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As soon as I spin back around to look for him, I find Noah shoved up against the hood of the truck, his shirt bunched in the man’s fists.
“Get your hands off of me,” Noah snarls.
I rush toward them, fear making me move faster than normally possible. I’m a big guy, but I’m nothing compared to the guy pulling my brother off the hood before slamming him back down again, harder this time.
“Not until you give me back the money.” He reaches up with one hand and grabs a fistful of Noah’s hair, pulling on it until his head flies back and the back of it smashes against the truck.
Suddenly, our size difference doesn’t matter. Before Noah has a chance to collect his bearings from the impact, I’m kicking the back of the guy’s knee and yanking him away from him by the back of his black T-shirt. I only manage to stun the Hulk-man for a few brief seconds because before I have a chance to move out of the way, a fist is flying at my face at the speed and force of a fucking semi-truck.
“The money is mine. I earned it,” Noah says calmly.
Blood spurts from my nose, dripping down my front and staining my shirt and sweatpants. My eyes are unfocused, my face throbbing, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been punched in the face, and it won’t be my last.
Spreading my lips in a grin, I say, “I expected more from a guy your size.”
The next hit comes at my gut, and the air whooshes out of me as his knuckles make impact, knocking me off-kilter. Still, I don’t curl up and protect myself; instead, I ignore my instincts and spit a ball of blood and saliva into his face.
Noah’s quick to interfere then. “Fuck. If you want the money that bad, then take it.”
Something hits the ground beside my feet, but I don’t take my eyes off the man in front of me. I hold his gaze, adrenaline making me reckless.
“You gonna get that, or should I?” I ask.
Tearing his eyes away from me, he glances at whatever fell beside us and, after a few seconds, gives me a final shove against the hood and lets me go to pick it up.
I catch a flash of white from down the street as a car door slams shut, closely followed by another. Footsteps pound the pavement.
Fuck. My. Life.
“Okay, big guy. Take your money and go,” I say, trying to keep hold of the panic starting to swarm.
“If I see either of you here again, I’ll kill you,” he warns us.
Rage brews in Noah’s dark eyes at the threat, and even if I know he would never hurt me, fear tries to spark anyway. He doesn’t say anything to the guy, just stands in place and watches him like he’s thinking of ways to make him disappear, never to be found again. Finally, the man turns and leaves, his hands still in fists.
My body hurts, but I ignore the pain as I push away from the hood and lift the neck of my T-shirt to wipe away some of the blood from my face. “We need to leave. Reporters are here.”
“And they’ve already seen you,” Noah says.
“Yep.”
He puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me up straight. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
Nodding, I pull the keys from my pocket. “How did they know I was here?”
“You were getting your ass kicked by the bouncer. You’re not a nobody here. Not in this city.”
I want to scream when the footsteps get closer and closer and their voices start to break through our bubble. Noah’s eyes are wild as he starts to lead me to the driver’s side. His help only makes things look worse, but I’m not going to turn it away.
“What are you doing here, Maddox? Who was that man?”
“What happened here? Is this a drug deal gone bad?”
Lights flash in my eyes as the men rush forward, taking photos and trying to shove their recording devices in my face. They move in closer as questions keep coming, but I ignore them all. I’m doing everything that I should be in this situation, but there’s no reassurance in that.
I’m outside of a shithole bar, bloody and battered after getting my ass beat by some steroid-pumping bastard. The minute this story breaks, I’m in deep shit. The real story won’t matter now. When it comes to the press, it rarely ever does.
Noah grunts at the reporter as he opens the truck door for me. My hands are shaky as I climb inside. He shuts the door before going around the back of the truck and climbing inside the passenger side.
