Page 46 of Left of the Slash
“Oh, now I'm back to being Q?” I snip as my frustration starts to take over. “And it’s not fine. You think I’d stand by and let them disrespect you? I know we’re just fucking around or whatever, but you should at least be paying enough attention to know me better than that.”
“I'm sorry,” she says empathetically. “You're absolutely right, but there are two of them, Q.”
“And there's only one of you,” I answer. “Only one person worth fighting for. One person worth protecting. One person worth going absolutely ape shit over. Two of them makes no difference when you're my one.”
Olivia’s hand drops from mine as she looks at me like she's startled. Her eyes fixate on my face and don't move, but my attention shifts as I turn around and face the standing Jed, who’s trying to stare me down. I almost laugh. He's trying to intimidate me, but I see the fear in his eyes as he glares at me. The second I react, he’s going to act like the victim. That’s fine. I'm going to make him one.
“You really want to do this?” I ask him as I set my feet squarely on the floor. “You want to stand up and defend your friend, knowing he was crossing the line with what’s mine?”
Olivia’s eyes threaten to burn a hole in my flesh, but I ignore the searing pain. Even when she says, “Quinn.” I don't care.
“You can see it how you want to, bro,” Simon says like a voiceover as I watch Jed. “So, do we have a fucking problem? Because I’m not disrespecting Olivia by saying she's the best I ever had and that she taught me how to be a Dom. Maybe you're an insecure prick. Olivia, you better talk to him before he gets himself hurt.”
“Quinn,” Olivia says again, but I stop her there.
“Don't even think to try to stop me,” I say without looking at her. “Because you want to be taken care of. Don't you?”
I hear Olivia gasp as my words from the first day we ever hooked up come back to her, reminding her who I am and what I'm here to do. She may have forgotten over our time together, but I haven't. So no matter what she says, I'm not budging. This is why I'm here.
Olivia swallows hard, then she answers. “Yes.”
“Good,” I say quickly. “Then sit there and let me take care of you. If Jed here is smart, he’ll sit down, too. Otherwise, he’ll get knocked down.”
Like a movie playing in slow motion, Jed’s index finger sticks out and jabs me in the shoulder. “You're not going to do sh—”
I see it all happen like I'm not me. It’s an out-of-body-experience when my dark devil takes full control of my limbs. I become a puppet, and the darkness is pulling all of the strings. So I'm only watching when I reach up and grab his finger, twisting and pushing it backward until I hear the bone snap, and I see the moment I grab the neck of Jed’s beer bottle and bring the glass crashing down on the crown of his skull. As he collapses onto himself, I stand up and backhand Simon before he can even get out of his seat. He falls off of it but grabs onto the stranger next to him to keep himself upright, and he manages to stay on his feet. As he steadies himself and prepares to swing, I lift my hand and reveal the half broken bottle still in my hand. I point it at him, the jagged edge only inches from his nose, and he quickly comes to his senses, freezing in place.
“Good boy,” I say to him as his eyes cross to look at the glass hovering by his nostrils. “You're a Dom? Because you're looking much more like a submissive now. Move an inch, and you'll never be able to sniff Jed’s asshole again.”
I stand there with my weapon, holding it in place as the entire bar watches us on the edge of their seats. I don't even realize what I'm doing until I feel Olivia’s hand on my arm.
“Quinn, we have to go,” she says quietly. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
I steal another moment staring at Simon, making sure I've put the fear of God in him before I finally allow Olivia to pull me by the waist. I walk backward until I'm a few feet away from Jed’s unconscious body, then I drop the glass onto the floor and lead my woman out of the bar by her hand.
TWENTY-SEVEN - Olivia
“Quinn,” I say as he drags me out of the bar, his feet moving with no intention of slowing down even after we’re beneath the twinkling stars of a cloudless night sky. My mind races like a derailing train, and I have to snatch my arm away from him once we’re in the parking lot. “Q, stop!” He finally manages to bring himself to a stop, but he keeps his back to me. I can see him breathing hard from here, and when I walk around to his front, fury is still visible on his face like war paint, but I don't care. He isn't the only one who is mad in this situation. “What was that in there? Have you lost your mind?”
Q’s eyes narrow as he makes himself look at me, his angry gaze not softening a bit.
“Me? Have I lostmymind? What about you? Talking to those motherfuckers in front of me like my presence meant nothing. Letting this prick bring up shit from the time you and him weretogether. What did you expect from me? You thought I wouldn't react? As if I didn't break the law to protect you already. As if I haven't assaulted a motherfucker already. I haven't lost anything except for my sense of control when it comes to you, but you're the one who has lost your mind.”
I slam my hand up to my chest. “Me? I'm not the one bashing people’s heads in with beer bottles in the middle of a packed bar, Quinn! I'm level-headed.”
“No, you're not, Olivia,” he barks. “You talk to me about my dad, as if that’s not deeper than just sex. You hype me up, telling me that I need to be who I truly am on the inside, as if that won’t linger after you're gone. You support me, but try to cover it up by ignoring me at work, but that’s now how it works! Thinking that you could be perfect but somehow undesirable is just dumb. So you're the one who’s crazy if you think I could do all of this with you and somehow not care about you.”
“I told you the rules when we started.”
“I don't give a fuck about rules!” he screams loud enough for his voice to echo into the night like a gunshot. “How have you not picked up on that yet? I'm not going to sit there and let some asshole disrespect your wishes for him to stop talking, or disrespect me like that. Calling me homeboy and shit. You think I don't know what that shit means coming fromhim? There isn't a bone in my body that wouldeverallow something like that. Not ever, but especially not now. When it comes to disrespect, there are no rules. It’s the same when it comes to you, and I don't give a fuck if you don't like it. This is how it is.”
Quinn dismisses me with a wave and tries to walk away as if we’re done here. His car is parked just a few spots away from us, but mine is nestled in the back of the lot, further away from the building. As he tries to get away, I wrap my fingers around his wrist and start pulling him to my car … toward the darkness in the corner of the lot.
“Let go of me, Olivia,” he growls, but I ignore him until we reach my car. Now that we’re farther away from Wonderland, I don't have to worry about people sticking their heads out of the door and watching us argue.
“Listen to me,” I say, pointing my finger at Quinn. Considering what I just saw him to do Jed’s finger, I make sure to keep mine at a safer distance. “You don't get to tell me thatthis is how it is. I toldyouin the beginning how it was going to be, and you don't get to change the rules now that we’ve fucked a few times. Alright? You don't get to call me your girl in the fucking bar the way you did tonight. Did you think I didn't notice that? You did it multiple times, Quinn, and I let it slide when I shouldn't have. You know what I'm about, so don't ruin what we’ve started. You don't own me.”
“Bullshit,” he snips. His intense gaze focuses on me and makes me forget the rest of the world as he takes a step closer. “You let it slide? That’s fucking nonsense, Olivia, and you know it. You let me say what I wanted to in there because you liked it. You put up this front, acting like you're so closed off and cold that nothing can get through, but you're not impenetrable. You like when I call you mine. You like that I protect you, and you like that I hurt those motherfuckers just as much as I do, because you know that I did it in defense of you. Stop lying to yourself.”
