Page 5 of Silver Fox
Sure enough, staff are soon reorganizing the empty tables and laying out cups. A crowd starts to form, but I remain on the bar, watching as they’re split by gender. It’s entertaining enough to watch, even if I’m not in the mood to get involved.
The music’s pumping in my ears and I let myself get lost in the music. By my fourth Bellini, I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty good. Good, but my bladder is crying out at the sudden downpour. I hop off my seat, smiling as the bartender puts my drink behind the bar to watch. Dammit, I’m going to give her a good tip.
I follow the restroom signs down a quieter corridor of the bar.
Oh god.
I knew there was something wrong with this place. Instead of simpleMenandWomensigns on the restroom doors, they decided to get creative.
The men’s door saysBLA.
The women’s door saysBLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLA.
My lips twist in disgust. Have I been transported back,Outlanderstyle, to the 1970s? Is Jamie Fraser with Bee Gees style hair about to pop out and—?
I yelp out in shock as someone grabs me from behind, and suddenly there’s a punishing grip on my wrist and Brett’s white-hot rage staring down at me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
He shoves me up against the wall, and I’m reminded of the start of our relationship, where I refused to move in with him unless he went to anger management classes. Grimacing at the alcohol on his breath, I try my strength against his, but there’s no competition.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask how he found me, but the answer comes just as quickly. We installed the Find My Friends appagesago so he could put dinner in the oven for me when I was leaving work and vice versa.
Goddammit. Those dinners werenotworth it.
“I told you before. It’s over.”
He gets in my face, and I hope to god that he’s showered. “I say it’s not over.”
“You fucked my sister. What did you expect? I’m not going to take that lying do—”
Brett shakes me against the wall, his enormous hand wrapping around my throat and my skull bouncing off the brickwork. “I said you arenot fucking leaving,” he spits, clenching his jaw.
Rage contorts his face, and it’s then that fear starts to seep into my pores. Brett won a wrestling scholarship to go to freaking college—and he has his hand around my neck.
“Okay,” I whisper, my panicked voice rasping. “If you take your hand off my throat, then we—”
Suddenly, Brett’s bulk is wrenched away like he weighs nothing. His touch vanishes from my skin, and I can breathe again. There’s a tussle before my eyes, but there’s no chance Brett is going to win.
The newcomer is taller than him by a head, wearing a suit—of all things—that accentuates the broad, muscular frame beneath. Judging by his graying black hair, he must be twenty years older than either of us, but shoves Brett against the brick wall like a ragdoll, and I can’t help but notice the thick thighs encased in his pants.
“She said,” the newcomer snarls, pressing Brett’s face against the exposed brick, “get your fucking hands off her.”
2
Silas
Redhotrageburnsthrough me, and I embrace it.
The kid in front of me is drunk, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to break free of my hold. I know his type. Young. Self-centered. Arrogant. They’ll throw their strength around with anyone except a fair opponent.
Judging by the fight he’s putting up, the little bastard knows what he’s doing—butso do I.
Shoving him against the wall, I twist his hands up behind his head, locking him into position. The girl next to him looks terrified, her bright eyes wide—a far cry from the confident expression she’d worn upon sashaying into the bar.
I pull my brows down, empathy flooding through my chest. “Are you all right?”
She nods, swallowing as she gives him a nervous glance.Fuck, but she’s even more gorgeous up close. “I’m fine.”
“Let me take care of him,” I tell her, eyeing the women’s restroom she was standing outside of. “Is there anyone out there you’d like me to send in for you?”
