One brutal precise punch cracked across Niall’s jaw, sending him crashing sideways into the chest of drawers. The laughter stopped and blood spattered.
“He said he’ll give me Trixie.” She got to her feet, her voice shaking. “That’s all I want. If you hurt him, you’ll get into trouble. Please.”
When he finally looked at her, his eyes were wild, but something in them softened. Only for her. The buzz under her skin intensified. Not from fear…from pure devotion.
“No fucking way, Shannon.” Jamie stalked closer to Niall, sank to his haunches and grabbed a fistful of Niall’s blood-slicked jumper. “He hurt you. He threatened my father. I can’t let him walk out of here.”
“You heard her, McGrath,” Niall slurred, grinning through a broken tooth. “You lay another finger on me, and that fucking horse she loves will die. And I’ll go straight to social media to publicly destroy you.”
He smirked, his eyes bright with the sick satisfaction of a man who thought he still held the cards.
For a second, Jamie’s grip loosened.
Niall slumped down the wall like a discarded puppet, blood blooming across the front of his shirt. He groaned, then shoved off the floor, staggering upright with a wobble in his knees.
Still, somehow, he managed to steady himself, just enough to limp toward the front door, one foot dragging behind the other.
Every breath rattled, every step a pathetic display of ego trying to outrun consequence.
He turned at the threshold, spat a thick glob of blood onto the floor, and chuckled. “The horse won’t survive the night. And you, McGrath? You can’t do a fucking thing about it.”
Jamie’s shoulders snapped tight, muscles coiled, breath jagged. His jaw flexed.
“Fucking asshole,” he growled, and moved.
In a single stride, he tore through the doorway, boots pounding against thefloorboards.
“Wait… Jamie…” Shannon shot after him, her vision swimming. “Jamie, please…don’t! He’s not worth it!”
But he was already gone.
The cold slapped her skin as she staggered outside, freezing at the top step while at the bottom, chaos unfolded.
Jamie tackled Niall like a beast unchained, dragging him to the cobblestones and striking his face.
Niall kicked out, landing a heel into Jamie’s back, but it only ignited him further.
Jamie surged up, drew back his arm and struck back harder.
The loaded punch cracked across Niall’s jaw, spinning him sideways. His body folded.
Air whooshed from his lungs in one broken gasp, and he crashed to the ground hard, his knees buckling beneath him and his head snacking against the stone.
He tried to crawl away, coughing, spitting blood and gravel.
“Touch her again—fucking look at her again—and I’ll bury you,” Jamie snarled, fisting his collar.
“Jamie, stop!” Shannon sobbed, her voice ripped from her throat. “Don’t risk everything to get back at him. Please…”
Niall collapsed onto his side, eyes unfocused, chest heaving.
He gasped, tried to speak, then his body seized, and his limbs shook.
After a beat, he went still.
Silence moved in with the bitter wind. Buckyappeared, his boots crunching across the gravel pathway. He knelt beside Niall, fingers to his throat.
His head shook once.
