“I told him to take me there.”
“And he should have said no!”
Lucas shoved both of his hands through his hair, ignoring the pain that lanced through his shoulder at the movement. “He did. You can’t do this to him. It’s my fault.”
“To him? What about to you? He put you in danger! His job was to keep you safe.” He turned to the door, stopped and glared back at Lucas. “He was my best. The BEST I had and you managed to get in his head or something. I don’t know, but it’s obvious his common sense is now fucked. He’s gone. Done. I’ll get someone else to watch your back even if I have to do it myself.”
Lucas launched off the table, slamming Rowe against the wall beside the door so the entire room rattled. He pressed his right forearm across the man’s throat, pushing into his windpipe but not yet cutting off his air. Rowe grabbed both of Lucas’s upper arms, trying to throw him off, but there was no moving Lucas. He had both height and muscle mass on the smaller man, not to mention he was pissed beyond rational thought.
A feral grin spread across his lips and he leaned close to Rowe so that their noses nearly touched. He had forgotten what this felt like, what it was like to physically take control of a situation. Too long he’d settled arguments across a boardroom with a squad of high-priced lawyers or with a checkbook. But this…this was intoxicating. Adrenaline thrummed through his body, shoving aside the lingering aches.
“I guess I haven’t forgotten how to watch my back.” The whispered words slithered between them, causing Rowe’s eyes to flare.
“Let me go.”
“Rehire him.”
Rowe’s brows beetled together over his nose, throwing his eyes in shadow as the muscles in his jaw flexed. He knew that stubborn look too well. “He’s useless to me.”
“You fucking rehire him,” he snarled, his body vibrating with rage. There was nothing useless or worthless about Andrei Hadeon. He’d very nearly given his life to protect Lucas and he would not allow Rowe to throw that away. “If you want me to have a bodyguard so bad, then you give me Andrei. That’s it. No one else.”
“Luc!”
“No one else!”
The door burst open next to Rowe and Snow tried to pull Lucas off Rowe, but Lucas planted his free hand in the middle of Snow’s chest and shoved hard, causing the man to backpedal several feet to keep his balance.
“Fix this,” Lucas ordered in a harsh voice, while watching Snow out of the corner of his eye.
“What the hell is going on?” Snow demanded.
“No, he’s done,” Rowe interjected before Lucas could answer.
Lucas’s smile returned and he applied pressure to Rowe’s throat, slowly cutting off the airflow. “You think he can’t take care of me? That maybe you’re the only one who can watch my back?” He gave his head a little shake. “Look at you now. Pinned by an injured man. How hard would it be for me to slide that hidden knife off your belt right now?”
“Stop it, Lucas,” Snow ordered. “This isn’t a game.”
“I won’t let him hurt Andrei.” The urge to press down on Rowe’s throat was becoming overwhelming. Thoughts scattered, fragmented and painful through his brain, until the only thing that was clear was the unrelenting need to protect Andrei. He was somewhere in this hospital, in pain, injured because of a choice Lucas had made. Lucas had to protect him, keep him safe. The only thing that was clear through the fog was that Rowe was a threat to Andrei.
The doctor cursed under his breath before he ran over the locked medical dispensary and punched in a code. When he turned back, Lucas was aware the man had something in his hand and it wasn’t going to be good.
Twisting his fist in Rowe’s shirt, Lucas growled as he threw Rowe across the room into Snow where they slammed into the opposite wall. With his legs spread and knees bent, Lucas fell easily into a defensive stance, ready to protect himself from anything the two men might attempt. For a moment, everything slowed and the sounds of the busy hospital just beyond the closed door faded away. He was operating purely on an instinctive drive to protect himself. To protect Andrei.
“Whoa, man. Easy.” Rowe used a low, controlled voice as if trying to talk down a jumper balanced on the ledge of a twenty-story building. “There’s no need for this.”
“Really? You attack Andrei and now he’s trying to fucking drug me?” Lucas’s voice jumped slightly higher than normal as his gaze darted between the two men. “Tell me I don’t need to watch my own back.”
“You saying you can’t trust me?” Snow said in a low voice.
“I don’t know, Dr. Frost. Are you still holding the syringe?”