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“Everything’s going to be okay,” I tell her. “His car’s here, which means he’s here. The bikers haven’t visited the mall today, so it’s unlikely anything has happened to him where they’re concerned. Whatever’s going on here, Natalie, we’ll fix it.”
She takes a breath, as though steadying herself, and then nods. “Okay, I know. Thank you, Nick. Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without—”
She cuts herself short with a scream, an icy noise that slices the air, the sort of noise that could cause a snowman to spontaneously crumble to tiny white granules. It pounds into me, the noise, awakening instincts deep inside me to keep her safe, to make sure her body, her womb, her hips, and her smile and her beautiful singing voice are protected.
Turning, I grit my teeth as my gaze takes in the fucked-up scene.
Terrence stands with his hand on the back of Kenny’s neck, clearly applying some pressure if the kid’s scrunched-up face is anything to go by. Behind him, three bikers loom, all tattooed and looking ready for violence.
“Shit, I didn’t expect Santa to come and pay his respects.”
He stares at Natalie as he speaks, causing a volcano to rumble inside of me ready to erupt.
He has no damn right to look at her like that.
Or at all.
“Little girl, I hear you’ve been telling some tall tales about me. I think it’s time we sorted that out. Don’t you?”
Chapter Fourteen
Natalie
“Don’t you fucking talk to her like that,” Nick snarls from beside me, taking a step forward.
Terrence laughs in the coldest way I’ve ever heard, low and bitter like he doesn’t care if the whole world catches fire. He grins over at Nick as he tightens his grip on Kenny’s neck, causing a swirling mess of panic to twist my insides.
My brother’s face is pinched tight in pain.
“Ah, so the mall Santa is going to play the big man.” Terrence chuckles, his men laughing behind him, all of them with that same crazy note. “This has nothing to do with you, tough guy, so you better step the fuck away.”
“I’m sorry, sis,” Kenny wheezes, causing my heart to thunder in my chest like it’s going to explode.
I can’t let this happen. I can’t let them do this to him, hurt him like this.
It isn’t fair.
“Please,” I whimper, my eyes flitting to Terrence. “Don’t hurt him.”
“After all the lies he’s told about me?” Terrence snaps. “Saying I killed your parents? We both know that isn’t true, darling.”
“You’re lying,” Nick says, his voice a matter of fact and filled with confidence as he takes another step forward.
“Oh, you’re a mind reader as well as Santa, eh?”
“I’ve made it my job to be able to tell when people are being dishonest with me. And you just fucking lied. You killed my woman’s parents and now you’ve laid hands on her brother. Let him go. Now. I won’t ask again.”
Terrence looks between me and Nick, and then a deranged smile peels across his face. “Fuck me. You’re not screwing this… thing, are you?”
Nick surges forward, stopping bare inches from Kenny and Terrence. Behind Terrence, his men bristle, standing up straighter and reaching for something behind their backs.
“You will not insult my woman again,” he snarls, with so much protectiveness in his voice I feel like it’s cloaking me, wrapping around me.
Insanely – considering the circumstances – I feel safe. It’s like my womb is telling the rest of me not to worry, never to worry because my own personal Saint Nick is always going to keep danger at bay.
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll beat you to a pulp in front of your buddies,” Nick snarls. “And I’ll make you beg me to stop.”
“I’d love to see that.” Terrence chuckles. “Fuck, I’d pay to see that.”
Nick feints as though he’s going to hit Terrence.
Terrence reacts on instinct, lunging out with a vicious punch that catches Nick on the side of the head.
My whole world spins as fear stabs through me.
I think I let out a scream, a piercing noise like winter wind whistling through broken glass. But I can’t be sure. Everything moves too quickly, chaos causing my focus to dart here and there like disorganized elves rushing around the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
I dart forward as Terrence lets Kenny go, moving to hit Nick again.
It’s the only thing I can think to do, the only way I can make any of this better. I wrap my arms around him and drag him away from the scene, and then turn to find Nick with Terrence’s fist in his giant paw.
He squeezes the biker’s fist, his whole body bulging in the Santa get-up, muscles twitching.
Terrence gasps and shakes his head violently when his men try to intervene. “No, no, don’t. Fuck. He’s going to break my hand.”
“You’re an idiot, Terrence, a goddamn fool,” Nick snarls, no longer looking anything like Santa.
