He bends, making it look like he’s about to call over a bartender. The shift digs whatever is at my side deeper until I cry out slightly. Then he turns his head and looks at me sinisterly.
“Get up and walk to that back hallway. Don’t even think of doing shit to make anyone get curious.”
My blood runs cold, and I risk a glance toward Nate’s black wall of windows, hoping that he still has his eyes on me, but I feel a palm shove between my bare shoulders and the movement pulls my eyes away when I almost fall to the ground.
With each step I take toward the hallway, my panic starts to take over until I feel like I’m going to pass out from the fear alone. I know nothing good can come of this, but when one bruising hard hand wraps around my bicep, I fear there is nothing I can do but follow.
I stumble down the hallway as he drags me with him. He moves me around like a ragdoll, my arm aching from his hold, until he slams open the back door and the cool night air hits my tear-streaked face.
Then with a rough shove, he pushes me until I tumble to my knees with a cry of pain.
“Levi, you don’t want to do this,” I weep, my words hitching as my sobs grow. I fall on my ass when he takes a step toward me and I start to crab crawl backward.
“Wrong move, bitch.”
He reaches down and pulls me off the pavement with a rough hold of his hand at my throat. I claw at his arm when the air to my lungs cuts off instantly, but I’m no match for him. Before I know what’s happening, he’s holding me up off the ground with just his hand squeezing tightly around my throat. Tears fall and I kick my legs frantically as I fight to take a breath.
He grunts when my legs connect with his body and throws me back with all his strength. My back scrapes roughly against the pavement and my head hits the unforgiving surface with teeth-rattling force. My vision goes black for a second, but I struggle until I can see him again, fighting against the dizziness.
“All you had to do was listen, Emberlyn. I gave you plenty of chances to come running back. You just kept ignoring them. Cleaning up my presents instead of being scared and calling me for help! You called him, though. Spread your whore legs for him without a second glance at ME!”
Oh, my God. All those things that I thought were just weird accidents. It had been Levi the whole time.
“I should have killed that fucking mutt of yours the night you used a headache as an excuse to go home. I still have his teeth marks on my ass from when I brought you back. I couldn’t even fuck you because he took that away from me.”
“Levi,” I moan in pain when I try to move from the pavement. Not wanting to have him this close now that I see he’s holding a knife in his hand. “You don’t want to do this. Let’s talk?”
“You’re fucking wrong. I’m going to fuck you right here under his nose, and by the time he finds you, he’s not going to want you. You’re going to be used up, and if you’re lucky, you might be alive.”
“Please,” I beg, holding my hands up when he stands above me and bends over my body. I keep fighting with the blurred darkness that is trying to suck me under, blinking rapidly as my head swims.
“You were supposed to run into my arms after I made sure your old ass house had some wires cross. That was my chance to come to save you!” His spit hits my face and mixes with the tears running down my cheeks. “I had just enough time to start that fucking shit and rush over to the station so I could be in the right place at the right fucking time, but you still didn’t listen, and I’m done waiting. If I can’t have you, bitch, no one can!”
His hand comes up, the one with the knife, and I sob louder knowing that this is how it’s all going to end. I bring my hands and arms up to shield my face from the knife that is shining in the moonlight, and I pray.
“You motherfucker!” I hear roared. It takes me a second to realize that the blow I had been waiting for didn’t come, and I try to blink back some of the darkness that had been edging in my vision.
But once I hear Nate, it’s as if that was all my mind needed to give up, and with a rushed exhale of relief, I pass out.
I STAND IN THE DARK hospital room and keep my eyes on Ember. I haven’t looked away since the doctor assured me that she was going to be okay. Other than the handprint to her throat and the few scrapes and redness on her back, she has no outward signs of what happened earlier.
But the blow to her head left her with one hell of a concussion.
She’s been sleeping peacefully under my watchful eyes for the last three hours, and all I’ve been able to do is pass the time by planning.
When I saw him leading her away from the bar, I rushed after her. The fight had kept me from getting through the club floor quickly, and all I could do was pray as the dread consumed me and I worried I wouldn’t make it in time.