Jimmy snickered. “Well then, tell pretty boy next show is in fifteen. The crowd is already feral, so he better throw on some more oil and get in.”Next show. It really dawned then, Olly, my brother, a performer. A stripper. “Or now that his girl is tucked away he’s not taking the stage anymore?”
Tucked away. Oh, Olly. Whatever trouble he’d gotten into was over protecting a girl, of course, it was.
Jimmy’s words were still echoing in the night when a vehicle came to a stop behind us.
I watched the man’s eyes narrow.
Lucas didn’t turn to look at us—at me—when he said, “Rosie, get your brother in the car.”
Still shocked, I hesitated. Lucas stood there like a statue, serving as a wall between Jimmy and me and my brother.
“Ángel,”Lucas’s deep and commanding voice came again, breaking through my hesitance. “Car, now.Please.”
Snapping into action, I linked arms with my brother and headed for the Uber. Once my brother was sitting inside, I turned back to check on Lucas. He remained in the same position, only now Jimmy was right in front of him, the two of them talking. Nothing more than gritted words between their teeth, not loud enough for me to make out a single thing.
I didn’t like it. Not one bit. Every cell in my body demanded that I go to Lucas and drag him away.
“Stay in the car, Olly,” I said, and gestured for the driver to wait.
I had dragged Lucas into this mess, and I’d be damned if something happened to him because of me. I had almost made it to Lucas, my arms ready and stretched in his direction, reaching for him, when Jimmy threw back his shoulders and shoved at Lucas’s chest.
The man I loved so much for his kindness, his warmth, his selfless heart, stumbled back before straightening. And instead of retaliating, instead of returning the shove or throwing a punch, he took another step back.
“You’re a lucky man,” Lucas told him, ice in his voice. “I promised her I wouldn’t engage.”
The other man scoffed, the sound weak and his next words uncertain: “Oh yeah?”
Lucas stared down the other man for a long moment, and then, he turned, leaving him behind. He was keeping his promise to me; he wasn’t engaging.
But then, so quickly the motion hardly registered, Jimmy charged forward, his boot making impact against Lucas’s calf. His right calf.
Lucas went down, falling to his knees with hardly a sound. His head hung low between his shoulders, and his chest heaved.
My vision blurred, my ears rang, and everything turned red. As if I were no longer myself, I darted forward.
“You son of a bitch!” I cried.
“My bad,” I heard Jimmy drawl. “See, promises don’t mean much to me.”
Ignoring all caution, my rage bubbled to the surface.
I looked around, desperate to do something, anything, to make him hurt, finding nothing but my purse hanging off my shoulder.
I gripped it by the handle and raised my arm, ready to fling the clutch at him if it was the best I could come up with, overlooking how harmless it would really be. How ridiculous.
Warm fingers wrapped around my wrist, and the only voice in the world that could have stopped me from doing something so stupid spoke, “Rosie,no.”
My lips parted, and I heard myself saying,“Yes.”
Those fingers spread, their touch anchoring me. Grounding me. “Don’t engage. You promised me.” I had, but that had been before Lucas had taken that ugly hit. “Put down the bag.”
It wasn’t the plea in his voice. It was the knowledge of himstanding on his feet, the pain lacing his voice, that made me obey. I looked at him, and he even managed a smile. “He’s not worth it.”
He wasn’t.
But for the first time in my life, I wanted to choose violence.
“Let’s go home.” Lucas’s fingers pulled at my arm, extricating my purse from my death grip. He slipped it on his arm, even when I told him I could carry it myself. But Lucas didn’t listen. He straightened and threw an arm around my shoulders, leaning some of his weight on me. He walked with me, and I could tell he was biting through the pain. When we reached the car, Lucas turned. “I havenothingto lose, Jimmy. Nothing. And you’d be wise to remember that, because next time I won’t be walking away.”