Away from men like that fucker back there who didn’t deserve the oxygen he dared to breathe.
Her tiny body clung to mine as though being pressed against me healed her somehow, which only made me hold her tighter. Bailey and Rhea followed with hurried steps, trying to keep up, and I knew Andy and Jace wouldn’t be far behind. For all we disagreed sometimes, they’d always had my back when it came to shit like this, just like I always had theirs.
We stepped outside into the warm night air before any of the staff managed to stop us. I glanced back over my shoulder at the crowd still gathered around the fucker I’d put on the floor. By now, security were probably peeling him off his arse and asking everyone around what had happened. The last thing I wanted was to end up in a Greek cell in a local police station, but right then, the consequences of my actions didn’t matter to me. All that mattered was her.
I carried on marching us away from the bar until it was at least a hundred metres behind us. The other four were cursing and asking what the hell happened, their hysteria almost as deafening as the heartbeat ringing in my own ears. But once we were out of the way, I came to a stop and looked down at Phoebe in my arms.
“You okay?” I panted, the adrenaline warring through me like I’d injected myself with the strongest drug on the black market.
She nodded weakly, her beautiful eyes rising to meet mine. “I think so.”
“Can you stand?”
“I should be fine.”
“You sure?”
“I didn’t get hurt, Henry. I’m… fine,” she repeated.
Fine. Fine? She was far from fucking fine, and we both knew it, but I wasn’t about to argue with her in front of the others. We’d address that later, as soon as I could get her on my own.
As carefully as I could, I lowered her to her feet and watched as she adjusted her dress and smoothed back her hair. She looked up at me again, but she couldn’t hide the slight trembling of her chin or the way her skin was covered in goosebumps despite the warmth of the night.
The urge to tell her to jump back into my arms almost took over, but then Bailey rushed to her side and threw her arms around her, squeezing her tightly, reminding me we weren’t alone, and this wasn’t just my secret to keep anymore.
I couldn’t expose her that way.
“Babe, what the hell happened back there? That was some scary shit.” Bailey pulled back, gripping hold of Phoebe’s shoulders as she scanned her from head to toe. “Did that guy hurt you? Are you okay?”
“He didn’t hurt me, no. He only bruised my pride a little… and maybe my butt cheeks.” She smiled a sad smile and reached around to rub her arse. “I’m a little shook up, that’s all.”
“That motherfucker,” Jace grumbled as he came to Phoebe’s side, breathless. “I can’t believe any guy thinks it’s okay to pull that shit.” He dropped a hand on Phoebe’s shoulder, too. “You okay, tiny dancer?”
“Tiny dancer?” Phoebe raised her brow. “That’s a new one.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry if I caused that back there. I just saw him grab you like he had a right to, and I lost my shit. I shouldn’t have swung for him until you were well out of the way.”
“It’s okay, Jace. I appreciate you looking out for me,” she said, just as Bailey pulled her in for another hug.
All I wanted was for everyone else to fuck off so I could take care of her myself, and I hated that I couldn’t ask that of them. I hated that I had to share her.
I didn’t share shit.
Andy’s hand on my arm caught me by surprise, making me flinch. With a certain amount of care I hadn’t felt from him in a while, he lifted my bust-up fist to inspect the damage I’d done to my knuckles. “You okay, bro? You threw a banger back there. Two, actually.”
I wished I’d thrown twenty.
“I’m good.” I tried to pull my hand out of his grip, but he held onto it tightly, turning it this way and that.
“You need to go get that cleaned up. Who knows what kind of scabies that arsehole carried in that dirty beard of his.”
“I said I’m good, Andy.”
“Let me see,” Phoebe said, and when I looked up, she stood only a few feet in front of me, her attention focused on the hand that had broken skin over the knuckles. Her face scrunched up at the sight of it before her eyes rose to meet mine. “Why did you do that?” she asked, almost as if she’d forgotten the others were around us.
“Do what?” I scowled.
“Hurt yourself that way for me.”
