Her chest rose on a deep inhale, her lips parting, and for a moment he thought she was going to tell him something important. Something that explained a bit about what she’d been running from. Then she stepped back, causing his hands to fall.
“I should get back out there.”
Cody ran frustrated fingers through his hair, waiting a beat before following. He spotted Kayden at the bar and was about to move over to him when something across the room caught his attention.
Harper, trying to step past a guy—until his arm wrapped around her waist, tugging her into him.
What thefuck?
It was the last damn straw on his already shitty mood.
He rounded the bar and shifted through the crowd until he was in front of the asshole who held Harper’s waist, shoving him hard in the chest. “What the hell are you doing?”
The man stumbled back, releasing her. Cody didn’t recognize the guy. Maybe a tourist from out of town. They got a lot of them here.
He had the balls to smile at Cody. Actually fuckingsmile. “We were just talking. I was asking this pretty lady if she’s local.”
Cody stepped so close, he could see the fucking pores on the asshole’s face. “Even if that was your business, which it isn’t, you don’t grab a woman around the waist just so you cantalkto her.”
There was a small pause.
Harper touched his arm. “Cody, he’s drunk.”
“I don’t care.” Cody stared the guy down. “No one touches her.”
The man raised a brow. “Really? So what if I do this?”
He reached around Cody toward Harper.
In one swift move, he grabbed the guy’s wrist and twisted, pushing the asshole so he was bent over a table, his arm pinned with Cody at his back.
“Get the fuck off me!”
Cody lowered his head and quieted his voice. “You don’t wanna play that game with me. I will fucking destroy you. Understand?”
The guy struggled and growled beneath Cody.
“Cody.”
He ignored Kayden’s voice, pulled the guy’s arm higher, and this time when he spoke, he was louder. “Do you understand?”
“Yes! Yes, okay, I understand!”
“Good.” Cody shoved him into the table before rising. “Now get out.”
He waited until the guy rose and staggered from the bar before turning to face Harper. “Are you okay?”
She nodded quickly.
He studied her eyes, which were too wide, and face, which was too pale. She wasn’t okay.
Gently, he placed a hand on the small of her back. “Come on.” He led her back to the bar, not caring that dozens of fucking eyes were on him.
Harper wasquiet as she wiped down the bar. The night was almost over and there were only a handful of customers remaining, most of whom Barry was taking care of. Cody had barely said a word since that guy had touched her. Well, since he’d pulled her into his office afterward to check if she was okay, and she’d just repeated that she was. She got the feeling he’d wanted more from her, but she wasn’t a big sharer at the best of times.
She nibbled her bottom lip as she watched him behind the bar. He was so tense, his usual relaxed expression nowhere to be seen.
She was pretty sure this wasn’t just about the guy who’d touched her, because even at the start of the night he’d been…off.
