“Stay here!” I tell Ivy.
Her eyes flip to mine. “What’s the matter?”
“Just stay here. Leif must have pissed off the wrong person.”
The stairs are a few feet away and I take them two at a time. When I reach the bottom, three brutish dudes, each weighing at least two hundred seventy pounds, approach me and clutch my arms, dragging me into the back storage room.
“What the fuck?” I yell.
They stop just inside the door, and I look around to see where I am. The room is lined with boxes, some tossed, some stacked, some filled with empty liquor bottles—it’s a fucking mess.
The brute with a studded black leather belt cinching his jeans stands in front of me and smiles. He’s missing a tooth and another one is capped in gold.
“What the fuck?” I yell again, trying to break away, but I can’t.
“You need to learn some manners,” he hisses.
I swallow hard and take small breaths as the two of them hold me and Missing Tooth swings at me. His fists are like sledgehammers as they hit me. My face. My chest. My stomach—fuck, that hurt.
“Leave your hands off a guy when he’s making his move on a chick. Got it?”
“Who are you?” I ask, just fucking curious as to why an owner feels the need to sic his bulldogs on patrons of his bar.
“The question is who do you think you are?” he grunts.
I don’t answer but instead spit on the ground. Probably not the best idea. The bald guy punches me one more time in the gut. With a murky laugh, he says, “Get him out of here” to the guys holding me.
It happens in unison. They both tug my arms and drag me back into the bar. Before they drop their hold, the asshole with the lip piercing says, “You heard him. Get the fuck out of here and don’t ever come back.”
My eyes swivel around, looking for Ivy, and I make a move to head back up the stairs. I’ve decided to keep my mouth shut not because I’m worried about what they might do to me but because I need to find Ivy.
“I said get out,” one of them growls as the other moves to stand next to him.
“One on one, dude—just you and me,” I hiss back.
“I don’t think so. The owner wants you out and I hope you got his message. Oh and he already removed that hot piece of ass himself before he ran into your posse.”
I try not to let him see me flinch. He motions to the bar, where Leif is getting the shit kicked out of him by some other dirtbag who probably weighs twice as much as him. People near the bar are scurrying out of his way.
I hear the dirtbag scream, “Tell your friend she might want to think twice before being a cock tease again.”
Breathe, I tell myself. I need to find Ivy, and the only way to do that is to stay calm and get the fuck out of here.
I put my hands up in surrender, though it kills me not to kick the shit out of these guys. “I’m leaving. Call your friend off mine and we’ll get out of here.”
The one with the dark hair that flops in his eyes smiles, and I want to rip his teeth out of his mouth. He whistles and the dirtbag looks up. He slices his finger across his neck and eyes me, pushing me to the door. I turn and just as I approach Leif, the dirtbag shoves him at me. “Don’t forget this piece of shit.”
“Fuck. We can’t just leave,” Leif coughs out.
“Shut up. Now,” I hiss under my breath and exit the door with Leif by my side.
“Xander, what’s going on?” Garrett yells to me from just outside the door.
My eyes search for Ivy as the fury builds within me. If she’s not out here I’m going to kill those bastards. When Garrett jolts toward me to grab Leif, I spot her sitting on the curb. Rushing over, I jump in front of her as cars honk for me to get out of their way. I take her hands, pull her up, and move us to the sidewalk as my eyes scan her from head to toe. “Did they hurt you?”
“N-o-o,” she stammers.
“Are you sure?” I ask, caressing her cheek.
She looks at me and her fingers touch my lip. “I should be asking you that question,” she says with tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
I pull her to me and tuck her head into my shoulder. “What are you sorry for, baby?” I ask.
“I shouldn’t have said yes to dancing with that asshole,” she cries.
“Ivy, are you all right?” Leif calls out.
Hearing Leif’s voice, she pulls away from me and turns around. Running to him, she takes his face in her hands. “Why did you go back in after they asked us to leave?”
Even though he’s bleeding and Garrett’s holding him up, he manages to babble, “Because I had a chick waiting for me.”
She shoves his shoulder. “You’re a dumbass.”
He laughs. “Yeah, you’re right, but one minute some hot piece of ass has her hands in my pants and the next I’m getting the shit kicked out of me. Talk about a cock block,” he says, looking down at his open zipper.
“You okay?” I ask, surveying him for anything more than superficial wounds.