“Don’t ever touch me, you mother—” she started to yell, but went silent when Dave shoved her back and she tumbled against the bar stool.
Oh, hell no.
“You don’t ever put your fucking hands on a woman, you piece of shit.” I reached down and helped her to her feet before putting myself between her and Dave.
“Stay behind me.” Something flashed in her gaze as it collided with mine, and she opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. “It’s safer.”
Glass shattered, and I spun around to see Dave grasping a broken beer bottle by the neck.
I might have grown up with money, but that didn’t exempt me from having to defend myself if I wanted any respect in boarding school. I’d learned how to take a punch and how to deliver one by the time I was a teenager.
Dave waved the jagged glass at me, and I blocked with my forearm before landing a blow to his liver.
The broken bottle shattered when it hit the floor, and Dave dropped to his knees like a chump. Chairs scraped against the cement floor as the rest of the bar took notice, and bikers rose to their feet.
The other thing I learned? When to retreat.
I turned and faced the girl. “We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
Her head bobbed as she nodded, and her wide blue gaze darted over my shoulder as she slid her hand into mine. “Let’s go.”
I curled my fingers around hers and we made a break for the back door. She was on my heels as I shoved it open and led her out into the cool spring night air.
“I don’t have a car.”
“My truck’s right here.” I’d grabbed the keys to one of the utility trucks the estate kept in the garage.
The door of the bar smacked against the black cinderblock wall as someone burst through the door after us. I turned around, using my body to shield her once more, but I was too slow to protect my own face as his fist flew.
It glanced off my cheekbone, and I dropped her hand to shoot out with a right hook, catching him on his jaw. He staggered back as blood roared in my veins.
“That should not be attractive.At all.” Her husky voice filtered in through the adrenaline charging through my system. “But that was hot.”
The guy came at me again, and I went for an uppercut. With a grunt, he dropped to his knees.
I stepped toward him, but a hand wrapped around my arm. Her gaze pleaded with mine.
“Let’s go. He’s not worth it. None of them are.”
Walking away from him was the easiest decision I’d ever made. Two minutes later, we were in my truck, hauling ass out of the parking lot and spraying gravel.
“I’m so sorry. That’s all my fault.”
I glanced across the cab at her face, but it was hidden by darkness. Out here, there were no streetlights to illuminate the road, only my high beams as they cut through the night heading back toward town.
“You didn’t ask him to put his hands on you, so I’d say it was Dave’s fault. Whoever the hell he is. You want to tell me what that was about?”
“No. I don’t want to think about it. Not tonight. Not ever. I just want to fucking forget about the whole mess.”
“Where do you need me to drop you off?” I hated asking the question, because I didn’t want to drop her off anywhere yet, especially on the off chance that it was her boyfriend’s place because she hadn’t moved out.
“No one has ever stood up for me. Never.”
“It was nothing.”
She turned in her seat. “Maybe to you, but not to me. It was everything.”
When her seat belt clicked and retracted, I glanced over at her. “What are you doing?”