Page 39 of Release You

“This shit’s been sitting in the fridge for a week. Get the lady a whiskey. Hey. The good stuff,” Scott said to thebartender.

The bartender pulled a bottle off the shelf, set two actually clean glasses in front of us, and poured.

I took a small sip. “Oh wow, that’s strong.” I patted his rather average arm, not small but not muscular either. Henry could beat this guy to a pulp if he wanted to.

Stop thinking about him.

“Never seen you here before.” He got closer and his stale beer breath blew in my face.

“It’s my first time. I met some friends on Mill Avenue. They said this place was fun.” I shrugged and wrinkled my nose. “Looks dead, though.”

He laughed, a real laugh, as he relaxed against the counter and glanced over his shoulder toward Dom and Henry. “Looks like my friend got cold feet too. Wanna get out of here? No reason why this should be a bust for both of us.”

I licked my lips, followed by a slow blink. “I don’t know. I should wait for my friend a little longer.” My watch buzzed signaling the end of the time I’d set.

If I didn’t get Scott out of here, Dom would make a move. The bartender fidgeted with a rag while his gaze shifted from the door to Dom on the other side of the window. Something wasn’t right.

“If you’re looking for fun, I can show you fun.” He turned his back to the bartender.

I tilted the glass of whiskey and downed the rest of it. I shook my head and blew out a breath. “Okay. Let’s do it. But we’re taking my car. I don’t want to leave it here.”

“Whatever you want, beautiful.” His gaze dropped to my cleavage.

“Thank you, handsome.” I smiled at the ground. Scott snaked his arm around my waist. I leaned in closer to him, tripping over my feet on purpose. “Oops.” I placed my hand over his chest. He squared his shoulders while his heartbeat quickened.No doubt he thought we were getting it on in the parking lot.Gag.

When we walked out of the bar, he was so full of anticipation he didn’t notice Henry’s glare and fisted hands. I glanced at Dom and pursed my lips. He moved to the side and blocked Henry from our view.

“Give me the keys, sweetheart.” The asshole was ready to have sex with me and hadn’t even bothered to ask my name.

“This is brand new. I’mdriving.” I slid past him, and he gripped my arm, taking a whiff of me like he wanted to eat me.

“Fuck. You’re hot. Get in the car.”

I flashed him a smile, jiggling the keys before I climbed in on the driver’s side. I turned on the ignition, put the car in reverse, and pulled out of the parking lot. The minute we were outside the bright lights of the parking lot, his hands were on my leg.

“Where to, handsome?” I slammed on the brakes.

He looked around. Shit. He was familiar with the area. He sat back to adjust his pants. “Take a right up ahead.”

I giggled, hitting the accelerator hard, checking all my mirrors. “I’ve never done this before.”

Gravel crunched under the Tesla tires when I turned onto the empty street. God, I hoped Dom was right behind us. This guy was about to combust.

“Here’s good.” He pointed to an empty lot.

“Where’s the bar?” I ducked to see where we were.

Shit. It was so dark out here. An adrenaline rush killed the small buzz I had from the whiskey. We were all alone. He’d made sure of that. His friends weren’t coming, and just in case mine weren’t either, I had to act quick.

He threw his body weight across the console and swiped the cord along my neck with his tongue. Gross. “You taste like fucking strawberries,” he mumbled.

Letting out a giggle, I reached in the door compartment where I kept my Taser. He reached for his pants again. It was now or never. I squeezed the Taser handle and shocked him right in the crotch. His eyes went wide as he clenched his jaw. He turned to me, looking at me as if he couldn’t believe what I’d just done to him. Why did they always look so surprised?

I pushed him off me and reached in the glove compartment for a disinfecting wipe to clean the slobber off my neck. One second he sat in my passenger seat frozen, his eyeballs shifting from side to side, and the next he was being dragged behind Henry across the gravel. Making quick work of the wipe, I got out of the Tesla with a death-grip on my Taser. Dom strolled to the trunk of his SUV and popped it open, cool and calm, like he’d done this a million times.

Henry on the other hand was breathing fire. I’d never seen him like that, jaw clenched, deep furrows on either side of his mouth and across his forehead. He leaned Scott against the trunk and punched him. The bone-on-bone cracking sound made me step back. Scott fell in a heap, kissing the gravel next to Henry’s feet.

“You okay?” Dom put his arm around me.

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