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“After he was picked up off the goddamn floor from passing out! Cayson could be anywhere, beating himself up for all of this!” Quick yelled. Before he could stop himself, he’d reached over and grabbed Dana by his collar. His large fist pulled the material up tight and pressed it hard against Dana’s Adam’s apple, cutting off his air. He could feel the truck beneath him swerving and skidding along the asphalt as Duke yelled for Judge to pull over. He could hear Dana choking and barely calling out to Duke for help, as he pounded and clawed at Quick’s arms in a fruitless effort to free himself.
All Quick could see behind his closed lids was Cayson’s face. His scared face when Ford yelled at him. He could imagine the pain inside his sweet doctor while he beat himself up for what had happened to Brian. Quick already knew Cayson was too empathetic. Probably no sooner had Dana opened his big mouth, than Cayson had tortured and blamed himself until he’d lost consciousness. A fierce roar erupted from Quick’s chest and he knew his beast was taking over. If he didn’t get control, he was going to hurt Dana, irreparably hurt him.
“Roman! Rome, stop!”
Strong hands were pulling at him, but he held on to Dana with all he had.
“Roman! Rome open your eyes? Rome, look at me. This isn’t helping Cayson. He’s alone and hurting. He’s not going to understand any of this until you get to him and explain it.”
Dana finally wrenched his neck free of Quick’s hold, making him stumble back, dazed and confused. When Quick lost himself to his rage, his sensei used to call them episodes. Once he opened his eyes, he saw that Dana was clutching a protective hand over his Adam’s apple and was looking at him like he needed an exorcist. Quick ignored the stare and instead concentrated on counting and breathing. They were on the side of the road, and the oncoming traffic was creeping by as they rubbernecked to see what was going on.
Duke was watching carefully, constantly talking in a soothing tone and reminding Quick to breathe.
“Goddamnit, what the hell did you do to my throat?” Dana coughed hard.
“It was throat clutch. It’s very deadly, so Quick was still in control,” Duke responded, putting a hand up to ward off any retaliation. Dana wasn’t a lightweight; he could hold his own in a fight… with a regular person. Not an eighth degree martial arts expert.
“Control?” Dana rumbled, coughing again.
“Yes. Because if he wasn’t, you’d be dead by now. Your tongue is just a little swollen, it’ll go down. He’s okay,” Duke huffed, running his hands through his hair. “Judge come on, we gotta go, now. We gotta get him home.”
“What the hell? Fuck no, Duke. I’m gonna have to call Uber or something. I’m not riding in back of this truck with him,” Dana said, shaking his head vehemently.
“With what phone? Dana, just shut up, or get out and hang on to the damn bumper for all I care. I don’t have any more tolerance for this shit, today! I need to check on Brian, and I’d like to get home some time tonight, too, ya know! They still haven’t picked up the man who put out the hit, so let’s fuckin’ go! Now!” Duke yelled. By this time, everyone was angry and yelling. Damn, was this day from hell ever going to end?
Quick knew that he needed to get to Cayson, but if he didn’t calm down, they weren’t going to make it, because he’d end up causing an accident if he lashed out again. Only Duke understood what Quick was going through, and he hoped he was able to find a way to get the guys to forgive him one day, but for now, he had to get home. Needed to know his son and Cayson were both okay.
Dark hit fast, and Judge was already breaking the speed limit when the alarms on their watches blared deafeningly loud in Judge’s truck. He swerved, just missing the guardrail as he took the exit off the interstate. “What the fuck is that? Shit! Turn ‘em off.” Judge tried to holler over the shrieking alarms.
The noise died off as they all pushed the buttons to turn them off. Quick stared at the watch face, praying silently that it wasn’t….
“It’s the doc!” Dana yelled first. “He’s home. Go to his house.”
Duke was turned all the way around in his seat, his dark eyes boring into Quick as Judge followed the directions Dana blurted out. He knew why his best friend was watching him, but he was hanging on to his sanity. Barely… but he was hanging on.
“He hit all the alarms,” Dana informed them.
All of them. All of them. Quick was still coming down from his episode, so it took a while for him to comprehend what Dana was saying. All that was rattling around in his head was; what was happening to Cayson that was so bad he had to push all the alarms? Had Dr. Joe hired more guys? Did they go after Cayson?
