AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And the worst part was that, once again, I wasn’t even sure why he was so mad at me. We’d been going back and forth for nearly forty-five minutes already. I told him I would keep paying him, but he just kept screaming about me trying to run away and not giving him what my dad had promised. He was completely foaming at the mouth, so I’d tried to walk away.
That was when he hit me.
Except the only difference now was he wasn’t my father. And I was no longer a little girl willing to step aside and take the abuse.
So, the minute I got my bearings back, untold anger filled me, and I grabbed something. I didn’t know what it was, but my hands closed around something long and metallic, and I swung it around and caught Brick right in the abdomen.
He doubled over and howled in pain.
“DON’T YOU EVER FUCKING HIT ME AGAIN.” The scream sounded like it was from far away, but it was familiar enough that I could tell it was mine.
Brick glared at me from his bent-over position. “You fucking bitch. You thought you could send your little guard dog after me, huh? You thought he would protect you from me?”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, but I don’t need anyone to protect me. I can handle you all on my own.”
“Oh yeah?” He reared back up, and his hand shot out. I swung once again, but he grabbed my hand with one of his hands and my collar with the other, yanking me close. I screamed and tried to scratch him with my other hand, but it was no use. His hand squeezed so tightly around my wrist that I thought it would snap in two, and I involuntarily dropped my weapon, hearing it clatter to the ground.
I screamed again, but I doubted anyone could hear me over the music blasting in the bar. I’d gone outside with Brick to have the conversation in private. And now I regretted it.
Because, as usual, I was on my own.
“Let’s see if you can protect yourself now,” Brick mocked, his eyes glowing with rage as he slammed his lips against mine. I nearly gagged, but I refused to open my mouth, even as I clawed at his hand.
Then, suddenly, the hand was gone.
And so was his body.
I fell, gasping, to the ground as a giant shadow picked Brick up like he was nothing and slammed his two-hundred-pound body into the ground. It made a sickening thud at the contact, and Brick roared. I flinched. I did not doubt that something inside him had just broken with that body slam.
I tried to catch my breath while staring at the scene in horror.
Ezra pulled his fist back and slammed it into Brick’s face. It made a crunching sound, and I winced as blood spurted out of his nose and lips. The same blood stained Ezra’s fist as he brought it down on Brick’s face again. The whole time, his hand was around Brick’s throat, holding him in place. Brick was clawing at his hand, much like I had been previously, but Ezra didn’t flinch as he coldly and methodologically choked him out. Brick’s body was struggling like a dying insect against the concrete, but it was no use. Ezra barely looked like he was exerting any energy to hold him there, and his unfeeling, savage expression was focused on the Brick’s increasingly mangled face.
There was nothing resembling pity or even humanity on Ezra’s face. He didn’t even seem really mad…the word was too mild for what I saw. It was like he was so beyond furious and so far removed from it that he was looking at anger in the rearview mirror.
And it wasn’t that he had lost control either. His expression told me that he was in control. His rationality was intact.
He’d simply just decided that he was going to brutally murder Brick Mane.
And happily spend the rest of his life in jail for that one violent act.
The thought had me stumbling to my feet, alarm sparking through my bones.
“Wait,” I gasped as I rushed to him. “Stop. You can’t kill him.”
Ezra didn’t answer at first until I caught one of his hands in mine, tugging for what it was worth. “You can’t kill him, Ezra!”
“Why not?” he responded, and his voice was chillingly calm. “It was what I said I would do if I ever saw him come close to you.”
“What?” Ezra glanced at me for a few seconds, and the cogs began turning in my head. Brick’s words came back to me, finally making sense. “Wait, you were the one who spoke to Brick?”
“Of course. And I told him I would kill him if he ever bothered you again. He’s beyond crossed that line.”
Ah, so that was why Brick was furious. Ezra had threatened him.
“No, but you can’t kill him,” I pleaded with Ezra. “Please, you’ve done enough. Let him go.”
Ezra’s eyes went back to Brick, and the savage gleam retired full-fold. “Why not? If I’d killed him the first time, he wouldn’t be here right now, hurting you. So why don’t I get rid of the leech once and for all?”
