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My fist swings faster than I can even understand what I’m doing, and before I know it, I clock him in the face, my fist crashing into his nose, blood spurting across my bar. “That’s your goddamn sister you’re talking about,” I spit. “Have some fucking respect.”
“IZAAC!” Becs shrieks, following Austin down to the ground and gripping his shoulder in horror. Her gaze snaps up to me. “What the fuck is your problem? If you were so damn worried about her, then you never should have let her go in the first place. If she’s not with you right now, it’s because she doesn’t want to be. You don’t fucking deserve her after the shit you’ve put her through.”
Every single word she says is true, but that doesn’t mean that I’m about to walk away and let her do something stupid. If I find her and she’s content with what she’s doing, then I’ll walk away, but if she’s in trouble and I didn’t do something to help her, I’ll never fucking forgive myself.
Becs flies back to her feet, leaning over the bar and yelling toward my bar staff. “Can I get some ice please?”
As she straightens up, I take hold of her wrist and fix her with a hard stare, letting her have the full force of my rage. “Either tell me where the fuck she went or get out of my goddamn club.”
Her eyes widen as Austin pushes up to his elbows, muttering something about his nose being broken, but I don’t fucking care. In any other situation, I’d probably be down there beside him, my nose in worse condition. I’ve always had his back, and he’s always had mine, but not now. Not when it comes to Aspen.
Becs visibly swallows and the fight leaves her. She points down the hallway toward the row of private rooms, and just like that, I know exactly where she went, and there’s only one reason why she’d go down there.
I take off at a sprint before Becs even gets a chance to argue and come to the door of our room barely a second later. The door is locked and my rage turns into blind fury. My doors don’t have locks so someone must have shoved something against the handle. Doors don’t get locked in my club. It’s not exactly a written rule, but it’s a common practice that’s known to my members. In case of emergencies or if someone wants to make a quick getaway, they should be able to do that.
Bringing my foot up, I slam my boot against the door, not giving a shit if I splinter the wood. I’ll replace it, but what I can’t replace is Aspen, and as the door barges open and slams against the internal drywall of the dark room, I find her, blood smeared across her face and fear in her eyes.
Ryatt Markin stands before her, and I take a second, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, but finding her dress torn with red marks across her skin and a blood-soaked pen in her hand, I understand exactly what just went down.
Aspen whimpers, finding me at the door and realizing nothing is going to happen to her now, she falls to her knees, barely able to catch herself as violent sobs break free from her chest.
My stare lands on Markin.
He’s just as beat up, only unlike Aspen, he’s been stabbed with that damn pen, just the way I taught her to. He clutches his neck, blood pooling over his hand as he quickly drains of color. He’s going to die here tonight and Vixen will turn into a crime scene. Hell, it’ll probably be shut down, but I’m okay with that as long as my girl is alright.
But it’ll be a cold day in hell that I let this asshole go out without fearing my wrath first.
Striding toward him, I grab him by the blood-soaked throat and watch as his eyes widen in fear, and then as he bleeds out, I lay into him, my fists pounding one after another until he’s no longer able to hold his weight and drops to the ground.
“FUCK!” I distantly hear Austin roar from somewhere behind me before Becs cries out. “Holy shit. Aspen.”
I feel Austin at my back, his strong grip clutching at my arm and trying to pull me away. “Stop. He’s fucking dead,” he grits, desperately trying to pull me away, but I can’t stop. This motherfucker just tried to rape my girl. “Stop, Izaac.”
I pull against his hold, but the bastard is relentless, and when Aspen rushes in, putting herself right in front of me, gripping my face, and forcing me to meet her haunted green stare, I finally begin to calm. “It’s okay,” she breathes, tears streaking down her face. “I’m okay.”
The fight leaves me, and I throw myself at her, wrapping her in my arms and holding her against my chest. “I’m so fucking sorry,” I murmur into her hair as she breaks, her heavy sobs vibrating against my chest. “You’re okay, Birdy. It’s over. I’ve got you.”
I say it over and over until I finally start to believe the words, and I realize that I will never let her go, never force her to walk away ever again. Aspen Ryder is mine and I’ll forever be hers.
“Fucking hell,” Becs says. “What are we supposed to do?”
I shake my head. I’ve been trained for this shit, had to deal with it a handful of times, but right now, all that matters is Aspen, and seeing that I can’t handle this, Austin quickly takes over, glancing at Becs, whose mascara is now smudged down her cheeks. “Call the police and let them know what happened and that a man is dead, then let the bar staff know there’s been an incident and the club needs to be vacated immediately,” he tells her.
She quickly nods and goes to make her way out of the room, but not before sparing one more glance toward Aspen, a deep guilt in her eyes. “Anything else?” she asks Austin.
He shakes his head. “Just stay at the bar after that. You don’t need to see any more of this.”
She nods again before finally making her way out of the room that once held so many fucking incredible memories for me and Aspen, but now it’s tainted by what happened here tonight. “There’s security footage, so anything that went down in here is on record,” Austin says, starting to pace. “She won’t get in trouble for this.”
“I should have seen this coming,” I mutter, holding on to her even tighter as she falls apart in my arms. “The bastard has been infatuated with her every time she walked through the fucking door.”
Austin curses under his breath, shaking his head. “Can you just . . . can you take her home without fucking that up?”
“Me? I’m the one fucking everything up?” I demand. “The only thing I fucked up was walking away from her because of your fragile ego. So yeah, I’m gonna take her home, but I’m taking her to my place, which is where she’s going to be indefinitely because one more fucking day away from her isn’t going to cut it for me. So when you man-the-fuck-up and realize just how much your bullshit is hurting the people around you and come begging for forgiveness, that’s where you’ll find her.”
“You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“Fucking hell, Austin. Do I sound like I’m kidding?” I spit at him, scooping her into my arms and holding her to my chest. “Get it through your fucking head. I am in love with your sister, and yeah, she deserves a shitload better than any life I could ever provide her, but for some fucked-up reason, she chose me, and now that I have her, I’m not giving her up. I’m done pushing her away just to make things right with you because you’ve made it damn clear you’re never going to come around to it, but this shit right here puts it all in perspective. Aspen nearly got raped waiting for me in that damn room, and she had to fight off her attacker alone because I was too fucking worried about what you think. But look at you, Austin. You’re so fucking angry with us that you can’t even look at her or find the decency to ask if she’s okay. You might despise me and be pissed with her, but she’s still your sister, and she needs you.”
