Page 7 of Beautiful Sinners

“Syn, fuck. Stop!”

He tries to flip our positions, and I bring my knee up from under his arm, clipping the side of his jaw. His glasses fly off his face and skitter across the polished wood boards.

Arms wrap around me and pull, but I fight it, too lost in the darkness. They took Constantine from me. My broken angel with the dark eyes. My safe place. My heart.

“Syn, baby, let go.”

A Bostonian lilt teases my ears as I increase the pressure against Evan’s neck.

“Red, let him go.”

Evan’s blunt nails dig into my skin, his face turning a purplish shade of red.

“Firefly.”

The subtle British accent I used to hate whispers to me, however, it’s the guttural, raspy “Aoife” that has my head jerking up.

Tristan and Hendrix are lowered beside me on the floor, their hands pulling at my shoulders and arms, urging me to release Evan. But it’s the one man standing in front of me who I thought I had lost forever that has me bursting into tears.

Constantine is beaten and bruised, his face and left eye swollen, his lip puffy where a dark scab mars the corner. I’ve never seen anything more wonderful in my entire life. I’m off the floor like a hurricane and hurtling myself into his arms, a mess of uncontrollable, ugly sobs.

He catches me easily. I bury my face in his neck and wrap my entire body around him.

“I thought I lost you.”

“Never,” he whispers, holding me tight.

“Get away from her,” Hendrix says and pins Evan to the wall.

Tristan’s hand settles on the back of my neck as he walks around Constantine, and I peer up at him, not able to see him clearly through the tears, but I do make out several bruises on his face. His head tilts in a contemplative manner as he stares into my eyes, searching for something. Searching forher. It’s something I can’t deal with right now. It’s too raw. Too real. Too painful. And I’ve had enough heartbreak for one day.

“I had to piss. I saw her leave the room, and when I tried to—”

“Don’t give a shit. You don’t fucking touch her. Ever.”

Evan coughs when Hendrix shoves him away, and I hear the scrape of his glasses across the floor as he picks them up.

I don’t question why my lab TA is here, still not knowing exactly where in the hell here is. Evan’s mysterious presence is on the bottom of my list of things to ask about.

“Cotton will want to check her out,” Evan says.

Hendrix nudges Tristan out of the way and runs his thumb under my eye to catch my tears.

“No doctor,” I say.

“She really needs to let someone—”

I jump when Hendrix booms, “When she’s fucking ready!”

“Jesus, fine, fuck. I’ll let Cillian know she’s awake.”

Muffled footsteps pad down the hallway until they disappear completely.

“Red.” A hand smooths down my hair.

“What happened?” I murmur against Constantine’s skin as he carries me back inside the bedroom.

Aleksei was going to shoot Constantine. His finger was about to pull the trigger. Everything after that moment is a whirlwind of confused madness that I can’t quite wrap my mind around.

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