Page 114 of Forged By Sacrifice

“For fuck’s sake, you know that’s not what I meant.”

“I wasn’t meeting with him. Remember, I was meeting with Russell.”

“Well, where the hell is Russell?” I asked, my anger suddenly directed at another male body.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He never showed.”

My left hand was going to be as bruised as my right when I was done with Russell.

“How the hell did you get in Fenway’s company?”

“He stopped the elevator and got in before I even registered it was him.”

The goddamn audacity of him. To take advantage of her in a fucking elevator.

“Good. We’ll have it all on tape,” I said.

She snorted. “You really think that his flunkies haven’t already confiscated it?”

When we got back to the apartment, she went to her bathroom and closed the door, and I called Granddad first and then Dad. Asshole senator and his flunkies could fucking take a flying leap. They’d messed with the wrong goddamn family.

By the time I’d explained what had happened to Dad and Granddad, and they’d gone into kill-a-senator mode, Dani had emerged from her room in a layer of pajamas that made me want to scream again. She hadn’t asked for this shit. My whip-smart sister needed to be flaunting her kickass body and taking names, not hiding.

“What do you need?” I asked.

“Nothing. I just don’t want to be alone with my own thoughts. Are you going to ice that?” she asked, turning on the TV and mindlessly flipping through the channels.

I looked down at my raw knuckles, feeling them for the first time.

I grabbed an ice pack for me and another for her. I handed her one as I joined her on the couch, pulling her feet onto my lap. She hissed when she placed it on her face, and I wasn’t sure if the tears that coated her lashes were because of the pain or the entire night.

Once she’d fallen asleep, I continued to field texts from my family. It was after two before I started to worry about another woman in my life, my thoughts drifting back to Malik’s constant sniffs, and Georgie’s and Raisa’s bodies in dresses that showed more skin than they covered.

They shouldn’t have to cover anything. Goddamn men in this world needed to learn to keep their penises to themselves. To not eye every woman as if they were theirs. To just show some freaking respect.

I texted Georgie first, and when I didn’t get a response, I called. It went directly to voicemail, and I gave up being calm. I paced the apartment. Calling the cops was out of the question. They’d laugh at me. I was tempted to call in some more favors with Dad and the DoD, but I also tried not to overreact. There were multiple reasons why she might not be picking up.

It was a little after four before the door clicked open, and I turned, irritation ready to fly from me, and then I saw her face. She was full of her own emotions. Anger and tears and sadness. And for a moment, I thought maybe she’d already heard about Dani, but then I realized there was no possible way for her to know.

Georgie’s emotions were from something entirely different.

I crossed the room and swept her into my arms and held on tight with my face pressed against her hair. “God, I’ve been worried sick.”

She squeezed me back, hugging me as tightly as I was holding her. And then, she was crying. The second woman in my life to be in tears that night. Georgie’s tears were quiet, wracking her body, and I had to swallow hard because I was so close to losing it myself. To shedding tears that I hadn’t shed in a very long time.

I held on to her. Swimming in her emotions. Swimming in mine. Unable to soothe either of us.

“Are you hurt?” I finally asked.

“I’m not hurt,” she said quietly.

I loosened my grip on her and pulled her chin so I could see her eyes and read the truth there. “I’m not hurt,” she repeated, and she took in my own face and seemed to read the concern that lingered there.

“I’m so sorry I worried you. I…I couldn’t call.”

I went to drag her down the hall, but she resisted. “Can we step outside?” She nodded her head toward the balcony.

I looked at her, confused, and it seemed to make her sadder somehow.

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