Page 36 of Property of Azrael

I don’t think, I just swing. My fist connects with his face, knocking him back against the couple behind him. He adjusts his nose with his hand, an audible crack coming from the movement. He shoves forward, charging toward me, his arms grasping me around my middle. A quick elbow to the back of his head sends him stumbling back until he falls on his ass with a hard thump. He cries out, but shifts upright enough that I have a clear shot. I rear back again, but a hand clasps around my fist. I look over to see Van, who shakes his head at me.

“You have an audience, and they all have camera phones,” he mutters, nodding toward the crowd that has gathered around us. “This needs to stop. Now.”

I glare down at the fucker, blood dripping from his nose and onto his shirt. He deserves more than just a broken nose, but it’ll have to do for now until things are a little less crowded. Van releases me, but stays at my side.

“You good?” he asks.

“Fine,” I growl. Crouching down to the fuckface on the floor, I gaze over the crowd, scanning for the direction of where the phones are before I return my attention back to the asshole.

“You so much as look in her direction for the rest of the event, you’ll be leaving with something worse than a broken nose.”

Forcing myself up, I leave him there, Van hot on my heels as we head to the table, where a long line has formed. I watch from a distance as Hallie chats with a reader, one of her books cradled in her arms. The smile on Hallie’s face fades when she looks at me. Raising her eyebrow in concern, I shake my head back at her. Now isn’t the time to talk about my altercation. Hesitantly, she turns back to the reader, but peers over at me a few more times.

“What the fuck was that about, Az?” Van hisses.

“Fucker ran his mouth.” That’s all I offer, the details needing to go no further than with me. If he or the other guys knew what he said, Van wouldn’t have stopped me, and we’d be in a world of other kinds of trouble if he hadn’t. “Call our nerdy friend. I need her to scrub whatever videos end up online.”

“Can do. What about him?”

“Find out who he is and monitor him. I have a feeling this isn’t over, and I want to know if he’s here alone or with friends.”

“On it.” He turns to go. “You better get back to Hallie.”

I leave Van to his tasks and join Hallie at her table. She’s busy signing a book when Fox moves out of the extra chair and offers it to me. The reader prattles on about the story while Hallie finishes personalizing the book. She hands it back with a bookmark and a sticker.

“Can I get a picture with you both?” the girl asks. Hallie peers over at me, but I shake my head.

“He’s camera shy,” Hallie giggles nervously. “But I’d love to.”

She shifts around the table and hands me the phone. I snap the photo and hand it back to the reader, who thanks us and moves on to the next table.

“What happened to getting drinks?” Hallie whispers in my ear as the next reader moves up to the front of the line.

“Too long of a line,” I lie. “I’ll go back when things calm down.” I hate lying to her, but there’s going to be things she can’t know about the club life, especially if for some godforsaken reason, this thing between us is a short-term thing.

The event goes smoothly, with Hallie’s books flying off the table. My girl beams with pride at the sight of her books going out into the world.

“I can’t believe how busy I’ve been,” she remarks when there’s a lull in the line. “Seriously. I didn’t have a single pre-sale. I don’t know how this happened.” I smile over at her. “Wait, what did you do?”

I bring up the Facebook group for the event on my phone and show her what I had posted while she was getting ready this morning. A picture of one of her paperbacks was open in my lap, with one of her spicier scenes underlined.

“You did this?” She snatches the phone from my hand. “Oh my god, you really did.”

“A bet’s a bet, baby, and I don’t play to lose. Not when my prize is seeing you sitting on a beach in a bikini for the next five days.”

“I don’t own a bikini,” she fires back.

“I’ll buy you one when we get there.”

Hallie hands back my phone, but points to the small stack of books still sitting at her table. “You haven’t won yet.”

“They won’t be there for long, baby. Email your boss now, because by tomorrow night, we’ll be sitting on a Mexican beach.”

She goes to argue, but a reader approaches, pulling her attention away.

The next two hours tick by, and as the event draws to a close, a single book is left on the table, the second in her series. I’d tried like hell to sell it, even offering Fox or Orion as a package deal for a date—unbeknownst to them, as they were trolling the room—but the few readers that straggled in at the last minute were only interested in the free swag on her table.

“Three minutes to go before the event ends, and it appears there’s still a paperback on my table, Az.”

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