Page 53 of Love Him Like Water

“Lore was attacked.”

“What?” I hissed, walking through the room with him.

“Elian said she ran out of the elevator, bloody and crying. That’s all he knows.”

I wasn’t walking then.

Neither was Rico.

We both ran toward the SUV, him in the driver’s seat. Which was good. Because as the panic and rage mingled in my system, there was no way I could be trusted behind the wheel.

“How bad?” I asked as Rico peeled off into traffic to a chorus of car horns and screeching tires.

“He said there was a decent amount of blood.”

“Where?”

“Her face.”

Her face?

A growl moved through me, my mind flashing with images of sweet, small, defenseless Lore out on the street and some fuck putting his hands on her.

In my fucking neighborhood.

Someone put a hand on what was mine in my neighborhood.

Rico weaved in and out of traffic before it hit a complete standstill.

“Fuck it,” I hissed, throwing open my door, flying out, and running down the street instead.

I’d never really known panic before.

I’d been born and raised in this life.

I’d been fighting and walking into dangerous fucking situations since I was in grade school.

But that was me.

This was Lore.

A woman who’d been forced into marrying me. Who hadn’t fucking asked for this. Who probably never had a hand laid on her before in her life.

Crying and bleeding.

Because I’d dragged her into my world.

It felt like a lifetime before my apartment building came into view, and I was nearly coming out of my skin waiting for the fucking elevator car to reach the top level.

Elian was already standing there, concern etched on his face.

“Why aren’t you with her?” I snarled as I pounded my fingers into the keypad on the door, fucking it up in my haste, and having to wait for it to stop blinking before I tried again.

“She doesn’t want me,” he said, maybe a bit pointedly, but I didn’t have time to dissect that shit as I threw open the door and rushed inside, eyes scanning the common space, calling out her name.

When no response came, my heart was fucking twisting in my chest as I tore up the stairs, then threw open the bedroom door.

And there she was.

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