“They’re not just … random assholes with bad timing?”
“No.”
Addy studied me for a long second like she was trying to understand not just the situation, but what standing next to me actually meant. She exhaled slowly, her gaze flicking briefly toward the door before returning to me.
“They didn’t seem…” She hesitated. “I don’t know? They didn’t seem like they were about to kill anyone.”
My hand tightened on her waist instantly.
“They would have. If it suited them. If it made a point. If it gave them leverage.”
Her lips parted slightly.
“This isn’t posturing, Addy,” I continued gently but insistently. “This isn’t men puffing their chests and walking away. It was restraint. Calculated restraint.”
She swallowed. “Because I was here?”
“Because I was here,” I corrected. “And because they came to send a message, not start a war.Yet.”
The word settled between us like a loaded gun.
“And if I hadn’t been here?” she asked quietly.
I didn’t answer right away. Not only because she deserved the truth but also because she needed to hear this and more importantly, understand it.
“They would have pushed harder,” I said finally. “And I would have responded accordingly.”
Her fingers curled slightly into my shirt, grounding herself.
“Okay,” she murmured. “So … less cocktails, more potential murder. Got it.”
I made a choked sound, somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. “Do you always cope like this?”
“With inappropriate humor?” she said. “Yes. It’s a gift.”
“It’s going to get you into trouble.”
“It already has,” she pointed out, glancing at me meaningfully.
Touché.
But the faint smile faded from her lips a second later.
I stepped closer, closing the last inch of space between us, my hand sliding from her waist to the small of her back, pulling her in just enough to leave her no choice but to feel the tension still coiled through me.
“I need you to understand … they wouldn’t hesitate to take you,” I said, my voice dropping, rougher now. “Or use you. Or hurt you if it gave them an advantage.”
Her breath hitched slightly.
“And I wouldn’t hesitate to end every single one of them for it.”
Her gaze searched mine, something shifting there — fear, yes, but not of me. Never of me.
It was something else. Understanding, maybe.
“Okay.” Addy nodded lightly.
My hand slid up, fingers brushing along her jaw, tilting her face just enough so she couldn’t look away.