I gasped as I was swung around, flying through the air. Ethan had me firmly in his hands, lifting me up like I was the size and weight of a small child, moving me out of the way.
“Stay there,” he growled, so deep it sounded remarkably like a dog. He put me down and strode up beside Karson to face the onslaught.
Ethan dodged and weaved with remarkable speed, landing a punch to the side of one attacker’s head, snapping it sideways. He drove a second punch into his throat. The man staggered backward, his hand clutching his throat, gasping for air as he fell onto a table. It collapsed beneath his weight, and he hit the floor with a thud.
A second man charged forward. Ethan threw a short, sharp punch at his face before the other guy could even draw his fist back.
Karson was throwing punches so fast his arms seemed to blur. The blood sprayed from the man’s face like a sprinkler, soaking anyone unlucky enough to be standing nearby.
Dazed, the would-be attacker took two swaying steps and crumbled to the floor. He wouldn’t be getting back up anytime soon.
The second ass Ethan hit recovered and swung a meaty fist at him. Ethan blocked it with his arm, and with the other hand he grabbed him by the throat. He lifted his two-hundred-pound weight off the floor like he was fifty pounds and slammed him back into a pillar. The ass swung a rounded punch, not quite at his full force but still powerful. It slammed it into Ethan’s cheek. If he felt pain, he didn’t show it.
A sharp snapping noise jerked my attention, and I swung back. The man Ethan had thrown was holding a broken pool cue. Its jagged ends stuck out like serrated knife blades. If it hit any body part, the damage would be enormous. If it hit a neck or a stomach, lethal.
He lurched toward Ethan. Ethan still had the guy up by his throat, taking punches, and was oblivious to the impending danger.
A cold sweat broke out on the nape of my neck.
He came fast; the pool cue held like a spear.
I stepped to the side, twisted, and swung my foot in a roundhouse kick at his shin. It connected. A shock wave ricocheted up my leg as his arm came swinging out toward me. It hit with a thump across the side of my arm and chest, knocking me off my feet.
Shit.
BJ appeared above me, his face painted red. He reached out a hand. I grasped it, and he hauled me upright. By the time I got up, Ethan had the would-be attacker by the back of the head, slamming his face, again and again into the floor.
The pool cue lay discarded at his feet.
Thump, thump, thump.
The pounding was vicious and unnecessary. The guy’s eyes rolled back in his head. His mouth was cracked open and drool trickled out. He was as dim as dusk. There were no cries of protest, and no fight left in his loose limbs. Blood poured from his nose and crawled slowly, lazily, along the floor like demonic tongues.
I was terrified he was going to kill him. “Ethan, that’s enough! He’s had enough!” I cried.
Thump, thump, thump.
“Ethan, stop!” I shouted, reaching for his shoulder.
He raised his head. What I saw was deeply disturbing, and it drew my hand to a halt. The blue of his irises had disappeared, the eyes that looked back at me were black and as lifeless as marbles. His skin was deathly pale. His lips were pressed into a thin line. He didn’t look anything like the man I had thought was hot.
No, he looked lethal.
As much humanity as a corpse.
I stared at him, open-mouthed, as surprised as I was horrified.
“Ethan,” I whispered
He tore his eyes away, dropping the man’s head, and it landed in a spreading pool of his own blood. Ethan glanced back up, and now his eyes looked like oil on the surface of the ocean. The blue glittered, and the color had returned to his skin. He was still angry, but he no longer looked like death.
It must’ve been the lighting, caught and reflected in pupils flared by adrenaline.Yes,I reassured myself,that must be it.It was just a trick of lighting.
Ethan got up and stepped around the bodies of two fallen men, both groaning something incomprehensible. He strode back to his usual seat at the end of the bar, then took a few large gulps of whiskey and stared out over the destruction, wreathed in rage.
On the other side of the room, the smallest of the men dragged himself up off the floor. Blood spread from the bottom of his nose across his lips and chin.
“Do yourself a favor and stay down,” Karson ordered calmly, like a man who knew he had total control.
