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“Will…” Alex stepped forward.
But I shot out my hand. “Stay back,” I told her. “Stay back.”
It took a few seconds, but I rose again and faced him, taking his shit but not taking it lying down. I can be a team player, but I’m strong.
He walked up to me, slamming another uppercut into my stomach. Bile rose up my throat. I hunched over again, out of breath and my head spinning.
“You don’t have what it takes to be me,” he gritted out, standing over me.
“Will,” I heard Emmy call.
And then Alex. “What the hell are you doing?” she growled at me. “Do something!”
“He can’t,” Aydin told her. “Because he can’t lead. This is all he is. Don’t you see it?”
I rose up to see him glaring at her.
“Don’t you?” he yelled at Alex again.
Aydin punched and kicked, and my eyes watered as fire tore through my body. He knocked me down and then fisted my throat as we rolled around on the floor. I wouldn’t fight back. Not yet.
Not yet.
But I wouldn’t cower, either. It was the only way. Men like him needed to feel power, but he wouldn’t respect me if I begged like Micah.
He needed me.
He wouldn’t be able to tie his shoes without me someday.
Blood dripped out of my nose, and my ribs hurt. I barely registered the girls on us, trying to pry us off each other, but we rolled, forcing them back. Locking my elbows, I gripped his jaw and pushed him away from me. Sweat broke out across my forehead, and he breathed hard, the scratch I accidently left on his cheekbone red and jagged.
“Entertain me,” he said. “Let me watch, and let your girl watch, so she knows exactly how hard you missed her during your time apart.”
“I did miss her,” I whispered up at him, so only he heard. “Several times a day, in an array of fascinating places.”
His eyes flared, and he growled. “Fuck you!”
I broke out into a laugh, even through the pain, because he was coming undone.
That was it. For some reason, he was jealous, and I didn’t know why, but that was it. Did he want me or something? Maybe Alex?
“Come on!” I bellowed. “Hit me again!”
Break. Fucking break, because it was time.
He pulled back his fist, and I braced myself, but then something swung down behind him, slamming against the back of his neck.
He jerked, his eyes etched with pain, and then he fell over. I looked up at Alex standing there with a lamp in her fists.
He rolled over, hissing through his teeth as he locked eyes with her. “You better be ready to finish what you—”
She shot out the lamp, headbutting him, and he fell back, blood pouring down his mouth. He held his face.
“Alex…” I gasped.
Shit.
But the next thing I knew, the lamp hit my nose, too, a searing pain shooting through my head. I dropped back to the floor next to Aydin as the girls went to work.
