“Oh look,” one of them says as I approach, standing in the middle of the street, hands on hips. “If it isn’t the devil himself.”
“Let her go!” I shout as I launch myself at him.
Edward again. He thinks he’s holding something over me, when he attacks Luna. He’s insane. Sure
the girl’s hot but I never...
Never knew she was important to me.
I punch him in the stomach and he doubles over, a surprised look flitting over his ugly mug. What, just because I let them beat me up most of the time, he thinks I’d let him do that to her?
Fucking moron.
By the time he starts fighting me back, another guy comes to his rescue and then I’m elbowing him in the gut and kicking his feet from under him, fighting to get to Luna. She’s struggling in the third guy’s hold, and it’s Ed’s brother, Jonas, this time I’d bet my right nut on it. She’s cursing like a sailor, and a grin splits my face as I grab the guy’s arm to pull him off her.
This girl.
Jonas grunts as he kicks at my shin, and my hold on him slackens. Biting back curses, I grab him around the waist and haul him off Luna.
“Run!” I shout at her, right as Jonas slams his fist into my jaw, and I find myself falling backward. “Run.”
Then I have my hands full with three disgruntled guys, a knife flashes and then my side burns like fire. Even as I try to see if she’s gotten away, another punch to my face darkens my vision.
Shit. I can’t pass out. Then I’ll be meat in their hands. Who knows what they’d do to me then. Before my eyes or my mind have a chance to clear, I’m already throwing punches right and left, mostly hitting air, but also the occasional limb. Shouts tell me my hits are connecting. I’m turning into a tornado of fury. Anything to give her a chance to run.
Is she gone? Is she safe?
Goddammit, I get distracted, trying to see her, and they’re back on me like flies on a piece of rotten meat.
“We were wondering where you’d gone to, motherfucker,” Ed hisses as he kicks at me, his steel-toed boots unerringly finding and hitting older bruises, making me curl and groan. “So here’s where you’ve been hiding, is it?”
“Fuck. Off.”
Another kick, to my back this time, and another, and I struggle to keep a grunt between my teeth. Come tomorrow I’ll be pissing blood for sure. Rolling, I push to my knees, lifting a hand to stop a kick to my face, and I hiss when it connects with my forearm.
But the kicks stop.
“Get off him,” Luna shouts, “get off him or I’m calling the cops, I swear I will.”
She’s trying to drag them off me, and I blink at her, stunned. Why is she still here? What is she doing?
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Looney,” Ed mutters, stepping back. “We’re done here today.”
“Don’t you call her that,” I spit at him, though that’s what I used to call her at school. Yeah, the irony isn’t lost on me. “Shut your fucking mouth.”
Lifting my aching head, I watch their boots walking away, then turn to see Luna’s sandals. Her toes are painted dark blue.
It’s cute.
And I’m fucked in the head. Not because I caught the edge of Ed’s boot earlier, but because I want her, I still want her, and I’m acting like an idiot for her. I should have stayed away. They used her as bait to get me here, but I couldn’t risk her getting hurt.
What does that tell you? Brain damage, for damn sure. I hawk a gob of bloody spit, wipe at my split lip with the back of my hand, waiting for her steps to lead her away, to her house that looms farther down the road. Chocolate roof, trees around the front, a swing hanging from a branch. A fairytale home for a girl like her.
Unlike the nightmare home I come from.
But her sandaled feet don’t move away.
Instead they move closer. Bare shins and knees lower until she’s kneeling in front of me. Cool skin touches my face and I flinch, then curse myself. Her touch is so soft. Unlike anything I’ve ever felt.