Then the intruder pulls a knife.
The blade catches the light, and my heart stops. He slashes at Alec, who barely dodges. The tip catches his face anyway, opening a cut above his eyebrow.
Blood drips into Alec’s eye. He’s blinking hard, trying to see, and the intruder uses that moment to shove him backward.
Alec crashes into my bookshelf. It wobbles. For one horrible second, he’s off balance, and the intruder is lunging toward him with that knife aimed right at his chest?—
No. No, no, no?—
But Alec twists at the last second. The knife sinks into the wall where his heart was a moment ago. While the intruder yanks at the stuck blade, Alec strikes.
“You piece of shit!” Alec yells. He grabs the other guy by the collar and shoves him up against the wall hard enough to crack the plaster.
The man Alec has pinned is a couple inches shorter than him and certainly not as muscular. Whoever this guy is, he doesn’t stand much of a chance now that Alec’s got his hands on him.
“I’m not saying anything, dick,” the guy grumbles.
Alec shoves him harder against the wall, making his teeth rattle. I flinch, imagining how much that hurts.
“You fucking will. Now, there’s a lady present. I’d like to do this without ripping out your fingernails one by one, but if I need to, I’ll just lock her in the bedroom.” Another hard shove. “So spill.”
There’s a split second of silence where this guy is clearly weighing whether Alec is bluffing. Hell,I’mwondering if Alec is bluffing.
I don’t think he is.
“Yeah! Yeah, Teddy sent me. And he’s gonna be real fucking pissed if something happens to me.”
“What were your instructions?”
The guy’s jaw tightens. He doesn’t want to answer.
Alec slams him against the wall again. “What were your instructions?”
“Rough her up!” the intruder spits. “Okay? He said to make sure she understands what happens to whores who don’t know when to keep their mouths shut. Said to leave marks this time. Somewhere she can’t hide.”
The words hit me like ice water.Leave marks. Somewhere I can’t hide.
Theodore didn’t just want to scare me. He wanted tohurtme. Wanted me walking around with his message carved into my skin.
Alec goes very still. When he speaks, his voice is terrifyingly calm.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get. Out.” Alec yanks the guy off the wall and drags him toward my door. “And you tell Teddy that if he sends anyone else, I’ll send them back in pieces.”
He throws this guy out like he weighs little more than a sack of potatoes.
Slamming the door shut, Alec locks it and turns to face me. There’s blood dripping from the cut above his eyebrow, and bruises are already forming across his jaw.
Still, I hurry over to him, concern twisting my stomach into knots. Reaching up, I grab his chin and tip his face toward me.
“Oh my god. You’re bleeding. We need to get this cleaned up.”
His eyes widen. Alec seems to register right then that I’m wearing a towel. I’d forgotten about it myself.
Those butterflies in my stomach get worse. I’m squirming under his gaze. I look up into his dark brown eyes, mumbling, “What was he doing?”
