“Hey.” I bend down to try and check her cheek. “You all right?”
“Yeah.” She nods but is obviously really shaken up.
“You’re bleeding.” My chest spasms with a mixture of worry and rage as I lightly brush my thumb below the cut he left on her cheekbone. He must be wearing a ring. That fucker!
Turning back with another snarl, I’m about to go after the guy again, but he’s now in the clutches of Grady and Carson, who are dragging him away for a “chat.” I have no idea how that’s gonna go down, but I trust them to get to the bottom of it.
“Let me go!” he’s shouting as security muscles their way through the crowd.
“Step aside, please!”
“Excuse me,” the other one barks. “Let us through.”
“She attacked me first!” The guy tries to wrestle free of Grady’s and Carson’s hold on him, but they’re not giving an inch.
They are just as pissed as I am.
“I attacked you because you’re an asshole!” Dani moves around me to point at the guy. “He was too wasted to know what he was doing. You should have protected him!”
“You should have been there!” he argues right back, and my insides run cold.
Are they talking about Atlas?
“You gave him the drugs that killed him! That’s not on me.” Her voice breaks. “And it’s something you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life!”
Fuck. Theyaretalking about Atlas.
Who the hell is this guy?
Oh shit. I do recognize him. He was in Atlas’s band. He was the bass player tonight!
He growls at Dani, his eyes glazing with something dark and dangerous. I move to form a barrier between him and her, staring at him with my own dark look.
My fingers curl into fists, and I swear if security wasn’t here, I would be pummeling the living shit out of this guy.
He gave Atlas those pills, and he’s accusing Dani of not being there for him?
I should fucking end this guy right now.
“We’ve got this,” Grady warns me, his look one of calm control as he subtly raises his chin and silently tells me to focus on Dani.
Before I lose the thread of self-control I have left, I spin and wrap my arm around her, bundling her out of the room just as Jed and Tobin run into view.
“Oh my—” Tobin gasps. “What happened?”
“I’m okay.” Dani snuggles into my side, looking anything but.
“She needs to get checked out,” I tell them. “I’m gonna take her to the hospital.”
“The police are on their way,” someone informs me. “An ambulance too. We’ll let the paramedics have a look at her and assess the situation.”
“Okay.” I nod. “Is there someplace we can wait for them?”
“Yeah, of course.” The woman ushers us into a side room, and Tobin, Jed, Nix, and some tall guy who I think is on the Nolan U basketball team follow us in there, quickly gathering around Dani and softly demanding details.
I want them too, but I’m not about to force them out of her.
Helping her into a chair, I take a seat beside her, silently warning the others to back off and give her some space.
