“I….” I struggled to find something to say. My heart thumping against my ribs like someone playing the tambourine as eyes swept over me.
What the hell was I meant to say in a situation like this?
“This your fiancé?” A dark eyebrow arched. “Pretty little thing, isn’t she?” He had an accent I couldn’t place. It didn’t have the same kind of lilt that Havoc had.
So he was from out of town like us.
“Darcie, is it?”
I nodded. “Yes, and you are?”
“My name doesn’t matter.” He let Lucas go, and he crumpled to his knees. Sucking in great wheezing breaths.
“Are you ok?” Ex fiancé or not, I couldn’t just let him stay there on the floor, struggling for breath. Pushing past the stranger, I reached for him, only to be stopped when steel-like fingers gripped my arm. “Don’t you worry about him, beautiful.” His words were as dark as his eyes as he tugged me backwards. “This is nothing compared to what is going to happen to him if he doesn’t pay up.”
“Pay up?” I couldn’t help the squeak to my voice as I wrenched my arm from his hand, my eyes darting around.
There was no one in sight and no way I could get past the man who was crowding me into the driver’s side door of our rental car.
“Yes, unless you know where my package is?”
Package? The confusion must have shown on my face.
“No?” He dragged a finger down my cheek as he stepped into my space. His much bigger body crowded mine, until he was so close, I had no choice but to look up at his face or have my face and nose squashed against his chest. “Maybe you can help him find the hundred grand he owes me then?” Another caress of my cheek, and I shuddered.
He wasn’t hurting me, just the opposite in fact, but the threat was there.
“I don’t have….” I swallowed hard. Had he really said Lucas owed him a hundred grand? I opened my mouth to ask him whether that was dollars or pounds Sterling. And then shut it again with a snap.
It didn’t matter the currency. I didn’t have that type of money.
“That is a shame.” His breath washed over my face. Minty… which was strange. Wasn’t the bad guy meant to have horrible breath? I’m sure it was in the bad guy’s handbook. “Maybe you and I can come to some other arrangement…. Buy your future husband a little time to get me what he owes me.” His hand slipped from my cheek until he was pressing it against my breast.
He groped at me like I was a piece of fruit he was testing for ripeness, and the entire time, Lucas just stared up at us and did nothing.
He really was an asshole.
The throaty sound of an engine filled my ears, but it seemed quiet compared to the chaos going on in my head.
I was stood in a car park with a man fondling me, and I couldn’t move. What the hell was wrong with me? I had never understood the term frozen from fear before today, but I did now.
”There some kind of problem here?”
Glancing up, my eyes caught Havoc’s over my attacker's shoulder; he didn’t seem surprised or even worried as he put out the cigarette he had been smoking with the heel of his boot.
”No problem, this has nothing to do with the club.” The hand that had been pawing at me left my breast, and I let out the breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding.
”Ah, see, but it does.” Havoc shrugged. The frown on his face spread. It looked almost predatory. ”Because the woman you just had your hands on is my woman.” He didn’t even look at me as he said it.
”I thought she was Darcie Summers, ” The man seemed confused. “Her passport said Darcie Summers. She’s your brother’s fiancée.”
“Once she was, yeah.” Another shrug. “But now she’s my woman. What can I say? She knows a better man when she sees one.” Havoc’s laughter was carefree, but that didn’t take away from the seriousness of his eyes. He might sound happy, but he was pissed. I didn’t even know him, and I could tell.
“So I would appreciate it if you took your hands off my old lady.” He winked. “Before I break your fingers.”
***
I didn’t say a word as Liam, or did I call him Havoc, gathered me into his arms, pressing my cheek into the soft leather of his cut.
