The black SUV. The five guys spilling out and grabbing me. The pain. The fear—I shook my head. No. I would not fold. I would not give them power. I was strong.
I stopped at the fountain, my chest heaving, the hairs along my neck prickling.
“Want to tell me what happened?” Hunter asked.
“So What. Trouble. Who Knew.”I answered with songs instead as my heart calmed down.
Hunter glanced back to the door, his eyes narrowing then stepped toward me. “Trigger, huh? I get that. But hey, you didn’t pass out. I’m not carrying you. So that’s progress noted.”
Dang it!Why’d that freaking SUV have to come barreling down the road when I’d been doing so well? I stared into the water, watching the flashes of pennies flicker as the water splashed down from the fountain.
I wasn’t going to win this battle, was I?
* * *
Hunter
A fist hammered my cheek, my eye nearly exploding. I ducked, punched my attacker’s groin, then spun away. I hopped to my feet, grabbed the back of the guy’s neck, and smashed his face into the wooden, two-person table near the dance floor.
No, he hadn’t been dancing. This asshole had been practically raping the chick he was with near the back wall of the dance floor.
A scream sliced through my focus. The raven-haired beauty looked at me with wide, green eyes. Fear laced the sea-colored irises like a cancer. I hated that look. I’d seen it too many times.
“Whoa, Hunter,” Drey said as he grabbed my elbow. “Outside.”
I half-dragged the asshole toward the door while the bartender, Gabriella, headed over to the girl this guy had assaulted. I burst through the back doors by the restrooms and tossed this jerk out like I did the trash.
The guy whirled around, and I caught the flicker of a blade off the light above the door. He was too quick for me to move out of the way, and the doorway confined my ability to move much. Those two things combined spelled one slicing burn across my side, between two ribs.
I kicked his wrist, and the knife blasted against the brick wall across the alley.
He stumbled, and I leapt at him, foot first. My heel connected with his jaw. He spun, and I landed in a push up then kicked out his knee. I thrust myself up and pummeled his cheek. Bones caved, and the guy screamed like a baby.
Good.
Where did he get off hurting that girl? This bastard needed a lesson. He—
“Hunter!” Drey yelled. “Shit.”
My friend jumped in front of me, his hands up. “Back off, Hunter. Back off.”
I grabbed my side. “That dumbass sliced me. He—”
He pointed at the guy rolling on the ground. “Stay down or you’re dead.” The guy gasped a response, showing no motion to get up. Good, because Drey was right, I might kill that guy.
Heart hammering, my lungs burned, and I realized I hadn’t even taken a breath for who knew how long. I let the cold air in, and the red tainting my vision receded.
I’d lost my cool again. When the red showed up, bad things happened.
I squeezed my fists, the pain of swollen knuckles dragging me back to the reality of this dank alley behind the bar.
“Calm down, Hunter. You’ve got about two seconds before Bill comes out here. You’re—”
“I know.” I was screwed. This was my third altercation this month. It was like I was a magnet for asshats looking for trouble or something.
First mistake: I didn’t take the fight outside. Second mistake: kicking the hell out of this guy. I couldn’t stop, though. The guy had slapped the girl, then started shoving his tongue down her throat despite her pushing him away. By the time I’d gotten to him, he’d already ripped the front of her shirt open.
He’d inhaled three shots within about ten minutes after he’d strutted into the bar, so I’d been watching him. It was like I could see the ones about to snap. Maybe it was because I rode the edge so closely myself. At least here I did. When I was with Lina, nothing violence-related triggered. Only the need to be close to her, to kiss her, and in my wildest fantasies to strip her down and make love to her.