Across the room, she caught a quick glimpse of Giles, who fought like a man possessed. He’d gotten to his feet and dodged a punch, slammed his fist into the behemoth’s ribs, took an elbow to the jaw, and answered with a brutal punch. Furniture practically splintered around them, vile exclamations filling the air.
A mistake.
In that second that she’d diverted her focus, the man hand launched himself inside. Alyssia started, leaping back. However, her foot caught on something, an overturned side table, and she toppled to the ground.
She scrambled backward as the intruder rose to his full height.
“So spirited,” the man drawled, cracking his jaw left and right.
“Don’t fucking touch her!” Giles bellowed from the center of the room. “Or you die tonight!”
Alyssia couldn’t look at him. Didn’t dare take her eyes off the man. One wrong move, and they were both in big trouble. Who was she fooling? They were already in big trouble! She pointed the statue at him. “Do not come any closer.”
“Or what? You’ll hit me with your little toothpick again?”
Arrogant arse!
Her heart still sank.
There was no way she could fight this man strength for strength. She would need to be smarter, faster.
Giles grunted across the room. Drat it. Her appearance must be a distraction for him. She had to leave. And while she was at it, she had to take this man with her. She simply couldn’t Giles let face two men at once.
And she refused to give up.
“Alyssia,” Giles called. “Talk to me.”
What?Even the intruder frowned.
“Focus on that your ruffian, Giles, and I’ll focus on mine!”
Her husband cursed.
“Quite the sassy wife you have there,” his ruffian growled. “She’ll be mine in a moment.”
Her ruffian chuckled, and she took that exact moment to scramble to her feet and once again bolted. She would run this evil weed ragged if she must! Giles called something after her, but her hearing was drowned out by the own beat of her heart. She couldn’t look back, couldn’t falter again. She’d failed to deal with the man when he was entering their house; she could not fail now. She had to give Giles enough time to deal with his assailant without distraction, and trust that he’d come to her aid.
And lawd, where was the help?
Across the room,Bishop took a brutal punch to the flank and hit the floor with a groan.
Damn it to everlasting hell.
Damn hisuncleto everlasting hell, because that’s where the man was going once this night was through!
Ever since Alyssia had barged in, he couldn’t bloody focus and had taken more blows than he wanted. He spat copper, rolled his shoulder, and shoved up to his feet. The behemoth smirked down at him like a cat with a crippled mouse.
But big didn’t always make better.
“Your bride’s a beauty, too,” the brute drawled, flexing his knuckles. “Dressed for a night of loving.”
“Touch her and choke on your teeth,” Bishop snarled, driving forward. Bloody blackguard. He wouldn’t rise to his taunts, but he could make the man believe that he had.
His fist sank into the man’s gut—solid, unforgiving muscle. A grunt still came. Good. Bishop followed with a jab to the jaw. Then another. On the third, pain flared white-hot through his knuckles. The blackguard barely swayed.
A series of crashes sounded from somewhere.
His reckless, rebellious wife.
