“You’ve managed to unlock your powers.” His eyes twinkled and he licked his lips hungrily. “Good.”
“Get away from me.” Her voice was a rasp.
He slapped her so hard her ears pounded. “Fight me, witch.”
Ignoring every instinct to the opposite, she lay limp.
He cursed, threw her to the floor, and stomped a shoe between her breasts. A billion shards of pain emanated from that one point. She screamed and prayed for relief.
The edges of her vision darkened, and she was about to surrender to unconsciousness when static electricity sparked her arm hairs. Electrons flowed to her, inside her, and more joined until they overflowed. She thought she'd spontaneously combusted when an angry vortex zoomed out of her body. It spun sparks and gathered papers, trash, and empty beer bottles into its center core. It crackled as glass splattered. She willed it towards finger-gun-man who had already backed away towards Kyle.
“Zoe. No.” Was that Jack shouting?Where the hell had he come from?Without her concentration, the vortex fell apart and crashed to the floor.
Jack had a shotgun aimed squarely between finger-gun-man’s eyes. Josh, Jase, and his dad carried equally menacing weapons with long barrels pointed in different directions.
“One wrong move and I’ll castrate you,” Jack said. The muscles in his shoulder and neck bunched.
Zoe scrambled off the floor, held her shirt closed as best she could, and ran towards the door. Jack grabbed her arm and shoved her behind him.
“It doesn’t matter Jack,” Kyle screeched from the floor. “He’s more powerful than you. He’ll have her. You’ll see.”
Finger-gun-man gave Kyle a fierce scowl.
Jack covered the door and whistled to his brothers. With their fingers resting against the triggers, each slowly inched away. Jack never took his eyes off finger-gun-man as he eased out of the bar.
He motioned to Zoe. “Get in the car.”
“Jack–”
“Get-In-The-Car.”
* * *
Jack’s Neanderthal brain hovered at the surface, barely tethered. She'd summoned a vortex. If he hadn't arrived when he did, there would have been no stopping the foreplay. And that was one duel he would’ve lost.
“Are you mad at me?” All innocence and angels, she blinked at him.Damn her.She was shivering despite the warm evening. Good. She should be scared.
Without a word, he grabbed his leather jacket from the backseat and placed it on her legs. He didn’t trust himself to answer her.
They pulled up to his house and he put the gear in park, then got out of the car. He slammed the door so hard that a cat yowled and darted across the street.
“Who was that warlock? What are you up to?” he bit out through clenched teeth.
“Are you serious?”
“Stop playing games, Zoe.”
“Oh my God, you are!Youtell me who he was.” Tears glittered in her eyes, and her hands fisted at her side. “You think I wanted this? Look at my face. My wrists. My clothes. Damn it, Jack, what iswrongwith you? I was kidnapped and almost raped.”
Zoe swiped angrily at the tears that ran down her cheeks and dashed up the stairs of the Victorian mansion.
Raped?Fuck.He’d been so focused on what he had almost lost, that he had barely noticed her appearance.Shit, he could be such an asshole. He started to follow after her, but his brothers and father arrived. The men’s faces were drawn down in deep scowls as they got out of their vehicles.
Shit, there was no hiding Zoe’s secret any longer.
Jack started to speak, but his father put a hand up, stopping him.
They made their way to the backyard, silently. His mom and sisters waited there along with Olivia. The rest of the crowd had cleared out. It was obvious by the women’s expressions that someone had already informed them about what had happened.
