Page 94 of Call You Mine

“Wynter, is everything okay? Where are you?” I hear another voice in the background. Shit, of course she’s with him, and now she has not only to come to my rescue, but she has to lie to Ace about it because I can’t face my brother with the truth, not yet.

“I need your help, Scarlett. Please…” I mutter before my voice cracks completely, new tears streaming down my cheeks.

“Wynter, what’s going on? You're scaring me?”

“Give me the phone,” I hear Ace demand, followed by a rustling sound in the background.

I hold my breath as I try to cover up the sound of my crying. “I need your help. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“No,” my brother shouts back as he takes the phone. In the distance, Scarlett mutters something I can’t understand, but he shushes her before speaking. “We’re on our way to you. Where are you Wynter?”

It’s no use trying to hide it from him. I doubt he’ll allow her to come to my rescue unless he’s coming with her. “The Silver Wolf,” I say, making one last plea I know they’ll ignore. “Please, Scarlett, come alone…” is the last thing I say before the line goes quiet and I click to cancel my Uber.

I anxiously pace back and forth down the empty street. It’s past one in the morning and although I should have locked up the bar, I can’t go back now. I’m sure Damon will figure it out and I’m actually relieved he hasn’t come to follow, surely because he can’t leave the establishment unlocked. He’s probably on the phone with Jade, trying to figure out where she hides the spare key.

Five minutes come and dread fills me when I hear the crunching of gravel behind me.

“Get your ass back to the bar Wynter,” Damon demands, and I don’t know why, but it only makes me angrier. “You can’t be out here by yourself.”

“Go fuck yourself, Damon,” I snarl, crossing my arms over my chest as I shiver in the cold, wearing only my mini skirt and vomit-stained cropped t-shirt.

Just as he places a hand on my waist to tug me toward him, the shrill sound of tires burning rubber on the concrete blares as a car, my brother’s car, comes to a screeching halt right before us. Fuck, I should have known he wouldn’t have let her come alone.

Ace leaps out of the car, not bothering to shut off the engine or even close the driver door—luckily he shifted the gear into park—before hauling ass to where Damon stands beside me, with his hand digging into my waist.

Scarlett throws open the passenger side door, now eight months pregnant and struggling to get out. “I’m sorry Wynter, I tried. He wouldn’t let me leave without him.”

Everything happens so fast, for a few moments I’m not even sure it’s real. In the blink of an eye, Ace rushes Damon, slamming his fist against his jaw like a fucking madman. Ace gets him good, the element of surprise on my brother’s side, but only momentarily, before Damon snaps back to his senses. Inthe next second, Damon is back on his feet, tackling Ace down into the bushes behind us.

There’s a loud scream, only I’m not sure if it’s Scarlett or I who let it out first.

Punches fly back and forth, the sound of teeth crunching and blood spewing from their mouths as they beat on one another like savage animals. My brother can hold his own in any other fight, but against Damon, he’s truly outgunned. Damon is a fucking beast, and there’s just something that comes over him when he’s this worked up, like he becomes possessed by the demons of his childhood and past.

“Ace, stop,” Scarlett shrieks as she rushes over to them, but I block her, not letting her put herself or my future niece or nephew in any danger.

“No, Scarlett, please get back in the car,” I shout out, grabbing her arm, but the stubborn bitch shakes her head, though she isn’t completely stupid when she snaps out of it and steps back.

Though I can’t say the same for myself. “Stop both of you,” I cry out as I foolishly try to step in between the rabid dogs on attack. They’re back on their feet, blood spilling from both their mouths as they eagerly try to outdo one another. They’re both feral, fighting like they’ve been trained to. In a sense, they were—at least Ace was. Trained by our father like a soldier, while Damon trained himself like a militant with all the cage fights he got into in the past.

“For fucks sake, stop!” I shriek one last time before I'm silenced. The air is completely sucked out of me when a rogue fist knocks me to the ground on my ass. I hear Scarlett’s loud gasp first, the moment my ass hits the pavement, but the searing pain on my jaw numbs the pain of what certainly is going to be a bruised pair of cheeks.

Ace is the first to react. “You motherfucking son of a bitch,” he shouts, as he rushes over to me, but Damon stands frozen like a fucking statue when he discovers what he’s done.

It was his fist that knocked me down. Of course it was, it would be ironic if it hadn’t been, since he’s already made me feel worse suffering with his words and rejection.

But Damon doesn’t react or say a damn thing. What is there to say, really? He laid a hand on me, not intentionally, but because his rage blinded him—something he’s always feared losing control of. My brother isn't innocent in all this. It could have just as easily been Ace’s fist, who smashed into me. I guess Damon and I are just unluckier than we’d thought.

The look of horror in Damon’s eyes as he stares at me and my swelling cheek—which I’m sure is already turning purple as I feel the blood pulsing within me—renders me speechless. Pain, excruciating pain, threatens to blind me, to knock me down further until I’m a meaningless pile of flesh and bones laid out on the concrete for him to step on.

It’s not just the physical pain from the hit, but the pained look in his eyes. The sorrow and regret that’s going to eat up at his soul until there’s nothing left because he’s bruised me—painted me just as purple and blue as when I first arrived at his doorstep seeking his protection.

My protector has turned into my assailant—at least in his eyes, although that’s the farthest from the truth.

“You’ll stay the fuck away from her, Drake,” Ace shouts out, bringing me back to reality. “Or I promise I’ll fucking murder you myself.”

Damon’s eyes never once leave mine, even when I know at any other time he’d fight back against my brother’s threats. The rivalry between them was stronger than I first imagined, but these last few weeks, things had gotten somewhat better. They'd been cordial, and although Ace hadn’t accepted the relationship,he thought Damon and I were in. He’d stopped insulting it to patch up our strained relationship. Especially since I’d done the same to repair my relationship with his wife.

“Ace, please, let’s just go,” Scarlett begs, one hand cradling her stomach as the other tugs at her husband. If anything were to happen to Scarlett or the baby because of this, my brother will never forgive me.

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