His dark green eyes meet mine as he looks me over. His gaze turns murderous when he sees my condition, and then he turns his attention to my attacker.
The man quickly stands and starts running away. Damon looks at me and asks, "Are you okay?"
I nod and shake my head consecutively. I'm not even sure how I am right now. I feel battered and bruised, but I’m alive. I’m safe now that he’s here.
"I'll be right back. Don't move," he tells me as he takes off after the man.
"Wait!" I find myself calling out. "Please don't leave me alone," I whisper.
But Damon is already gone.
CHAPTER 18
DAMON
AS I RUN after Victoria's attacker, all I can think about is the way she looked on the cold, dirty ground.
Her lip busted and bloody.
Her violet eyes wide and scared, shimmering with tears.
She looked up at me like I was her savior. Her fucking hero.
If she only knew the truth.
"Goddamn it," I mutter under my breath as I run faster.
When I finally catch up to the motherfucker, he's bent over, winded, with his hands on his knees and drawing air into his lungs.
Drawing back my fist, I land the punch right to his jaw. The man falls to the ground, cursing. “Fuck!” he hisses, spitting blood out of his busted mouth. "What the fuck did ya do that for?" he yells. "I only did whatcha asked of me! Whatcha paid me for!"
"I told you to scare her, to rob her, not to fucking lay a hand on her!" I practically scream. Seeing his hands on her made something inside of me snap. I want to kill the sonofabitch even though all of this is my own fucking fault. I shouldn’t have listened to Baz. I shouldn’t have done this.
But it’s too late now.
What’s done is done.
"Bitch didn't have any money," he grumbles, pulling a loose and bloody yellowed tooth from his mouth before tossing it to the ground.
"You went too far. You crossed a line that was never meant to be crossed," I growl angrily. "You fucked up, Grady."
"So I'm not getting the rest of my money?"
"You won't need money where you're going," I mutter before wrestling him to the ground. Pinning him down with my weight, my fists raining blows onto his face all while I picture Victoria in my mind.
Her shock.
Her sadness.
Her fucking pain.
I roar in anger as I lash out over and over again until his body is limp below me and his face resembles a bloody, tangled mess of exposed bone and tissue.
“Fuck!” I howl as I push up off of him. Panting, I stalk back and forth like a caged fucking lion as I try to get my shit together.
After wiping Grady’s blood off my hands in the wet grass, I pull my cell phone out of my hoodie pocket.
Baz created this problem for me. Now he can be the one to clean it up.
