She’s shaking her head, as her brother pushes himself to sit up, his face battered into a blue and red swollen disaster the guy standing over him a minute ago is long gone.
“She didn’t want to,” he says through swollen lips, clutching his face. “She did it for me, okay? These guys were going to… If I didn’t come up with cash fast, they would have killed me, and Emee…” He looks at her, “I’m sorry. I never wanted you to get hurt. I’m sorry.”
The guy under me tries to roll away, but I twist my fingers into his shirt. He looks up at me with a bloody smile. “She fucked you to make you lose, man! You gonna let that cunt make a fool of you like this?”
“That’s not true. You have to believe me!” she screams, but everything starts to spin.
The guy on the floor takes my momentary disorientation to grab a blade from his pocket, swinging it in an arch toward my face.
I block it at the last second, delivering another fist to his nose as he howls in pain.
Then, Emee is right there, that hellcat look in her eyes, delivering a solid kick to his ribs then turning her sorrow filled eyes at me. “I didn’t do what they said. Benjamin asked me to, but I said no. What happened had nothing to do with…” She looks around at the chaos around her swinging her arms. “This.”
I only blink.
Is this happening? Am I hearing all this right?
“You fucked me so I’d lose?” I furrow my brow as I push to my feet, the bloodied guy on the floor losing priority as I process that the woman I love played me.
“No.” She shakes her head, putting her hand on my heart. “Ifuckedyou because I loved you. If you know me at all, you know I wouldn’t do that. And, who are you to talk?”
The guy reaches out for her leg as Victor finishes off his partner, but she’s having none of it, and I’m trying to puzzle out what that last part means.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” She roars at the bloodied guy on the ground. “I’m having a very. Bad. Day!” She lands another kick, this time where it counts, as he gags and cups his balls, curling into the fetal position, but she’s not done.
“Hey,” I tell her, grabbing her by the shoulders. “Hey, that’s enough.”
“Oh, really?” She turns to glare at me, shrugging out of my grip. “Now you’re the voice of reason? Got anything you want to tellme,Mr. Hertzof?”
I growl. “You call me King.”
“You’re lucky I’m not calling you a lot of other things!” she yells, her face contorting in anger that’s directed now at me.
I hear Victor chuckle, looking across to see him gesture to Benjamin, to come over and take a shot at the limp guy he’s holding on the ground with his foot looking like a crazy Captain Morgan. “This is a helluva way to celebrate. Anyone wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m not fucking sure,” I say, keeping my eyes on the angry little redhead that’s spitting mad at me about something.
Victor looks like he just won the championship. Smiling that crazy smile wiping his bloody hands down the front of his shirt. “Okay, well, when you know, you can tell me, but for now you want me to take care of cleanup? My uncle will deal with these guys permanently. We need to get this little situation under control.”
Emee looks from him back to me, like she’s lost in her own world. “I did not sleep with you to cover his debt,” She says, her anger slipping away, moisture gathering in her eyes andthe marks on her face make me want to tear down the fucking stadium.
Her pain could be the end of me.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, Firecracker, but I’ll protect you no matter what. Your bother needs to man up, though. I don’t get all the details of what’s happening, but I can put together that this is his fucking mess, and you’re being dragged down with him. That stops today.” I growl, pointing a finger at Benjamin. “Family does not put family in danger, especially to save their own ass.”
“You don’t understand, his life was bad. It was horrible growing up,” she says, defending him.
I love her for her mother bear instincts, and she’ll make a great mom for our kids, but she needs to hear this.
I nod. “I know, and I’m sorry for that. But that’s no excuse. I’ve had a tough life, Victor’s had a tough life, you’ve had a tough life. That’s no fucking excuse.” I look over to Benjamin, who’s staring at me, eyes twitchy, working his lips back and forth.
“Leave my brother alone,” Emee says, “and let me go.”
Benjamin watches me for a moment, and I think this could go either way. He could rage against me right now, tell me to fuck off, and my relationship with my future brother-in-law will be tainted from the start. I don’t want that. I want us to be friends.
But what I won’t do is allow his shit to hurt Emee, not ever again.
He locks eyes with me, his bravado fades. “He’s right, Emee. I can’t live like this. I need help.”