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Each day I ignore his calls, then mute his texts, and at this point I’m wondering why the hell I haven’t blocked him yet. I mean, he was caught in a bathroom, on our wedding day, with his dress pants down to his ankles and one of my closest friends bent over in front of him.
“You better hurry,” the bartender says, causing me to jump. “If Emmett finds out you’re on your phone, that will be the last time you ever bring it out again. Guests need their drinks. Try focusing more on that and less on your missed calls or texts.”
There’s not exactly an attitude in her voice, but there’s a hint of something I can’t figure out and it puts me on edge.
Throughout the rest of the evening, I’ve refilled about one hundred drinks, and my feet are begging to be let free from their cage. I’m not counting on this getting any easier and it’s only Monday. I can’t imagine what it will be like over the weekends.
It’s dark when I walk across the parking lot, the sound of crickets and the rest of the city taking over my senses, which is why I don’t notice when someone comes up behind me, pulling at the purse hanging over my shoulder. I gasp when a hand shoves into my back, nearly knocking me to the ground, but a car keeps me from falling.
“Give me everything you got,” the robber spits, the tip of a gun touching my head. “And quick.”
I shakily drop my purse to the ground and wait with bated breath as he sifts through it, growling in frustration when there’s nothing to find. “Looks like you ran into a bit of bad luck,” he says as a sardonic smile stretches across his face.
It’s making my body tingle with fear.
That doesn’t last too long, though, when I catch Emmett’s large frame charging towards us, the anger palpable in his gaze. My heart stutters in my chest, my mind no longer worried about what the man in front of me is going to do. All it can focus on is the fire burning in Emmett’s eyes.
“Get lost,” Emmett growls as he stops behind the robber.
“And what are you going to do about it, huh?”
The sound of bones cracking echoes, and I hold my breath, waiting for the moment when a bullet pushes through my brain. What is this guy waiting for? I’m right in front of him, he could do whatever he wants to me, yet he’s keeping himself back.
“I said,” Emmett grinds out angrily. “Get. Lost. Now.”
My eyes dart between the two of them, trying to find a way that I can escape without either one noticing. The robber blinks at him a few times, shrugging his shoulders, and moves the gun from my head and instead points it at Emmett.
It feels as though my chest is physically crushing me, and I shake my head, trying to will myself to keep the emotions out of it, but I can’t bring myself to do that. When red and blue lights flash in the distance, turning toward the three of us, I let my body sag in relief. Things could’ve gone wrong, and Emmett didn’t care. He walked right into the line of fire to make sure I was safe.
The only issue I’m having is trying to figure out if Emmett is doing this on his own, or if my brother influenced this side of him. I’ve never seen him as angry about me as he is right now, and it does something to my insides. What could he do if it really came down to it? I don’t think this robber will actually hurt someone; it’s more like scaring them into giving him what he wants.
Emmett smirks at the guy as if the idea of a gun being pointed at him is funny. The cops don’t even notice what’s going on as they drive through the opposite side of the parking lot. His hand is wrapping tightly around my elbow, and he pulls me into a section of the lot where a car and a driver are parked.
There’s a frown on his face as he looks at me, his nostrils flaring from the anger coursing through him, and he says. “You shouldn’t be walking alone at night, Casey.”
My brother’s place is only a block or two away, I wasn’t going to waste gas driving here.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
I shrug. “That I was being more efficient?”
He growls. “You’re done walking home, I’ll drive you from now on.”
Great, this is exactly what I needed – him and I in close proximity to each other. This is going to be a grand time, no doubt. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Just get in the damn car.”
As much as I’d love to stay here, there’s nothing quite like someone who looks like him telling you what to do. My veins are bursting with electricity as his hand comes down on mine, leading in the direction of the car without another word. I let him help me inside, feeling flutters in my belly as he does, and I fall back into the silence as he gives the driver my address.
Emmett doesn’t spare a glance in my direction as we pull away from the two men, instead putting all of his focus on the guy with a gun still aimed at him.
There’s not so much as a beat playing through the speakers, only the wind blowing through the window as we coast down the road until it comes to a stop outside my destination.
When I get to the front door, Dominic is waiting for me with an excited grin. “So, how did your first day go?”
“Shitty,” I mutter, not bothering to get into too many details.
Dominic knows that I had one night with a stranger while at the bar, and he’s been trying to hound me for more information about it. I’m not about to let him see inside my head, and that’s why I immediately make a beeline for my bedroom. He doesn’t bother following me, probably concerned that I’m going to end up going insane, and I take a deep breath.
