His hand latched onto her arm and yanked—and my fist collided with his face like a sledgehammer.
Everything went red.
Two former Marines. One fueled by pride. The other by something much more dangerous.
Possession.
Love.
She shouted something behind me, but I was gone. Slipped into that headspace I knew too damn well. I swung. He ducked. He swung. Missed. But I didn’t. I tackled him through the doorway and we hit the porch hard.
He got in a lucky headbutt to my jaw. Pain flashed white. I laughed.
Like a fucking lunatic, I laughed.
Because this wasn’t just a bar brawl. No, this was two trained killers letting go of the leash. Blood, bone, rage—this was our language. This was home.
He came up swinging. I landed a right hook, he got in a body shot, then a knee to my leg.
But it wasn’t the knee that rattled me.
It was the punch to my skull.
It lit up the right side of my head like a live grenade. Not just pain—wrongness.A jagged, burning pressure I hadn’t felt since the blast.
My vision wavered.
Then Rose’s voice broke through the chaos. Not yelling at us to stop—but warning.
“No! Josh, don’t hit his head!”
Her voice. The panic in it. Theknowingin it.
Josh’s eyes locked on mine—and he smirked.
He knew.
The son of a bitchknew.
He lunged. I met him mid-air. We crashed off the porch and into the mud, limbs tangled, fists flying.
Like a caged animal, the guy bucked out of my hold, then, one punch, another, another.
Pain.
Pain.
Pain.
Something different snapped in me. My survival instinct. Our fight was no longer a game, no longer a release of pent up rage. I was going to get myself legitimately hurt, possibly worse.
In a wave of adrenaline, I swung with every bit of strength in my body. I swung to survive.
My fist connected with his eye. Blood sprayed like paint, then streamed down his face, blinding him. He swung back, messy, though. I caught his arm mid-swing, twisted it. He released a bellow of pain as his body followed the flow and his face slammed into the ground. Chest heaving, I pinned and straddled him, and leaned down into his ear.
Blood pooled in the dirt beneath him.
“You ever come to Rose’s house again, I’ll make sure you never see out of that eye again.”
