He pushed her to the side just as my fist connected with his nose, the cracking sound not as satisfying as I thought it would be.
“Noah!” she screamed at me, but I was too far gone to stop now.
He fell backward, holding his face as the blood spattered everywhere. His weak whimper was music to my ears. The crackling of the bonfire and the wind felt like the push I needed to finish him up.
“You touched her,” I growled, not even recognizing my own voice. “You touched what’s mine.”
“Noah!”
“Man, I didn’t know she was in a relationship. She didn’t tell me,” he whimpered from the ground, trying to get away from me as I stalked toward him.
I dropped to my knees, caging him in.
He thrashed around, trying to escape, but the adrenaline pushing through me was enough to hold him down.
“You should’ve known,” I murmured, leaning closer to him.
“Noah!” Sophie screamed again. “Stop! Somebody stop him. Jared!”
My fist connected with the douchebag’s face, sending his head flying to one side, and then the other when my other hand connected with the other side of his face.
“What the fuck?”
“Stop him!”
I tuned them all out, focusing on the bloodied face in front of me and the anger urging me to push more, to punch harder, to show him what he did to my insides.
The way he looked was the way I felt—bloodied and bruised from the inside, bleeding and in pain.
I had no idea how much time passed, how many times I hit the guy, before they pulled me off of him. Strong arms wrapped around my torso, holding me while I tried to get free.
“Let go of me,” I gritted out, trying to push those arms off me.
“Calm the fuck down, Noah,” Jared warned, and I realized what I’d done.
“Fuck.”
My blood still simmered in my veins, the adrenaline pushing onto the surface of my skin, while my eyes frantically searched the crowd, looking for a pair of green eyes.
“Where is she?”
“Gone. Where the fuck do you think she is?”
“Let go of me, J.”
“Not until you fucking calm down. What were you thinking, man?”
“Let. Go.” I pushed him backward and started running through the crowd. I saw her familiar figure climbing up toward the area where the cars were parked.
Oh no, you don’t.
I was going to regret this tomorrow, but the pain from my knuckles was the least of my concerns. As I ran toward her, closing the distance between us, I prayed that I didn’t destroy every single chance I had of getting with her.
“Sophie!”
“Leave me alone, Noah.”
Her voice was clipped, her back turned to me. She didn’t stop until she reached the even ground, walking toward her car.
