Page 15 of Desperately Delicate Viper

“He saiddon’t,” I grit out between my teeth, launching myself at the man without hesitation.

I land on his back, and he shouts in surprise, letting go of Finn and spinning in an attempt to dislodge me. My brother slumps, sliding down the wall, and I wrap my arm around the fucker’s throat from behind. He claws at my arm, but with the adrenaline pumping through my veins, I can’t feel a thing other than blind, throbbing rage. I tighten my grip, and he makes a gasping sound before his knees buckle.

I come down right on top of him, the cement of the sidewalk scraping against my knees and my forearm hard enough for meto register a faint sting. I let go of his throat and grab a handful of his hair instead, yanking his head back and smashing it into the sidewalk once, twice, a third time… My chest heaves and all I can think about is destroying the person who dared to put his hands on my little brother.

“Anders,” Finn’s voice cuts through the fog of rage and I realize the man is whimpering underneath me. “Stop. Don’t kill him.”

My lungs burn, but I force myself to slow my breathing and untangle my fingers from the man’s hair.

“Fine, I won’t kill him,” I growl.

I’m shaking from head to toe as I get to my feet. I feel like I want to scream and cry and kick the shit out of this fucking loser all at once. There’s still too much of this rage inside me with nowhere to go. The thought of kissing Luca roughly, pinning him down and fucking out all this anger and adrenaline flits through my mind and heats my body. I drag in a trembling breath and force myself to focus on Finn. I hurry over to him and crouch down.

“Can you stand?” I ask, doing a quick visual assessment of him in the dark. Other than his shirt being askew, his clothes appear to all be in place, so as far as I can tell, I got here before anything horrible could happen.

He nods and then pushes against the wall, trying and failing to get to his feet. I grab his arm and help him up.

“There you go,” I say softly, slipping under his arm to keep him steady.

Five years younger than me and a good head taller. Finn has outweighed me by a good fifty to a hundred pounds since his mid-teen years, but that’s never stopped me from feeling protective of him. He’s too sweet for all this shit.

“Thanks, Annie,” he mumbles, and I chuckle.

“You know you’re the only person I wouldn’t fight for calling me that, right?”

“Mm-hmm,” he hums and chuckles, leaning into me and letting me lead him out from between the buildings.

I stop under the first light and cast my eyes around in search of my phone. I don’t see anything though.

“Fuck,” I groan. “Some asshole stole my phone.”

“Hmmph,” Finn grumbles.

“Yeah, exactly,” I mutter. “Fuck, I should probably get you to the hospital. Who knows what that loser slipped you.”

“Hospital’s expensive,” he argues.

I sigh. “I know, but…” I bite down on my already tender lip and consider the options. I could stay here with him tonight to keep an eye on him. Of course, that means missing out on a night of work, plus however much I end up having to shell out for a new phone too. Either way, this is going to be an expensive night.

The sound of footsteps has me tensing. Finn lifts his head and smiles.

“Regg, there you are.” He tries to stumble away from me to greet the two dudes coming down the sidewalk towards us.

“Fuck, there you are. We’ve been trying to find you for half an hour.” Regg, or whatever his name is, hurries the last few steps to catch Finn before he can fall.

“You his friends?” I ask, glaring at each of them.

“Yeah,” the other one answers.

“Where the fuck were you? That prick had his hands…” I bite down on the inside of my cheek and wave towards the alley, unable to bring myself to say what exactly he was trying to do to my brother.

For their part, they both look stricken.

“Shit,” Regg mutters.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” the other dude growls.

I wave them off. “It’s been taken care of. I’m just trying to decide whether he needs the hospital or just some sleep before he wakes up with the worst hangover of his life.”

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