moving fast, I reached for my phone tucked into my back pocket and turned on the light, leaving Gavin to trail after. Now that he was out of immediate danger, I wanted to kick his ass,and I definitely didn’t want to talk. So when he called out my name, I gritted my teeth and said, “Keep moving.”
“But we’re going the wrong way.”
He thought I was taking him back through the tunnels? Where anyone could jump him at any time?Fuck that.
I lifted the light, shining it across a different exit that went up to the street, and then climbed the stairs. The door led to another small stairwell, and as I raced up the steps two at a time, Gavin stayed close behind.
He was breathing hard as he said, “Where are we going? Daire, wait.”
I punched through the door that led to the alley and stepped out into the rain.
The fat droplets of water felt cool against my overheated skin as I marched across the narrow street, but it did jack shit to wash away my anger. So when the door snapped shut behind me, I whirled around and let loose.
“What the fuck do you think you were doing down there tonight?”
Gavin reared back, the rain soaking that shock of white hair to his forehead.
“Me?What were you?—”
“Don’t fucking test me right now, Gavin. I asked you a question.”
“And I’d think it was pretty obvious.” The fear from back at the fight left Gavin’s eyes as he took a step toward me, and in its place was the irritation I was so good at pulling out of him. “I was following you.”
“Then you’re a fucking idiot,” I spat, even though I knew he was anything but. Gavin was smart, kind, and too goddamn pure for a place like that, and the idea that he’d followed me down there—that he could’ve gottenhurt—made me want to drill some common sense into his head.
Even if I had to be mean about it.
“Excuse me?” Gavin’s fists tightened at his sides as he glared up at me, and if any of the dickheads underground had seen this side of him, they might have thought twice about laying their hands on him. Seemed I brought out the worst in him—like that was news. “You didnotjust call me stupid.”
“Except I did. Following me down there was stupid.”
“Yeah? Well, going there in the first place isn’t all that smart. Do you have a death wish or something?”
“What Ihaveis none of your fucking business, and it’d do you good to get that through your thick skull.” I tapped his temple, and he reached up to grip my wrist, shoving my hand away.
“You have a foul mouth,” he said, his eyes shooting daggers at me as water ran down his neck and into the collar of his soaked shirt.
“And yours spouts sunshine and rainbows. This isn’t news.”
