“Finish that sentence, and I swear to god, I’ll rip your throat out, Tommy.” Declan’s chest broadened, drawing closer. “She fucked me ‘cause she’s mine, and she always will be. Try and touch her again. Ifucking dareyou.”
She’s mine, and she always will be.
My stomach bubbled, and my chest tightened.
Yes, I appreciated defending me. But that…
Those words made me queasier than their brawl had.
They also forced me to clap my teeth to a hard line.
Still yelling around, Eric’s shoulder, he said, “Oh, I’ll touch her so good, she won’t—”
“That’senough.” A loud, roaring voice snapped the room to silence.
I turned that way.
He was around Declan’s height. His shoulders covered in a fine black jacket were wider, and his blond hair longer, reaching the middle of his chest. His beard was peppered with silver strands, age crinkling the edges of his eyes and lips. Still, I’d guess he was somewhere between forty-five and fifty-five.
“He fucking—” Tommy began.
“Did I tell you to open your mouth, Tommy?” the man growled. “Do you think you have the right to utter a word to me after you broke a table of mine worth more than your life?”
“Ididn’t break it—”
In the time it took to blink, he was in front of Tommy, hand fastening around his throat, dulling his words to silence.
Eric side stepped quickly.
“I said that was enough. I told you to shut your mouth.” The man backed Tommy into the wall, squeezing so tight around Tommy’s throat that cracks sounded. “Now, if I release my hand, are you going to do as you’re told, or do I need to take you out back?”
I didn’t like Tommy, but he’d said that as though he was a dog he’d shoot between the eyes if he spoke even one word wrong. What he’d said, and continued saying, he deserved an ass beating for. But death?
Tommy nodded.
Hand still around his throat, he released slightly. Tommy gasped in a gurgling breath. The man turned to Declan. “What was this about, boy?”
“He wouldn’t take his hand off my girl,” Declan said. “So I made him.”
It’d been almost endearing the last time he called me that. My girl. But now, after saying I washis…
“Is that true, Tommy?” the man asked. “Did you refuse to stop touching something that doesn’t belong to you?”
Oh, fuck, I’m gonna vomit.
“It wasn’t—”
“Did he tell you to get away from what was his, only for you to refuse?”
“Yes, but—”
“But nothing.” The man’s tone dropped to an octave that brought the hairs on my arms to their ends. “We do not harass another man’s mate. She is his. You will keep your hands to yourself, or I will chew them off. Do you understand me, Tommy?”
She is his.
Fucking Christ, I needed out of this room.
Tommy barely croaked out, “Yes, sir.”