“Didn’t tell me? Ah, no, but you didn’t have to. You see,doll… I have eyes everywhere. Tristian’s gym… in dear Noah’s workplace…public parks.”
My chest tightened.He’d seen us the other day.
“Let go of her, you bastard,” I snarled.
“Fine, fine,” said Darragh. “We’ve gotten friendly for long enough.”
He let her go—but not before running his fingers through Ingrid’s hair.Like he owned her.
I lunged before I could even think. Kane caught my shoulder, anchoring me back. It was the only thing stopping me before I could commit murder.
“You can go now, sweetness… I very much enjoyed your company,” Darragh said.
Ingrid didn’t wait. She scrambled onto her feet, stumbling, and then she was running. She collided with me, her arms winding around myneck in a vice grip. I pulled her into my chest, burying my face in her hair, breathing in the scent of her that hadn’t yet been completely drowned out by the club’s filth. She was shaking so hard—convulsive, terrified tremors I could feel through my own body that made me want to burn the building down.
Darragh smirked at us from his chair. His goons had folded back in alongside him, watching. So were the others in the VIP room, Brandon especially over a half-drunk glass of something malty. Even the lapdancers working the poles had stopped to watch this unfold.
“Very interesting, isn’t it, your little doll paying a visit to my club tonight?” Darragh purred. “It’s almost as if the universewantedus to come together, get to know each other. Or.” He leaned forward, the smile falling, a predatory sneer coming to his lips. It was a look I knew all too well. “Perhaps it wantedyou and Ito come together again, Tristian.”
“Fuck you,” I growled.
Anger flashed in Darragh’s eyes. But he didn’t set his dogs on me.
Easing back into his seat, legs sprawled open, his glass dangled from his grip. “I’ll forgive this little infraction—emotions are running high I can see. You can go for now… but I want you to consider my offer, Tristian. Today was nothing but a glimpse… Refuse, and the worst of it is yet to come.”
I didn’t give him the satisfaction of a reply. I gripped Ingrid’s hand and pulled her toward the nearest bathroom. I shoved the door open, ushered her inside, and slammed the lock home.
I turned to her. She stood by the sink, tiny, trembling hands hovering near her mouth, her eyes wide and searching. She could see the carnage in my expression.
I approached her slowly, each step deliberate. She backed up until the cold porcelain kissed the backs of her thighs.
I planted my palms on either side of the sink, caging her in. She bounced on her toes, nervous and breathless, my arms like iron bars oneither side of her. She was trying to retreat, but there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.
“Doll…” I said, my voice a low growl.
She shook her head, her breath coming in shallow hitches. I reached out, my thumb and forefinger catching her jaw, squeezing just enough to force her to focus on me. Her hands moved to make space between us, but my own caught hers, caging them onto the counter.
“Mind telling me… what you’re doing here in this tight little dress for all of the men in the building to be watching your every step?”
She stared up at me, eyes wide, jaw tight, struggling to hold herself together. I let my gaze drop once, hungry and slow over the full length of that white dress… or rather the lack of it, then back up to her face. Making sure she felt exactly what every man in that building had been looking at.
What was mine.
Her breath caught. “I’m sorry.”
I leaned in closer instead. I could almost hear her racing heart. “You and I both know that’s not going to cut it, doll.”
She breathed heavier. The closeness of my body to hers was magnetic. Every urge in my body was drawing me to her. Every thought in my mind was pulling me back.
“I didn’t want to come,” she started, and my hand tightened on her.
“Getting somewhere…”
“M-May and Amber—they’re the ones who put me in the dress. They dragged me here, and I didn’t want to come, but—but you weren’t replying, and so I came, but then I lost them on the dance floor, and some p-people started touching me, and I went back to the bar when the bartender gave me apple juice a-and then someone took me to see Darraghandthen—”
I pressed a finger to her lips, silencing the frantic tumble of words. “Breathe…” I whispered. She was so damn precious, her chest heaving, her cheeks flushed with the heat of her panic. She obeyed instantly.
Like she always did. But I didn’t know yet if she was obeyingmeor if she was justobeying. The way she’d been taught to. That bastard had trained her to go small and quiet the second a man used that tone.
