Page 40 of A Dark Mafia Christmas

“You won’t do anything silly?”

I don’t respond. My pulse is racing because Mary still hasn’t come back from the restroom, and I don’t like this churning feeling in my stomach. If anyone touches her…

When I reach the corridor leading from the bar to the restrooms, Declan is standing back, hands balled into fists, elbows out and muscles pumped, which is his go-to stance. “Everything alright here?” I hear him say.

I follow his gaze and find Mary with her back to the wall, Ronan’s arms either side of her head, his body too close, preventing her from moving.

“All good here,” Ronan shoots back over his shoulder without glancing round. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

“I was speaking to the lady,” Declan says.

“Let me pass,” Mary says loudly enough for us to hear.

I’ve seen enough. I push past Declan, who doesn’t try to stop me. Grabbing the back of Ronan’s sweater, I yank him away from Mary, his beady eyes widening with surprise. I shove him across the hallway, and he crashes against the opposite wall.

Mary gasps when she realizes what’s happened.

My eyes roam her up and down, making sure that she’s not hurt. I swear if I’d found a hair out of place, I’d kill the bastard, but she gives a barely perceptible shake of her head, as if she knows what’s going on inside my head.

But Ronan recovers quickly. Without wasting a beat, he swings a punch at my face, pure hatred in his twisted expression. I dodge it easily, catching him in the gut with a swift blow. The guydoubles over, clutching his abdomen. But I’m not letting him go that easily. He made a play for my fiancée, and no one gets to do that and walk away unscathed.

I grab his shoulders and shove him back against the wall, pinning him down with my lower arm against his throat. “Go near her again, and you won’t see next Christmas.”

Ronan’s lips twist into a sinister smile. “Who rattled your cage? It was just a friendly chat.”

“Yourattled my fucking cage when you got too close to my fiancée.” I can’t even stand the sight of him, and it scares me how much I want to hurt him in the moment.

“Emmett, it’s okay.” I hear Mary’s voice from somewhere outside my subconscious. It registers, barely, that she wants me to back down, to walk away and let it go.

But the guy is obviously not prepared to go down without a fight. Maybe a fight was what he wanted all along. His body seems to go limp, and then in one fluid movement, he raises his knee and rams it straight into my groin.

“Emmett!” Mary cries out.

As I double over to contain the pain, Ronan catches my jaw with his fist, and I sprawl backwards. Mary tries to reach me, but Declan grabs her arm and holds her back.

I don’t want her to see me fighting. I don’t want this to be one of the memories she holds on to when we’re back in New York, but no one gets to touch Mary while I’m around.No one. Especially not this arrogant fucking bully who tried to destroy my cousin Oisin.

I drag myself back onto my feet, testing my jaw with my hand while Ronan watches with that smug smile on his face. Without warning, I lunge at him, my head colliding with his diaphragm. Ronan lands on his back, his skull connecting with the floor, and I drag him upright by his sweater., shoving him against the wall

Winded, he doesn’t move apart from the rise and fall of his labored breathing. Then the smile sneaks back across his face. “You should learn to control that temper. It’ll get you into trouble one day.”

The strange thing is that my temper is no longer red-hot now that he has opened his mouth. A calm has settled over me because I can see him for the slimy cowardly snake that he is. “Apologize to Mary.”

“What for?” He shoots a look Mary’s way as if searching for validation. “We were just chatting. No law against that.”

“She asked you to let her go, and you ignored her.”

“Banter.” He shrugs. “We’ve all had a drink. She didn’t mean it?—”

I aim a punch at his gut, but my arm is grabbed mid-swing by an iron fist. My dad. “Let it go, son. He isn’t worth it.”

Fianna is with him. Her gaze hops between me and Ronan, and I pray that she doesn’t go to him. Instead, she places an arm around Mary’s shoulders and we all make our way back to the table, leaving Ronan alone in the corridor.

14

MARY

Emmett is quiet in the car on the way back to the house. I can’t tell if he’s angry with me because he thinks I encouraged Ronan to flirt, or if he’s embarrassed about fighting in a pub like a teenager. We’re barely through the door when he grabs my hand and leads me upstairs.

---