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“Don’t fuckingsweetheartme,” I bit back. “I’m not your fucking sweetheart.”
“Babe, look, I know you’re mad.”
“I’m not yourbabe,either. I’m not your anything. Go wait it out with your friend at the college. I’m expected somewhere.”
Eric’s hand wrapped around my wrist, yanking me back to him as I yelped. Scowling up at him, I shoved a hand against his chest, but he just gripped my other hand tighter. Not willing to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt, I snarled, “You’re still the same damn coward in the same shitty suits. I saiddon’t touch me.” Slamming my heel onto his foot, I yanked away as he hissed in pain, but the next thing I knew, he’d shoved me forward, my knees singing with the impact of the pavement and hands stinging as I caught myself, purse skittering across the concrete. Somewhere beyond the sirens, I could have sworn I heard my name.
Making to scramble upright, he cut me off, wrapping his hand through my hair, scalp screaming with just as much enthusiasm as the sirens blaring above us. The buzz of the cars filling the road towards the evac route blurred into the distance, every single nerve ending seeming to focus in on where he threatened to tear the hair from my head.
Breath hot against my neck, he bent to snarl in my ear. “Stop being such a disrespectful bitch, and fuckingtalk to me. I can’t even believe how ungrateful you are. After everythingI did for you—the money I gave you, the roof I put over your head—you can’t even give me five damn minutes to tell you how sorry I am for what happened in Florida. You never would have lived that well on your own. Or have you forgotten where youcame from?” My eyes burned in pain as that betrayal washed through me all over again. Heart threatening to slam through my ribs, I fought for breath, sobs clawing at my chest.Never again. That’s what I’d promised myself. That I’d never be back in this position, that I’d build a new life.
Getting rid of ghosts was much more complicated than I’d anticipated.
“It wasn’t supposed to go like this. I wanted toapologize. To tell you that you were right. But you justlovepushing my buttons, don’t you?” Eric barked, yanking my head back to him. I glared at him as best I could, words failing me as my chest heaved. The echo of footsteps cut between the blaring screech of the tsunami speakers. My mind focused on the sound of his breath beside me. Eyes and throat. That’s all I knew about self-defense, and I’d gathered those from badass heroines in books, not practical application. Could I move fast enough? Strike true enough or hard enough to make an escape? “You do this to yourself, you know? Always know exactly what to say to piss me off, you disrespectful—”
Eric’s words abruptly cut off, and I screamed as his grip on my hair yanked me back a beat before releasing. There was a scuffle across the pavement, the sound swallowed by the keening siren and a clatter of pissed-off, distinctly male voices.
I barely caught myself above the asphalt, and then all chaos broke out. Head spinning, I was vaguely aware powerful arms were heaving me off the street and whirling me behind a towering male body. Maverick’s young, flushed, and terrified face lowered to mine, his big, warm palms swallowing both sides of my cheeks, turning me this way and that, his frantic eyes scouring over every inch of me until he seemed certain I was in one piece.
“Oh, thank fuck,” he breathed, suddenly crushing me against him as shouts and curses clamored behind his lanky frame. Panting against his broad, gangly chest, I swallowed the relieved sob in my chest as his arms tightened around me.Safe. I was safe. When Mav shakily turned back over a shoulder, my eyes went wide as I spotted my now-bloody ex pinned against the harbor fence.
And my Jameson with his broad hand around his throat.
TWENTY-SEVEN
JAMESON
My fist slammed into him so many times I’d not bothered to count, but it didn’t fucking matter because he was still fighting back. Eric landed a blow to my kidney and another to my ribs before I tackled him, ramming my shoulder into his gut and driving him back into the fence, wishing I could’ve tossed him into the water instead. I was so far beyond feeling any pain if he’d inflicted it, my anger a living, breathing thing wielding my limbs like a damn puppet.
There aren’t motherfucking words adequate enough to sum up the lethal, primal fury that swept through my veins when I watched him kick her to the ground. Noel.My Noel, scrambling on her hands and knees as he came after her.
Blood spattered my face, but I just cocked my arm back again as I thundered, “You sick motherfucker!”Smash. “Waste of breath.”Dodge. “Worthless piece of shit.”Crack. That one did it, blood rushing from his nose as he staggered back with a curse, and I lunged, pinning him to the chain link fence by the throat before slamming my fist into his face again….and again, and again.
“James!” Axel set a hand on my shoulder when Eric’s knees threatened to buckle under the last strike. At least my brother was smart enough to not step between us. He’d helped me rip him off her as Mav dove in to scoop her away. Anger still lacing his tone, he barked, “You can’tkill him.”
“Bullshit, I can’t.”
“Nothere,” he bit out over the blare of that goddamned alarm. Fuck me. He’d attacked her in broad damn daylight, but I couldn’t fucking finish it? Bullshit. Eric had stopped resisting, but his eyes were still open as blood painted his swelling face. There was a grown man’s tooth somewhere on the foggy street and it sure as hell wasn’t mine. I’d almost regained enough control to step away, to let this monster stagger free. But then the fuckersmiledand spat blood at my feet. His words were broken pants and rattles, but they were audible through the gap in the siren.
“Little bitch opens her legs for you, and you’re willing to go to prison?”
“Oh fuck,” Axel said, but he released his hold on me as I landed an uppercut to Eric’s gut. His groan of pain was music to my fucking ears as he doubled over. The next landed blow—this one to the side of his head, snapping his face back into the harbor fence—transformed that smug expression into what I could only describe as fear, and he finally fought to guard his face.
Dumb, masochistic psychopath. A little late for that, in my not-so-humble opinion.
Strong arms wrapped around my chest, yanking me backward as Eric fell to his knees.
“Listen to me,” I snarled, fighting as my brothers pulled me away. “Let me fucking go!” I barked, ripping my arms free.
“James,” Broderick warned, keeping his hand on my back.
“I’ve got it,” I rasped, lungs igniting with each breath, moving to tower over Eric, unwilling to turn my back to eye my brothers. Resisting the urge to snap his fucking neck as unchecked vengeance shuddered through me, I lowered my voice so it was just for him. “I’m going to give you one chance to not fuck this up for yourself, so I suggest you shut the fuck up and listen, you piece of shit.” He made to stagger to his feet, but I shoved him into the metal again, cursing the goddamned tsunami alarm as my ears rang, adrenaline amplifying it. Air now fire against my ribs, I snarled, “Stay down.” When he glared at me, I met his stare, wiping my sleeve across my bloody face, immensely pleased by his silence. By the shadow of fear in his eyes. “You lost her. Don’t you fucking fool yourself into thinking you ever deserved her. She found a man who knowsexactlywhat he’s holding.” The metal clang of the fence ringing out cut the air as I hoisted him by the collar and slammed him back into it. Breath steadier, I got as close to his face as I could. “Mark my words. If you ever so much as threaten her again, you’ll find yourself in a crab pot watching the light disappear while the last scrap of air leaks from your pathetic lungs,” I said, taunting him, satisfied as anger flashed in those hollow navy eyes. I smirked down at him. “While you wonder where it all went wrong–spoiler alert, you slimy prick–thisis that moment. You can decide to get the fuck off my island and leave her alone, or this is the moment everything goes wrong for you, and I swear to God, my face will be the last thing you ever fucking see. Am. I. Clear?”
I wondered what the hell kind of drugs he had to be on, as the fact that he had the grit left in his body to protest was staggering. Blood leaking down his lip, he ground out, “She’s my—”
“Nothing,” I snapped. “She’syournothing.”
“There are witnesses,” he hissed, glossy eyes darting sidelong like any of the men at my back might side with him. Bullshit. This was the poker night crew. Nobody had seen shit.
