Page 19 of Where Quiet Hearts Scream
“Look…” The fucker who’d grabbed her arm closes the distance again, towering over her. His voice thins and there’s a sinister playfulness to it. “We just want you to pass on a message is all. It’s not so hard.”
My gaze drops to her fingers. She’s curling them around each other and… they’re shaking.
I don’t think. I just step out into the sheltered pathway, startling all of them.
“Leave herthe fuckalone.” I press two fingers to mythroat. I’ve lowered my tone to great depths before, butthatsounded subterranean.
The two men swing around and tilt their chins up to face me. “This is none of your business, amigo.”
I take a step toward the men, daring them to back away, which they do, one dainty step at a time. “I’mnotyour amigo.”
“In that case…” The scrawnier of the two idiots pulls out a knife.
Fucking imbecile. I really didn’t want to have to do this here. I would rather wait until there was no one else around, slice the fucker’s blade through his throat then leave him in the ocean for the fish to feed off.
“Go back inside, Sera,” I grunt.
She scoots backward, her eyes stretched wider. Then her footsteps quicken on the gravel until she’s out of earshot.
“Go near that woman again and you’ll wind up face down swimming in your own fucking blood,” I growl.
They glare up at me with forced bravado and the taller one bears his teeth. “This has nothing to do with you, bro’. We have business to discuss with her.Importantbusiness.”
“You’re not listening to me,” I enunciate slowly, since they don’t appear to be smart. “You go near her again and I willkillyou.”
“Yeah? And who the fuck are you?” the shorter one spits. “Because you look like a nobody to me.”
I breathe steadily. “That’s my intention. When people don’t know who I am, they don’t expect this.”
In one beat of my pulse, my fists curl and my biceps brace, and I whip out a series of sharp, fast punches that have both men dropping to the floor like anchors from a ship. I barely feel the contact of my skin on theirs, though the sound of breaking bone rings satisfyingly in the still air.
Neither of them moves. They’re both out cold. Hopefully, when they come around they’ll realize “bro” was serious. What they won’t realize is how hard I pulled back from snapping both their spines.
I roll my neck, feeling the muscles crack, then pass a hand through my hair. A movement catches my eye and I turn to see Serafina staring out of a window in the hotel annex, white as a sheet, her mouth dropped open. Fuck, I wish she hadn’t seen that.
I turn to leave. I need to get out of here for good, check out early, before she can ask me too many probing questions.
But there’s something about her demeanor that stops me. In the quiet of the sheltered path I can hear her gasping breaths. She rams a hand up against the wall and rests her full weight on it, her eyes squeezed shut.
I run along the path and shove open the annex door, only registering the possibility this is where the staff accommodation must be because it’s nowhere near as luxurious as the hotel itself.
I curl my hands around her shoulders and turn her to face me. She’s white and damp, and her breathing is out of control. She’s having some kind of panic attack.
Immediately, I pull her toward me and rest myforehead on hers. With one hand I hold the back of her head, and with the other, I guide one of her hands to my chest and press her palm flat. I need to regulate her breathing before she passes out.
Sweat is pouring down the back of her neck.
“Breathe,” I whisper, firmly.
I draw in short breaths of my own, mirroring her, matching her tempo, joining her in the madness.
“Good. That’s good. Breathe.”
As our chests move in tandem and our heart rates meet, I lengthen my breaths, taking her with me.
Her hand trembles against my chest so I push my fingers through hers, trying to distract her from whatever terror is pulling her under.
“You’re doing good,” I whisper. “Slower now. That’s it.”
