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“Yeah, what’s—”
“Oh God . . . Elle.” Libby whirled around, her expression morphing into horror as she rushed toward the bathroom with me behind her.
“Who the fuck is Elle?”
“Open the door,” Einstein pled as Libby yelled, “Johnny, he’ll kill you.”
“I told you,” Einstein cried out between pleas and banging on the door. “I told you, Libby. She shouldn’t be here.”
I was already trying to push the girls away from the door when Einstein’s voice—her tears—cut through all the chaos, stunning me.
Einstein never cried.
I knew in that second I’d had it all wrong. The girls hadn’t been worried about keeping Johnny calm after last night. They’d been worried about him finding whoever they were hiding in this bathroom.
And now two of the strongest girls I knew were crying because he had.
There was a deep yell from inside the bathroom, quickly followed by Johnny cursing.
“Dare, stop him,” Libby screamed as she grabbed for my arm again. “It’s the—”
But I was already pushing her from me and yelling, “Fucking move, Einstein.”
As soon as she was away from the door I charged into it with my shoulder, slamming all my weight into it and stumbling into the bathroom when the door gave.
I looked up as I fought to gain my footing and found Johnny pressing someone up against the wall, his large frame engulfing the other person and blocking my view. Their arms were outstretched, a knife between their clenched hands where Johnny had them pinned to the wall . . . blood dripping down their arms.
I glanced in the mirror, and my world stopped turning.
Ice surged through my veins when I saw my firefly struggling with a man who was so close to losing control.
Johnny’s mouth twisted in a sneer as he took another step into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. I slowly stood from my crouch, setting my bag on the counter so I could easily search for what I’d tossed in there just before he’d opened the door.
His gaze darted from my bag to my face to the window behind me—the window I’d opened after the shower to let the steam out—then back to my face. And I knew . . . I knew as his eyes filled with rage he was assuming the worst.
“Wanna tell me what the hell you’re doing in here?” he asked as he twisted the lock and slowly started toward me.
My body begged to respond, to match his steps with ones of my own, but I stood at the counter and held his stare, searching for the knife Kieran had given me and trained me to use so many years ago.
“I asked you a question, bitch,” he said through gritted teeth.
“It’s not—” I’d just grasped the knife when he grabbed my throat and barreled me back into the wall, my shoulder smashing into the edge of the towel rack and forcing a cry from me.
His other hand slammed down onto my mouth to mute the cry, and for a few moments he didn’t move or speak. He finally released my throat to press his forearm against my chest and his hip to my stomach, pinning me to the wall and preventing any obvious attempt to fight back . . .
All the while I was struggling to reposition the knife I’d almost dropped so I could flip out the blade as pain pulsed from my shoulder to fingertips.
“I’ll ask you again, but this time you’re gonna answer. Got it?” His voice was hushed but no less menacing. “What are you doing in here?”
I clenched my jaw against the pain when he removed the hand from my mouth, forcing out, “It’s not what you think.”
“Isn’t it?” His eyebrows pulled low over his eyes, and like last night, it looked like he was taking his hatred and forcing it on me. “Knew there was something from the first second I saw you. Knew you were trouble. Knew Dare was a fucking idiot
for not listening to me. And now here you are . . . in a place you shouldn’t be, near my girl.” His free hand slowly moved down, his lip curling as he tightened his fingers around my wrist until I no longer had control of my hand. “I’ll snap your fucking neck for even thinking about hurting her. Drop the knife.”
Someone yelled just before there was a loud smack against the bathroom door. “Johnny!”
Johnny tensed against me and looked over his shoulder. The hand clutching my wrist loosened and his chest heaved as he blew out a ragged breath.
