The door opens and even though I feel like I’m going to be sick, I walk in, trying to hide what’s happened, but completely unable to compose myself. My legs are shaky and I still struggle to come to terms with being grabbed like that. I don’t know what to do. I grip onto the man’s arm and try to clear my head from the fog of shock, but I’m not given long before a strong grip pulls me away from him.

I yell out in surprise and fear until I realize it’s Mason. He holds my forearms and forces me to look at him, and I lose it.

“Jules?” He says my name, compassion and worry evident. I shake my head, and say the only thing I can think of. “Liam—” I say but then my voice croaks, unable to get out the rest of the words. Unable to express what just happened moments ago.

Tears leak from the corners of my eyes, and his concern turns to anger. I can’t say for certain what he was going to do, but there’s not a chance he didn’t know I was scared. He knew he crossed a boundary. “He… he—”

Mason releases me quickly, slamming his arm into the door and forcing it to fly open as I nearly fall to the gleaming marble floor.

“Jules!” I hear Kat call my name from behind me. I hear the commotion around us. I can see from the reflection in the glass a crowd’s come to watch.

I can’t respond, I can’t even turn to her or form a single thought concerning all of them.

Even as she pulls me to stand straighter and puts her face close to mine, grabbing onto me and trying to get my attention, I can’t give it to her. All I can do is watch Mason disappear and wish he’d just come back. I need him.

Kat grips my face with both her hands and forces me to look at her. I stare into her worried eyes and confess in a ragged breath, “I’m not okay.”

Mason

Anger cannot be denied,

It cannot be contained.

Carnal sins and violent ways,

Its brutality cannot be chained.

It’s passion that drives the fist,

It’s fear that leaves the cage.

Every movement desperate,

Pain seeping through the rage.

Every hot breath turns to white fog in front of my face, and it pisses me off. It obstructs my view of the bastard standing right in front of me. His back is to me as he taps a carton of cigarettes against his palm.

He should have run while he had the chance.

“Liam,” I call out, my chest rising and falling, my lungs filling with ice-cold air.

Knowing him, he’d fucking love for me to make a scene. I’m sure I’m playing right into his hand, and I don’t give a damn.

He’s drunk and looks high. His suit’s disheveled as he turns to me with a half-cocked smile on his lips.

“Don’t you ever fucking touch her!” I say as I walk forward and get closer to him. I have no intention of talking. I don’t need to find out what happened or why. All I know is that she was terrified. And the only thing she could say was his name.

He’s a dead man.

“How do you know what she came out here for?” he asks with a smirk, and I swing my fist as hard as I can into his pretty-boy smile.

I grab his collar, using it to hold him still as I hammer my fist into his face over and over again.

I smash my knuckles against his cheekbones, his nose, his mouth, the skin splitting open on contact. At first he shoved against me, a pathetic attempt to push me away. He doesn’t stand a chance.

I can feel her slipping away, and I’m so fucking desperate to hold on to her. I clutch his throat, forcing him still.

My teeth grit against one another as adrenaline pumps in my blood. Crack! His nose breaks as my knuckles collide with his face and I lose my hold on him. The back of his head slams into the ground. I don’t stop, I can’t. All I can see is red. I lower myself to the ground but he gets in a punch, surprising me. His fist crashes against my cheek and whips my head to the side.

I barely feel it. The taste of metallic hot blood fills my mouth, but that doesn’t stop me either. All it does is fuel me.

“She’s mine!” I scream out and Liam’s eyes widen with fear. I must sound crazy. Even to my own ears, the words I yell out are those of a madman. The worst part, the most sickening, is that I don’t care. Maybe I have lost it. Maybe I am crazy when it comes to Jules. I’m perfectly fucking fine with that.

I yank him up by the collar, my knees sinking into the freezing snow and the thick silk fabric of my suit pants slowly absorbing the melting snow. He slams another fist into my face, so low on my chin he nearly catches my throat, and I return the blow by headbutting his nose.

He screams out in pain and I drop him to the ground.

My breathing is erratic, my vision blurred. I know I’ve won, but I can’t stop because never in my life has it been more apparent than seeing Jules quaking with fear that I’m losing. I’m losing it all.

I pull back to smash my fist against his jaw again. To hear the satisfying crack, but two arms wrap around my chest and pull my back into a hard wall of muscle.

“It’s just me. Just calm down,” someone says from behind me. An angry growl rumbles through my chest as I throw my head back to smash the fucker’s nose in. He leans away and I buck him off of me, ready to beat the piss out of him too.

Until I see who it is. It’s Evan, and I can hear Kat screaming at him to break us up. They need to stay out of it.

“He tried to hurt her! He put his fucking hands on her!” All the boiling rage rises to the surface and I take it out on Evan. Everyone needs to stay the fuck away.

Liam deserves everything that’s coming to him.

I get one more punch in when Liam lurches for me, and his head snaps back from the blow. It lands square on his chin, and my knuckles scream from the sharp impact against his jaw. His lip splits, but it throws him off. As I lunge forward, Evan’s hand grabs my fist and he twists his body to the side, making me fall forward. He pins my arm behind my back and again grabs me, my back to his chest.

My breath comes in heavy pants and I struggle harder when I hear Jules cry out. I can’t see her, and I can’t see Liam. I shove backward, but Evan’s a strong bastard.

“Knock it off,” I hear him grit through his teeth as the sound of a car pulling up catches my attention. I lift my eyes and see the headlights, but no one gets out. No sirens. It’s not the cops… yet.

“Think about Jules,” he tells me, his breath close to the back of my neck as I push back against his grip. “It’s only about Jules, all right?” he says as I stop struggling.

I stare down at the ground, at Liam laying in the snow that’s speckled with red. He’s propped up on an elbow and on his side. In the bright streaks of light from the limo headlights, the blood shines a bright red against the pure white snow.

Liam spits, and another splash of red paints the ground.

“Mason,” Jules calls out as she runs over to me, and the second my attention goes to her, Evan releases me.

My muscles are still wound tight and ready to go off. My fists still clenched even as she runs into my chest. I kiss her hair as I hear the limo door open and far too many people—too many witnesses—gather around.

“Leave,” Evan tells me in a low voice. “It’s mine, I’ll take yours.” He nods behind me and I glance at the white stretch limo before nodding my head. The rough stubble on my chin brushes against Jules’s hair. I meet his crystal blue eyes as he says through clenched teeth, “Go! Just get the fuck out of here.”