Page 57 of Her Drag Barbarian

For a second, I see the confusion in his eyes, like he can’t understand why one of the queens is down here.

In the next second I wrenched his arm, twisting his wrist in my hands, forcing him to drop the gun as I felt the bones shatter under my grip.

I can’t help quickly flicking my eyes over to El, to make sure she’s OK.

But who would have thought Rupert would have hired someone competent for once? Like some goddamn circus performer, in the second my eye goes to El, he turns and there’s a knife in his other hand. He stabs me, putting the force of his whole body behind the blow.

I try to turn, but I’m too slow. His knife rips through my upper arm. The pain was like a jagged excruciating tear on my skin, but I had twisted fast enough so that I was most worried that it was going to be a bitch to get the blood out of my outfit.

I twisted and kicked the grunt sharply, knocking him off his balance. With my other hand I twisted his arm and I heard that bone shatter as he started to crumple.

The knife fell from his hand, clattering noisily on the floor, and I saw Elowyn reach down and snatch it. She straightened up and stabbed him in the chest, dragging the knife down and opening him up from his shoulder to his belly.

It wasn’t deep enough to kill him, but it was damn impressive anyways.

He staggered and slumped into a chair, his eyes closing.

And El darted forward and stabbed himagain, her arm sure and unyielding, and I heard his moan of submission even as Rupert Bartholomew-Buxton’s screams echoed around my skull.

I snatched El back, my heart singing.

“Stop it!” I said firmly, and she did.

I held her against my chest and reached for my phone to call the cops to get these stupid jackasses out of here, and I could feel her heart pounding, that hand that held the knife not trembling at all.

33

ELOWYN

“Iam retiring from being an unhinged psycho,” Beau said as I looked critically at the selection of organic tomatoes at the farmer’s market.

“Since when?” I retorted. “You literally bit me last night like some kind of deranged vampire. I have a huge bruise on my neck to prove it.”

I put the tomatoes down with a sniff. Tomatoes seemed gross all of a sudden. Or maybe it was that I had felt a little off all day. Then I turned to him, flicking my long braid to the side and pulling down the neck of my dress.

I heard the sharp intake of his breath as he saw a bit of the curve of my shoulder and he put one big finger gently on the marks of his savage lust.

“There can only be one psycho in a relationship,” he returned. “And after your little stabbing rampage, you are it. So therefore I am retiring the crown.”

“That wasn’t arampage!You make it sound like I stabbed everyone in the club. That was self-defense!” I protested. “He had literallyjustattacked you.”

“Yes, thefirsttime you stabbed him was self-defense,” Beau agreed. “But why did you stab him thesecondtime? When he was already slumped in a chair?”

I hesitated. But what was the point of lying to him? I looked up and met Beau’s eyes.

“Because that’s what happens when someone touches what’s mine,” I said evenly.

I saw his lips curve up in a smile, but he said severely, “Good thing we will be getting married because you can’t be trusted in polite society.”

“Psh,” I said, but my heart started to beat faster.

I looked away to hide my blush, and then saw Liam and Nate, strolling arm in arm near the herbs. I waved at them and they waved back. Beau didn’t even see them. He only had eyes for me.

“I just need a suit,” he said.

“I hope you’re notjustgoing to wear a suit,” I countered. “You can wear that little white minidress too.”

He snorted. “Your fashion sense is atrocious,” he said severely. “I’d get a whole new dress for the wedding, and not a minidress. Good God.”

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