Just like the one who took me from the club, I don’t know this man either.
His face had been a blur to me before, while the fear had its tight hold on me, eyes bleary with fury simmering beneath the surface. But now, I see the sharp angles, the dark hair, and even darker eyes. His stubble is faint but there, almost accentuating the strength of his features.
He’s big, broad-shouldered, and unsettling in a way that has every alarm blaring inside my mind.
Dangerous is an understatement. He’s probably insane, too, and definitely someone I don’t plan to go quietly with.
Even if my brothers keep me shielded from the bulk of their business, I’ve been around enough of their associates to know a man who’s riding on his convictions, willing to do whatever it takes to achieve what he wants.
He might’ve pulled me out of there, but that doesn’t mean he has good intentions. He could be worse.
The longer that idea lingers in my mind, the harder it is for me to stay quiet. So I twist, trying to wrench my wrist out of his grasp.
“Let me go,” I utter, pulling harder until I slip away.
But he’s fast, grabbing me all over again, but this time, tighter. It’s almost effortless for him, and that makes my stomach lurch.
“Don’t start,” he growls, not bothering to look at me.
“Don’t start?” I return, brows furrowing as I continue to struggle against him. “You’re dragging me out of some hellhole, taking me to your car, and you think—”
“I said don’t,” the man cuts in, looking down at me with a warning glare. “I don’t have time for you to make this difficult. So stop talking and move.”
Glaring right back, my blood is far too hot from the terror of a night I’ve had to care about how intimidating he is. Or how painfully strong his jaw looks from this angle. “I don’t know who you are.”
“Good.”
I grit my teeth. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He just sighs, pulling me closer to the waiting car. “That’s too bad.”
I blink back at him in pure disbelief. I know I’m pushing my luck, but does it really matter when my life is already on the line?
“You’re crazy…I don’t even know your name, and you want me to cooperate?”
“I’m not asking you to trust me,” he says with a flat tone, grip adjusting on my wrist as he glances over at the vehicle, as if assessing how much farther he has to take me. His eyes pin me on the spot, but his expression is otherwise neutral. “I’m asking you to get in the car so we can leave.”
No part of me is prepared to do that, so I push against him again, fighting him every step.
His grip on my upper arm tightens, not painfully, but enough to make my cheeks warm with frustration. God, he’s strong. Strong in a way that’s oddly fascinating and terrifying.
The way he doesn’t react as I pull against him is almost humiliating in a way, as if all my fitness classes have amounted to nothing at all.
Still, it’s enough to annoy him.
“Stop moving,” he mumbles, tone cold.
“No.”
With a sharp exhale, and in one swift motion, his arm hooks around my back, and he hauls me off the ground faster than I can get a sound out. His shoulder presses into my gut, knocking the breath from my lungs.
I blink through my surprise, dragging in a deep breath as I’m forced to watch the ground beneath his boots. “Put me down!”
He doesn’t. Instead, he walks straight to the car, now unencumbered by my resistance. He moves with ease, popping the rear door open with one hand before depositing me inside like I weigh nothing at all to him.
My back hits the seat with a soft thud, and my hair falls across my face, forcing me to push it back. I sit there, completely breathless and more outraged than ever.
For one mortifying second, I feel just how easily he overpowered me. How it really is nothing to him at all.
