“I’ll take care of him,” Kasey answers for Davidson. I look between the two of them and walk away.
I get to the hallway that leads to the bar’s back room where the bathrooms are, and I stop dead in my tracks. My ears begin to ring, and the ground feels as if it’s shaking beneath my feet—everything becomes a blur before I come to my senses.
“What the fuck?” I shout, and then I’m charging down the hallway.
Chapter Sixteen Part Two
Bryce
“What the fuck?”
I hear the words but know I couldn’t have said them because Drew’s fucking lips are on mine as he pushes me against the wall. I try to get him off me, but before I’m even able to, he’s pulled away and thrown to the ground.
Bodie.
When I’m able to focus again, Bodie is leaning over Drew. I grab Bodie’s flying fist, attempting to pull him off a screaming Drew, but it’s useless.
“I fucking told you to stay away from him,” Bodie screams so loud I know the crowd will hear him over the music.
“Bodie, stop, please,” I plead with him, but I don’t think he hears me or even feels me pulling at him. I’ve never seen him like this before. He’s too big for me to get him off Drew on my own, and with him throwing punches, it’s even harder to get a hold on him.
Drew’s face is already bruising, and his lips are bloodied by the time Emmett and Kasey show up and help me pull Bodie off him.
“Enough, Bodie,” Emmett growls at him, wrapping his arm over Bodie’s chest from behind as they back away.
“Guys, you better get out of here, like, now,” Kasey says as he motions to the crowd at the end of the hallway who have a couple phones aimed right at us.
“Fuck. C’mon, Bodie. I need to get you out of here.”
“Bodie.” His name is a whisper on my lips, and his eyes slide up to my face.
Bodie’s heaving chest as we’re locked in a staredown is so foreign to me, and I don’t know what to think of it. He gives one last kick to a groaning Drew’s leg and stalks off with Emmett.
“Are you okay?” Kasey asks me as he helps an unsteady Drew to his feet.
“You’re asking him if he’s okay when I’m the one who just got punched in the face?” Drew mutters indignantly. Even so, his voice is quieter than usual, as if to not draw more attention to him getting his ass beat.
“Maybe if you hadn’t touched me without my permission, you wouldn’t have been punched in the face, Drew.”
He doesn’t bother arguing back, allowing Kasey to walk him into the bathroom to get cleaned up before kicking his ass out of here.
I dart out of the hallway toward the front door. Thankfully, Caleb is manning the bar, leaving me free to look for Bodie in the parking lot. I find him leaning over the hood of a truck with Emmett standing behind him, no doubt trying to calm him down.
“Bodie.” I don’t dare touch him.
“Go away, Bryce.” The fire in his tone breaks me just a little. “Just leave me alone right now.”
My gaze falls to the ground, and I stuff my hands in my pockets so he can’t see them trembling. I didn’t do anything wrong—this was all Drew—but he isn’t ready to hear it.
“I got him, Bryce. Go back to work.” Emmett pats my shoulder.
“Thanks, Emmett.” My feet reluctantly turn around, but I pause and look back at Bodie. “I love you, beautiful.”
“Then why’d you let him fucking touch you?” The outrage in Bodie’s voice shakes my soul, and my foundation feels like it’s breaking in two. With his face still aimed at the ground, he whispers, “Just go.”
How can two words hurt so much?
Chapter Seventeen
