“Are you okay?” I ask.
He tilts his head down to me over his shoulder, his lips curved in a small smile. “Busy, but you’re finally here.”
He weaves his fingers in around mine. It feels so natural. We belong together.
“Alek and Abi could be somewhere and see us.” My heart skips a beat.
“That’s fine. We can’t move forward if we keep hiding from your brother. Honestly, I think he’s already figured it out.”
Victor is talking about moving forward, which is all I long for, but I’m stuck in thehereandnow.
He may not be the man from my dream board, but he is the one who makes me understand what love is. He loves me. And that’s all that matters.
I can’t go another minute without him knowing how I feel.
“Victor, I—”
Suddenly my free hand is yanked and my entire body is flying into… darkness. My other hand loses Victor’s grip. My eyes adjust to the abrupt change in light. Ugh. I’m in a dark alley between hotels on the Strip. There are two trash containers nearby and my stomach turns. Rotten food. Urine. Alcohol. My brain tries to catch up. Who…?
I gasp as I recognize the rough hands, the back of the head of the man who’s pulling me to the dead end of the alley, deeper and farther from the crowded sidewalk.
“Hi, Firefly. I’m back because you didn’t make the right choice.” His dead voice gives me goose bumps on my arms.
He finally turns his whole body, grabbing both my arms, and pulls me close to him.
“When I gave you a choice, I thought you were going to make the right one.”
I gasp and the air gets stuck somewhere in my chest. No. I will not go down easy. “Let. Go. Of. Me. You. Monster!” I yell, hoping someone on the street will hear us.
Charlie throws his head back and laughs. I kick his shins and jerk my hands, trying to get out of his grasp, but he only shakes his head. Without warning, he flips me around with one swift move. My back is pressed against his chest. His arms close around my chest, trapping my arms to my sides.
“I’m saving you from making even more wrong choices.” His low voice is at my ear.
I can’t breathe.
Victor steps into the alley, surrounded by six guys. He’s much bigger, he’ll be okay.
He’ll be okay.
No matter how much I repeat this in my head, I don’t believe it. There aresixbad guys against Victor. His face is unreadable but calm.
“Let’s cool it, guys. We can talk about this first. It doesn’t have to go down this way,” Victor says in a steady voice.
My heart fills with warmth that he’s trying to talk to them first and prevent a fight.
Charlie’s grip around my body tightens, and a growl comes out of his mouth. “She’s my Firefly. You made a huge mistake by touching her.”
Charlie buries his nose in my hair at the back of my head. Victor’s stoic face stays calm, but I detect the briefest of emotions passing through his eyes. He puts his hands up, palms out to Charlie.
“It’ll be okay, Tia.”
No, it won’t. It’s pointless talking to an obsessed and unreasonable person.
“I don’t have all night. Get to it!” Charlie spits out, and my stomach drops.
All six guys jump toward Victor at the same time. It’s chaos. Sweat beads on my forehead. Victor blocks few punches, but more come his way from behind. They’ve circled him. Taunting him.
Victor’s eyes radiate determination. He takes off his hat and tosses it somewhere on the dirty ground. He moves close to the wall to protect his back and the guys are all in front of him.Smart move, babe. I want to scream “I love you” but I keep my mouth shut as I watch the unfair fight unfold in front of me.
