He’s bigger than me. Taller than me. Weighs three times more than me. Anxiety shoots into my veins and I struggle to escape. “Get off.”
“No,” he says. “I’ve been given strict instructions that you stay in the house so I’m going to ask nicely for you to return to your room. If you don’t, I’ll pick you up and put you there myself.”
It’s there in his eyes. He means what he says. He wants me in that house and he’ll force me to comply and what I’d finally begun to see as friendly isn’t friendly anymore. It’s big and it’s scary and I wrench harder at his hold. “Let me go!”
His grip tightens and I’m pulling back with all my might and the words tear out of my throat. “Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!”
Oz
RAZOR EXTENDS HIS arms like he’s gripping the handlebars of a motorcycle and he mimics being thrown to the ground. “And I said holy fuck, asshole, that wasn’t a pothole, that was a damned canyon.”
The guys around me burst into laughter and I join them then take another swig of beer. Pigpen walks by, fist bumps me and asks, “You out?”
I check the bottom of my beer then down the small amount remaining. “Yeah.”
“I got it, brother.” He’s off for the bar and I’m buzzing hard. Tonight will be the only night I won’t have to buy a thing. As Eli said, it’s my night.
“You know what else is taken care of?” Razor smiles and a flood of sixth-sense concern swamps me.
“Do I want to know?”
More guys join our group and each of them have a shit-eating grin on their face. There’s a whiff of strong perfume and my stomach twists. A month and a half ago, I would have been all over this, but there’s a girl across the yard who won’t understand and will end up hurt.
A delicate touch across my bicep and I look to my side. Early twenties, short pixie-cut brown hair and her tits are hanging in the breeze. “I hear it’s your night.”
Not anymore.
She waves a fifty in the air. “And your friends have bought you a lap dance.”
Razor tips his chin at her. “We’ll keep paying, too. Let us know when.”
Her hand is on my chest, trying to guide me back into the chair behind me. Fuck me. Just fuck me because I don’t know how the hell to get out of this. I gently attempt to remove her hands, but she’s a damned octopus snaking her arms around mine.
“Get off!”
My head jerks in the direction of the faint voice.
“It’s okay if you’re shy,” the girl says under her breath. “I promise I’ll play nice.”
Shy isn’t my problem, but crushing Emily is. There’s only one girl I crave to be with and she’s alone inside Olivia’s house.
Then I hear it again. “Let me go!”
The chick in front of me fades away as my heart stalls. That was Emily’s voice.
Another hand on my chest and I shove it away. “Everyone shut the hell up!”
The guys surrounding us go quiet and peer at me like I’ve lost my mind. I strain to listen past the electric guitars.
“Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!”
Suddenly I’m pushing through the crowd. Grabbing guys and thrusting them out of my way.
“Oz!” Dad stands on a chair on the other side of the room. “What’s the damage?”
“It’s Emily!” I roar.
With my words the music rips off, guys snap their heads in the direction of the yard and I finally emerge from the clubhouse.
Red. I see red. Emily is in the yard, clawing to get away. Her arm locked in the grasp of a man. He’s yelling at her. She’s yelling at him.
“Emily!”
Her head whips to me and there’s relief in her eyes. Pure relief and that causes a deadliness to unfurl within my bloodstream. She was scared. This man scared her.
“Oz!” she shouts.
My arm is yanked back by someone, but I’m a damned steamroller without brakes. At the sight of me coming, he releases her and Emily is pulling so hard that she falls to her ass. His hands are in the air and there’s shouting all around me. My fist collides with his jaw and he lands on the ground.
A body slams into mine and I fight to go forward, fight to pick up the asshole and beat the hell out of him. Another guy rams into me and I don’t go down, but they do stop my advance. A jostle of arms then Dad’s in my face. “He’s a brother! A Reign of Terror! It’s a brother, Oz! We got this. Calm down! You hit a brother.”
I breathe deeply to try to silence the pounding in my head. A brother. I attacked a brother, which can be an automatic out of the club. My eyes shoot to the asshole who laid hands on Emily and I can’t see him because he’s surrounded by Terror cuts and there’s lot of nasty words being tossed in his direction. The anger in the air is palpable.