Silently, everyone watched and listened. By now all five men in the front row were lethally calm, ready to kill, even if they didn’t understand.
“Oh, no. This will be interesting,” he laughed hysterically and spun me around with a hard jerk on my hair.
I shrieked, “No!” as he yanked down the back my top.
I heard the gasps from the crowd while the jerk continued laughing. I struggled and got socked in the stomach for my efforts. Breathing was nonexistent, and Spokesman released my hair. I crumbled. Flesh hitting flesh sounded behind me as I lay prone and gasping for air. I did manage to clutch my sweater that lay on the ground next to me before Spokesman’s foot dug under my stomach. He gave a mighty heave, tossing mebackward through the air. I landed sprawled on three of the men in the front row. I had no idea which ones. Vision blurred and still trying to heave air, I didn’t care.
“Hold her for me gentlemen. I need to take care of some business before I get to my pleasures,” Spokesman chuckled. I rolled away from the hands trying to assistance me and gagged. I kept the puke down, but just barely.
I wheezed and air shot into my lungs. I coughed and choked on it. A few more deep breaths while trying to brush away helping hands and my vision returned. I grabbed for my sweater that I had dropped and D&D held it up for me slip in to. His eyes were a mass of fury, but I saw something truly dark in them matching my own pit of Hell. I knew my eyes were dead at that moment. I didn’t care if he saw. I didn’t care who saw.
A hand grabbed my wrist, dragging me into strong arms.Home.I could hear Spokesman talking to Mr. Wong and I didn’t really care what the heck he was saying. I just knew that Brent was holding me and he felt as he always had. He had a cut of his cheek – it must have been the scuffle I had heard. He buried his face against my neck and swayed us back and forth, rocking me – or himself – and quietly hummed one of our favorite songs from high school. He was shaking just as badly as I was.
“Sweater,” I demanded, petting Brent’s curls and held out my hand to D&D. He slipped it on my arm, watching Brent closely. My gaze landed on Cole’s. I couldn’t read anything from his icy blue depths. I think that was a good thing right then because I was silently praying the Lord would take me now. Any sympathy or disgust and I wouldn’t have been able to deal right then.
“We have enough,” Velvet whispered without moving his mouth as I slipped the sweater on my other arm, juggling Brent’s head carefully. Christ, he wasn’t supposed to find out like this.And Ally? She had probably fainted. Velvet whispered, “Fuck, yes.”
Then chaos ensued.
The lights went out and Brent was slamming me to the ground, telling me to cover my ears and close my eyes. I instinctively obeyed, and then he moved. A blinding flash erupted behind my closed lids and gun fire exploded around us. It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to process what the heck was going on. My ears rang, but I still heard the screams. Men and women were shouting frantically and something warm and wet splattered my face and hand.
I screamed then. I shouted for Brent. I shouted for Ally. I shouted for Cole.
Someone scooped me up and carried me off in the darkness when the gunfire ceased.
I still screamed.
Chapter Four
I WAITED in a policestation for Brent to come get me. At least, that’s what they said after they determined I wasn’t in need of medical attention. They had bustled me off in a police cruiser ten minutes after the lights turned back on inside the building on the first floor. It had been an S.W.A.T. team member that had carted me off and tried to calm me. Only after they had assured me that the few that I knew at the party were fine, had I stopped fighting to get back upstairs.
They, oh so kindly, allowed me to wash the blood from my face and I was now sipping the last remains from a hidden flask of the gentleman copper next to me. I did so discreetly after he asked me not to make it “so fucking obvious”. I had been here now for three hours and was getting ready to ask for the tenth time if he was sure everyone was fine when I saw Brent walking down an aisle with a determined stride and fiercer gaze.
He was scanning the area. My heart surged. God, he was okay. He was really okay.
I started to jump up and stopped myself. I couldn’t run to him. I couldn’t let my heart break even farther. He hadn’t waited.
I handed the flask over and told the cop. “Thank you.” I stood calmly and waited. His eyes landed on mine and it was so hard to stay still. I saw relief, joy, and anger simmering in his dazzling green gaze. Oh, yes. He was still very angry. Well, good for him. I had my own anger that had simmered to a nice boil, too.
Brent talked briefly to the cop – they seemed to know one another – before he grabbed my hand in a crushing grip and dragged me out of the cubicle and down the aisle. He didn’t say a word and I didn’t speak, either. Both of our jaws were clenchedand he barely managed a halfway polite wave to anyone who tried to stop him and say hi. Obviously, he was well known here.
He pulled me out the front door – no papers signed, it’s good to know people in high places – and down the stone steps of the precinct where a black Lexus SUV idled. He opened the front passenger’s door and tossed me inside, yanking the seatbelt over me and buckling it before slamming the door shut. I glanced behind me as he crossed in front of the SUV to the driver’s side, and low and behold, D&D, Velvet, Cole, and Ally were in the backseats with piles of luggage all around them.
No one spoke.
Cole was sitting directly behind the driver’s seat. Head resting back, his frost eyes gleamed from a street light fighting to shine through the tinted glass. His stare was a mask of emotionlessness. Nothing. He gave away absolutely nothing of what he thought.
A hand gripped my chin and jerked my face away from Cole’s trapping gaze. Enraged green eyes flashed at me. Okay, he might be even more ticked than I was. His hand fell away only when Ally delicately cleared her throat.
He slammed his door shut and buckled himself, then peeled out. I grabbed the safety bar and hung on. The car was silent until Brent put a cd in. NIN blared through the speakers and I rested my head back and closed my eyes wishing I had more tequila. That little flask hadn’t been nearly enough.
***
We arrivedat an apartment building – I noted the address as Brent’s - with underground parking, which we turned in to. Brent took the downward curves hard enough to make someone grunt from the backseat, but other than that, no one complained. Furious energy tornadoed back and forth between Brent and me. It was so intense, it was almost tangible.
Tires squealed as he pulled into a parking space. Doors flew open before he even put it in park in an effort to escape the pending storm brewing between us. I couldn’t blame them. If I were them, I would have run for the hills, too.
I hopped out, slamming my door and practically barreled right into Velvet. Or, at least, the suitcase he held out for me. It was mine from Ally’s place. I glanced where she was slinging a carry-on over her shoulder and pulling a larger suitcase out of the SUV with rough jerks. She looked mighty ticked off, too.
