Page 149 of The Bad Wedding Date

Please don’t do this,begged another much weaker voice as the men held the material over my mouth.

Something kicked in, and I found one last ounce of strength to pull the cloth from my mouth enough to suck in a gasp of air, and just when I heard the man growl at me for being a little bitch, something else shifted. I heard a thud, like skin meeting skin. The creep’s grip on me loosened, and my limp body rolled from side to side until another, much stronger arm curled around my waist in such a familiar way, it reminded me of the man I loved.

Looking up at the night sky, disorientated, I whispered his name, “Fraser.”

Then, my eyes closed, not knowing where I was or if I’d make it out alive.

50

Fraser

Icaught her with one arm just before she fell, her body curling into mine like it had missed me. The man on the ground next to me grunted and groaned as Dean dealt with him in a matter of seconds, knocking him clean out.

Joey had already launched himself into the front of the car and taken care of the driver, his elbow slamming into the guy’s throat so his limbs turned to jelly.

Ray manned the passenger side door at the back of the black limo, making sure the fucker inside couldn’t escape and run for his sorry life while I was distracted.

Distracted by her, as I had been from the start.

Charlotte’s eyes were closed when I looked down at her beautiful face, and it hit me how, despite all the dreams and memories I’d had in the last two months, not one of them had done her justice. Whatever it was about her that called to me before, now it screamed. So did the rage roaring inside my veins at the sight of her out cold thanks to whatever the fuck that guy had just used to sedate her with.

Scooping Charlotte up in both arms, I became desperate to press my mouth to hers to just feel her again, but I couldn’t do it. We’d parted on bad terms—her terms—and I wasn’t doing a damn thing to her without her permission.

That didn’t stop me from curling her body towards mine and whispering in her ear, “I’m so fucking sorry, baby. No one will ever hurt you again. Especially not me. You’re going to be okay, I promise.”

I turned and handed her to Wade, who waited behind me. I hated passing her over, but there was something else I had to do. Something I couldn’t pass on again. Not if I wanted her to be safe for the rest of her life, whether that life involved me or not.

“We were too late,” I growled.

“He didn’t have her for long. The drugs should wear off soon.” Wade took her in his arms as though she weighed nothing. “She’ll be okay.”

“She’d better be, or so help me God.”

I balled my hands into fists, ready to turn the city to rubble, watching as Charlotte’s head rolled against Wade’s chest when it should have been my body she curled into for comfort, but I couldn’t focus on that just yet.

The guy on the ground groaned, his face a bloody mess and face down on the pavement as Dean panted and looked up at me, wiping at the corner of his mouth and shoving his knee into the guy’s back.

“Ready when you are,” he said with a grin.

On cue, Joey dragged the driver out of the car, dumping his limp body next to the other guy’s before slamming the car door shut. “All good here, too.”

Looking over the roof of the limo, I caught Ray’s serious gaze.

He had me covered. The bastard inside the limo wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I leaned down to the open car door and looked inside to see him sitting there, cornered, his face pale and his old hands rattling at the handle that wouldn’t open.

When he saw me, his eyes widened, and he stopped all his futile efforts to escape.

I climbed into the backseat of the limo, closed the door to the outside world, and I turned to face him with murder in my eyes.

“I think it’s time you and I had a little chat, Matteo, don’t you?”

Before he could open his mouth to speak, I slammed my fist into his face and then sat back to watch him bleed. His hand flew to his nose, a string of words I couldn’t understand falling from him in both curse and horror. His eyes watered, and spit foamed at the corners of his mouth as he blinked rapidly and dared to look at me again.

Raising my brows, I threw an arm over the back of the car seat and leaned in. “If I could hit you for every time you made a pass at a woman who didn’t want you, or you touched something that didn’t belong to you, or you even looked in their direction to make them feel uncomfortable, I would,” I said, my voice low. “But you’re the kind of coward who would fall unconscious after a handful of punches, and I want you awake when I break you.”

“You’re going to pay for this,” he groaned, only for me to reach over, grab his throat and yank him towards me without much effort.

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