“You ruined my life. My whole fucking career.” Ryan tried to push his way inside, but James held the door firmly at just a few inches.
“Actually, you did that yourself when you tried to blackmail my girlfriend into sex.”
Ryan gave a sharp laugh. “It’sincentive, James. I explained this all to you. It’s how the world runs.”
“No, it’s not, and you’ll be lucky if those women don’t file a lawsuit against you. They should.”
Ryan slammed his fist into the door. “We’re family. You’re my flesh and blood. And you go and do this to me?”
Fury seared through his blood. “You were ready to lie about me cheating on the bar. Are you forgetting that part when you bring up this whole family thing?”
“Damn it, that was abluff. I never figured she’d come clean about her past with you. I thought that throwing that bit in there would’ve been enough to convince her—”
“We’re done here.”
“Wait! James, hang on.” Ryan’s shoulders slumped forward, the fight visibly fleeing him as he dragged in a breath. “You’re right, man. I’m sorry. I fucked up.”
James sighed and released his death grip on the door.
“Ryan, go home and—”
That split second of letting his guard down was all it took for Ryan to slam his weight into the door, sending James off-balance and stumbling back into the apartment.
Ryan rushed through the doorway. “We’re cousins. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
James saw the vodka bottle swinging at his head, but didn’t get his hands up quick enough to block it.
The sound of breaking glass mixed with pain before everything blurred into darkness.
Chapter Twenty-One
Tori paced thebedroom, listening to the two voices arguing at the front door.
She’d sent Kris a message, asking her and Blake to come over in case things got bad, and they were only about a seven-minute drive away.
Ryan’s voice grew closer now.
The bastard was in the apartment.
Faintly, she heard the sound of glass breaking, followed by a thud.
What the hell?
She pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle a cry, her pulse thundering. Staring at the closed bedroom door, she willed James to open it and walk in.
But there was only silence and heavy, lumbering footsteps moving around. Had he done something to James?
She glanced around for any kind of weapon and settled on the burly-looking Iron Man coffee mug.
Keep calm, Tori. You’ve lived through too much to be the hysterical type.
With a deep breath in, she cradled the mug in her hand casually, like she was just drinking coffee, opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the hall.
The first thing she saw was James crumpled on the floor. Blood trickled down the side of his head.
Her whole world tilted and fear like she’d never experienced hit her. It gripped her heart and shredded her stomach.
James. Oh, god, James.