I saw a guy in a corner, tall and broad-shouldered, and it took me a moment to realize there was also a girl behind him, trying to squeeze past him to get away. She was only about half his size, maybe even smaller. From the way her legs were shaking. I figured she was drunk out of her mind, but the broad-shouldered guy wouldn’t let her pass. Every time she managed to get away, he’d block her path and stop her from moving past him.
I only needed to watch this game of cat and mouse for a few seconds to know what was going on. The guy was trying to force himself on the girl. This kind of shit did not fly in Helvetica, especially on my watch.
“Finn,” Nick said in a warning tone, seeing what my eyes were locked on. “Maybe you shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Could just be a couple having an argument.”
He passed me my drink and I gulped it down in one go, slamming the glass down on the bar furiously when I was done. “Maybe I should jump to conclusions,” I growled, moving in the direction of the guy and the drunk girl.
I hated this job sometimes. I fucking hated seeing guys taking advantage of drunken girls, and whenever I saw someone doing it, I took the problem into my own hands. I knew that wasn’t always a wise decision, yet I couldn’t quite stop myself. I needed to put an end to that sort of shit, and besides, someone had to do it.
Having reached the guy in a few long steps, I tapped him on the shoulder and flashed him a warning look as he turned to face me. He looked fucking furious. Enormous, too.
I turned to face the girl. She was hammered as fuck, shaky on her legs and muttering nonsense. It was obvious she was in no state to be flirted with; she needed to be in bed with a bucket next to it just in case.
“Is this guy bothering you?” I asked, trying to keep up a pleasant tone.
“Mind your own damn business,” the guy snarled at me.
I ignored him, focusing on the trembling girl. “Are you okay? Do you need someone to take you home?” I asked. “I can get one of the security guys to give you a ride.”
“She’s coming home with me, so don’t bother,” the guy said, spittle flying into my face. “You can fuck off now, jackass.”
My patience was wearing thin, and I knew I shouldn’t engage with the moron, but I was in a fucking foul mood. And so I turned to face him, offering him a pleasant fake smile.
“Do you mind? I’m having a conversation with this lady.” I turned back to face her. “Do you need help, miss?”
She nodded shyly, and I reached forward to take her hand and lead her away, but I wasn’t fast enough. The guy viciously slammed into me, his heavyset shoulders ramming into my body like a bull.
“I said, fuck off,” he growled at me. “We’re just fine, aren’t we, babe?”
“Leave me alone, please,” the girl whimpered in response.
The guy had managed to shove me out of his way and was now grinning at me victoriously, but I wasn’t the kind of guy who took being pushed around lightly.
“Please step aside,” I said calmly. The guy’s brows shot up.
“Can you not take a hint?” he asked, anger flowing through his voice. “Get. The. Fuck. Away!”
I stood my ground and cracked my knuckles, readying myself for a fight, but instead of going after me, he grabbed the girl by her hair. She yelped in pain and I jumped forward to her rescue, but the jackass was already dragging her towards the back exit, almost losing me in the writhing crowd. I cut through the dancers and followed him with a steely resolve in my eyes, knowing what was going to happen next.
I’d have to fucking hurt him.
He may have been drunk, but no one treated girls like that in my club.
Loud music blared through the back door as I followed the guy outside. He knew I’d stalked after him, and he threw the girl aside as soon as we were out on the asphalt. I quickly made sure she was okay, and then I stared the guy down, slowly approaching him. All I could think of was what would have happened if the girl was Rory and I hadn’t been around to defend her or help her get home safely.
Fuck, I’d kill for her.
“I fucking told you to leave us alone,” the guy snarled. “What the fuck’s your problem?”
“Guys like you,” I replied, not taking my eyes off him for a second.
The atmosphere was like a flickering match in a gasoline-soaked room. Tensions were taut, stretched beyond their limit, and both of us were ready to fucking blow up. In a flash, the moron was on me, hitting, biting and growling like a goddamned rabid dog. He may have been broader, slightly taller and more vicious, but I was sober, smart and fast. With every punch he delivered, I got in two. Every kick was dodged, every bite earned him a punch to the jaw.
I landed an especially heavy blow on his nose, and he stumbled back, clutching it as blood poured from it. For a moment, there was a stunned silence as he realized what I’d done, and then he let out a shout of outrage, crashing towards me with a right hook. I saw it coming a mile away and dodged it, grinning as his hand went into the wall behind me with a satisfying crunch.
I knew I was winning, but I was enjoying beating up this jackass too much to stop just yet. It felt fucking good to show him that the way he’d behaved was no way to treat a woman, and I could barely hear the moaning of the girl on the ground as I kept going. Kick, punch, strike. I was on fire, and I wouldn’t stop until the guy was reduced to ash. He might have thought I’d be easily beaten due to the two inches of height he had on me, but I knew better. It was time he did too.
He might have started this fucking fight, but I was damn well going to end it.
Chapter Twelve
Rory
“Thanks for staying so late, Rory. You can head out now if you want.”
I looked up to see my boss, Gina, standing over my desk. She was the wife of a famous social media site creator, and for as long as I’d worked at her own software startup, she’d mentored me and taught me almost everything I knew about coding in JavaScript, a popular programming language.
“Okay,” I replied. “Thanks for showing me that website trick earlier.”
She winked. “No problem. You pick things up so fast…I’ll be surprised if you don’t steal my job from under me within the next couple of years.”
We both laughed, and I stood up and adjusted my skirt, smoothing it down. Usually I dressed casually for work, but in the last few weeks, I’d found myself wanting to dress in a nicer, more stylish way. I could afford it now that I didn’t have to pay rent anymore, and besides, it was good to look stylish and poised as often as possible, because I never knew who I was going to run into in this city.
You mean like Finn? a little voice inside me said in a smug tone.
Okay, so that might’ve been the real reason I was dressing nicely. I’d only run into Finn a couple of times since we’d had that conversation on the roof, and both times, I’d looked like crap with tangled bed-hair and sweats, so part of me was hoping that if I ran into him again, I’d look decent for once.
My cheeks grew hot as I thought of him, and Gina arched an eyebrow. “Are you okay?” she asked. “Your face suddenly went red.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” I mumbled, gathering up my things.
“You look like you’re hiding something,” she said in a teasing tone. “Haven’t had a better job offer, have you?”
I shook my head and smiled. “No, of course not.”
She grinned widely. “Glad to hear it.”
Gina was right. I was hiding something from her and everyone else, although what I was hiding was more of a physical thing than a mental one…and it was a dodgy one at that. The toy Finn had gifted me was currently tucked away in a clean Ziploc bag in my handbag, seeing as it was the only place I’d thought of to hide it where one of the hotel maids wouldn’t discover it while I was out of my suite. I knew it was paranoid, but I was afraid they’d all giggle behind my back if they somehow found it in my room, viewing me as some kind of perverted loser who couldn’t get a real man to fulfil her needs.
I suppose
d I could get a real man if I wanted, but the only man—and the only cock—I wanted was Finn….and I hadn’t even slept with him, let alone seen his cock.
Yup, I’d officially become a perv—the kind of perv who kept vibrators in her handbag, apparently. I’d never been the type of girl who was obsessed with men, but I’d gone off the deep end, and now all I could think about was sex.
With my stepbrother, no less.
So now, I guess was one of those silly cock-obsessed girls who couldn’t think of anything else, and it just so happened that the cock in question belonged to the one man I could never, ever have. I was on edge all the time, almost driven to the brink of insanity by these constant frustrated thoughts of Finn.
Trying once again to ignore the part of me which kept telling me I had feelings for him, I grabbed my bag and then looked up at the clock. “Oh, wow, it’s already past nine!” I said with a gasp. “I didn’t even realize it had gotten so late.”
Finn was apparently hosting some Christmas party at the club tonight, so he was probably already there, and I felt a little sting as I realized I wouldn’t run into him on my way back to my hotel room.
Gina nodded. “Yep. Time flies when you’re having fun, right?”
And also when you’re thinking about banging your stepbrother, apparently.
“Sure does,” I replied.
Not many people in the world could boast that they enjoyed their job, but I truly did. Gina had only asked me to stay an extra couple of hours to assist her with something, and I’d been here for over four extra hours without even noticing.
“I might need you to work late with me tomorrow, too. We’re all taking time off soon, for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, so we’ll need to pick up some of that slack beforehand.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “Though I can’t wait for Christmas Day to finally come.”
“Same,” she said. “Only two weeks away now!”
She launched into a brief story about a silly joke gift her husband had bought her last year, and I grinned and nodded as I listened.
I finally said goodbye five minutes later and headed out to my car. It was early winter now, and there was a distinct chill in the air, so I pulled a thin old woolen scarf out of my handbag and wrapped it around my neck before unlocking my car and heading back to the Crown. James had assigned me a special parking spot in an underground garage just behind Helvetica, the hotel’s nightclub, and I pulled in and shut off the engine before exiting the garage and striding up the paved path which led past the side of the club and up to the main hotel entrance.
“Dammit!” I said a moment later as a sudden gust of wind wrenched my scarf right off my neck. “Ugh, come back!”
I knew my scarf couldn’t actually understand English, of course, so I chased after it as the wind carried it into a small alleyway beside Helvetica. As I drew closer, I saw a few silhouettes in the alley, and I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I heard a familiar voice, and my ears pricked up. Was that…Finn? I knew he worked at Helvetica at night, but what the hell was he doing out in the alley?
“You piece of shit!” I heard him shouting, and it was then that I realized he was slamming another man up against the concrete wall. The other silhouette I’d noticed was a young woman—probably the guy’s girlfriend—and she was crouched on the ground, whimpering and drunkenly slurring something unintelligible.
Great. Finn was fighting guys again, just like he had on the night of our first family dinner. I knew I should keep out of any trouble he’d gotten himself into, but I couldn’t stay away.
“Finn!” I said, rushing up to them. “What the hell is going on?”
He turned to face me, eyes dark with rage. “Stay out of this, Rory. Get back to the hotel!” he growled, barely looking at me for even a split second before slamming his closed fist into the man’s jaw.
The man howled with pain and then kneed Finn in the stomach, and I watched helplessly as the two of them laid into each other, both landing blow after blow and kick after kick.
Like hell I was going to walk away from this.
The drunk woman on the ground reached out for me, and I looked down at her with wide eyes before trying to help her up. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“I think so. He tried…he tried to attack me,” she said, trying and failing to focus her gaze on me.
My heart sank. Surely she didn’t mean…
“Your friend helped me, but I’m afraid he’s going to kill the guy. You have to stop him!” she continued.
Thank god. For a second, I thought she’d been saying that Finn attacked her. The woman’s head lolled back, and she collapsed onto the ground despite my efforts to help her up. I crouched down beside her, catching the back of her head just in time, and she opened her eyes again as I stroked her hair.
“It’s okay, he won’t kill him,” I said, grabbing a bottle of water from my bag. At least I damn well hope not, I silently added. “Here, try to drink this.”
“Thank you,” she whispered after taking a sip. “Shit…I did way too many shots earlier.”
She managed to sit up, balancing on her elbows, and I rubbed her back as Finn and her attacker struggled a few feet away.
Finn had the guy in a headlock now, and I shouted out to him. “Finn! Stop! I’m calling the police, and they can deal with him!”
He finally seemed to register my words, and he shoved his elbow into the guy’s side, forcing him to his knees. “Fine,” he replied, looking right at me. “I’m not letting go of this asshole until they get here, though.”
“Okay,” I said, grabbing my phone to dial 911. I didn’t even need to, because four burly security guards from Helvetica dashed into the alley only seconds later. I guess someone had finally heard the sounds of the scuffle and reported it.
“This piece of crap tried to attack a woman,” Finn called out, gesturing to the man he was holding in a death grip.
“We’ll take it from here, boss,” one of the security guards said.
He let go of the man, who crumpled onto the ground in defeat, and two of the guards hauled him towards a door which I assumed led into the back of the club.
Finn strode over to me as I helped the drunk woman to her feet. “Do you want us to come with you to file the report?” he asked her.
She stared up at him with confusion. “Report?”
“Police report,” Finn replied. “You should file one. One of the security guys will take you down to do it, or we can take you. I don’t mind. I’m sure Rory doesn’t either.”
He glanced at me, and I gave him a nod. I’d never realized just how good of a person he was. After our chat on the roof the other night, I’d known he had a bit of good in him, but I’d had no idea he was this protective and sweet when it came to defending innocent people who found themselves in danger.
“Oh,” the woman said, her body still trembling as she tried to steady herself. “I think I’ll be okay going with security. Thanks, though, for what you did. I knew I shouldn’t have been drinking tonight.”
Finn shook his head. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask for this just because you knocked back a few. No one asks for this.”
“Still, I don’t know what I would’ve done if…”
Her voice trailed off, and Finn gently patted her on the shoulder. “No worries. My guys will take care of you now. Don’t stress.”
He nodded to the remaining two security guys standing by, and then he gestured for me to follow him out of the alley. “Come on. Let me walk you inside. I don’t want you getting attacked out here by some random asshole as well.”
“Thanks. Will she be okay with them?” I asked, anxiously glancing over my shoulder as the two security guys spoke to the woman who’d been attacked.
He nodded. “Yeah, they’re all good guys. I vetted them myself before hiring them. She’s in safe hands.”
I nodded, satisfied with his answer. After the first time we’d met, I’d had more than a little trouble trustin
g Finn, but right now I trusted everything that came out of his mouth. It was hard to not trust a guy who’d done what I’d seen him doing just a few minutes earlier. It wasn’t like he’d simply gone out looking for a fight; he’d only gotten into a fight to help a woman who couldn’t defend herself.
I felt bad for judging him the way I had when he’d shown up to our first family dinner with his shirt spattered with blood. I was now willing to bet that had happened under similar circumstances to tonight, whereas at the time, I’d thought he was just a typical bad boy douchebag who’d gone out looking for trouble and found it.
As if he were gifted with the ability to mind-read, Finn turned to me. “I guess you know now why I showed up to dinner that night looking like a filthy street rat.”
I didn’t quite know what to say, and he grinned. “Relax. I don’t blame you for judging me that night. I looked like hell. Should’ve gone and got changed before I showed up.”
“It’s not often I see a man show up at an expensive restaurant with blood on him,” I admitted. “Then again, it’s not often that I see someone defending another person the way you just did, either. Most people don’t bother helping others.”
“I try,” he said with a shrug.
So he was modest, too. As I got to know him better, I was discovering more and more things about him and his personality that I’d incorrectly assessed upon our first few meetings. I guess first impressions could be bullshit sometimes.
We headed into the hotel, and I followed him into a small office behind the main reception desk, which had an attached bathroom. “There’s a first aid kit in here,” he explained. “I think I’ve got a few cuts on me. That prick was actually scratching me at one point. Dude fought like a little bitch. Anyway, you can go up to your room if you want; you don’t need to stay.”
“No, I’ll help,” I said, quickly washing my hands at the basin in the bathroom. “Where’d you get cut? I’ll help put the…”
I turned, and my voice stopped dead in the middle of my sentence. Finn was shirtless behind me, and I faltered with the cloth I’d just grabbed to dry my clean hands as I tried and failed to avert my eyes. Holy mother of abs and biceps…
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