LAURA
One second Derrick had a blade to my face and the next, his body was flying backwards and slamming into the bathroom door.
There was an audible thud and a loud pained grunt as he landed on his ass on the ground, the knife skidding on the floor until it stopped a few feet away from him.
My breaths sawing in and out of my chest, I almost burst into tears when I saw the person who’d burst into the room.
Hunter.
Standing in the center of the room, he was big, intimidating, and he looked so royally pissed, even I shrank back against the chair I was sitting on. I’d never appreciated his size more than I did in that moment because seeing Derrick’s slumped form and then Hunter’s, I knew there was no way the former could face off against the latter.
Which meant my unborn baby and I were going to get out of here alive.
His eyes made one quick sweep of me. After confirming that I was unscathed-at least physically, he turned back to face the man who still remained slumped on the floor. The same man who was subtly reaching for the knife.
Before his fingers could successfully touch it though, Hunter brought his boot down hard on Derrick’s outstretched fingers. A loud, wet crunch filled the air. My stomach roiled and I thought I was going to get sick.
At this point, Derrick’s screams could probably be heard all the way from Asia, and as much as I wanted him to pay for what he’d done to me, watching him get beat up was a different experience entirely.
I was barely fighting the urge to throw up as it was.
Hunter jerked Derrick up by the collar of his shirt, then proceeded to pummel his face with blows. I turned my head to the side so that they wouldn’t be in my line of sight anymore, sobbing. I just wanted to get out of here.
And my silent cry for help must have been heard because another tall figure walked into the room with an urgency, eyes roaming the room frantically. He froze when he saw me.
Alex.
He dove for me, knees hitting my toes as he dropped in front of me. His eyes were wild as they ran over my body, making a quick inventory, and his hands shook. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Still in shock, I could only stare at him wide eyed as he barked at Hunter, who was still beating the ever living shit out of Derrick. “Get me the handcuff keys.”
Derrick readily handed the keys over to Hunter, who tossed them to the man kneeling in front of me and he promptly went to work.
There were two other men in this room, but they might as well have been on another planet because all I could see, feel… hell, all I could hear right now, was Alex.
He was here.
Alex was here.
My mind was still struggling to catch up with what my eyes were seeing.
Hunter must have called him as soon as he noticed something was wrong, which meant that Hunter had still kept an eye on me even after I’d warned him to back off. Normally, this would piss me the fuck off but considering that if he hadn’t, I’d have probably left here in a bodybag, I couldn’t summon one atom of anger.
Alex made quick work of the handcuffs before tossing them on the ground. He scooped me into his arms, gathering me close like I was something precious. I told myself that the only reason I was allowing it was because I was still out of sorts and not because he felt wonderful.
How could I have forgotten how good it felt to be this close to him? To lay my head on his chest?
God, I’d missed him so much.
He carried me outside, supporting my weight with one hand while opening his car door with the other. He dropped me carefully on the backseat and his scent combined with the distinct smell of the car bombarded me.
“Are you hurt?” He asked again, staring at me intently. Amongst the emotions swimming in his eyes, I could detect worry and fear-and he seemed to grow increasingly worried that I wasn’t saying anything. “Laura baby, talk to me. Are you hurt anywhere?”
Just my heart, I thought bitterly.
His eyes dropped to my stomach. “The baby…”
“We’re fine,” I cut him off, remembering what he’d done that had gotten us in this state in the first place.
I made to get down from the car, but he stopped me by placing his hand on my thigh. He must have done that without thinking, because when my eyes jumped to his in shock-mostly due to the searing heat from that one touch alone-he jerked away, jaw tightening as he took a step back, allowing me get to my feet.
“You shouldn’t be on your feet so soon,” he said quietly.
Avoiding eye contact, I stepped around him. “I’m fine.”
His eyes followed me. “What about the cops? They’ll be here soon. They’re going to need your statement.”
I paused because, damn it, he was right. There went my plan to run away before I did something foolish like plaster myself to his body in a long hug and blabber on about how much I’d missed him.
Sighing, I perched my ass on the sidewalk, gathering my dress between my legs.
The sound of Alex’s exasperated sigh reached my ears. “You can wait in the car.”
“I’m fine here, thanks,” I delivered flatly.
I could be civil with him. Cordial, even. He was obviously only concerned because of his baby I was carrying and that was perfectly understandable.
The heat of his gaze stayed glued to my face for a while before he pushed away from his car and stalked back into the house. Pained bellows reached my ears, clueing me in on what exactly was going on in there.
When Alex came back out, he was flexing the fingers on his right hand and I was pretty sure there was blood on his shoe.
Whatever him and Hunter had done to Derrick, he deserved it. For the emotional and physical stress he’d put me through.
The big man in front of me paced back and forth, brimming with restless energy. Several times he stopped and opened his mouth like he was going to say something but it seemed like he lost his nerve before he could.
Every single time.
Meanwhile, I sat there feigning nonchalance. Pretending like I wasn’t itching to give him a piece of my mind. To yell at him for what he’d done to me because the sting of his betrayal was still fresh and I wasn’t entirely sure that I would ever get past it.
Seeing him again wasn’t easy. I still had feelings for him, and I was biting down on my tongue to keep from asking him all the questions forcing their way up my throat.
Had he gotten back together with his fiancee?
She’d said she needed somewhere to stay for a while. Was she still at the house, sleeping next to him every night?
I’d tortured myself with these questions every night until I’d almost driven myself insane. Some nights, sleep eluded me and I ended up walking the next day with bleary eyes.
It couldn’t be good for the baby, but hell, it wasn’t like I had any control over it.
Hunter stepped out of the room, bracing his shoulder against the wall next to the door and giving us some privacy.
It wasn’t needed.
I had nothing to say to Alex-actually, I did but I wasn’t going to utter the words-and I’d prefer it if he said nothing to me as well.
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
When the police came, I relayed everything that had happened to them, sparing them no detail. I could literally feel the violent energy emanating from Alex as I did, seeing his jaw tighten when I mentioned how he’d passed me out with chloroform. When I got to the part where he’d come at me with a knife, Alex walked away.
I assumed to cool off.
The fact that he so obviously cared about me threw me. Was this another act?
No. He cares about his child only. Not you.
And man did that make me feel even worse. That he had no doubt only come here today because of his child.
A tear slid down my face and the men threw sympathetic glances my way, no doubt assuming it was because of what I’d gone through today. Little did they know the cause of my unhappiness was the man standing beside them. Could they arrest him instead?
Soon, the police left, taking a handcuffed and badly beaten and unconscious Derrick with them. Just before Hunter did, I walked over to him.
I wrapped my hands around myself. “Hey so…” He stared at me with that blank look of his. “I apologize for the way I sounded earlier. I was overstimulated and angry, and I took it out on the wrong person.” We both knew who the ‘right’ person was. “And I’m glad you didn’t listen to me. Thank you for saving me. You’re literally my hero.”
His response was a grunt that I took to mean he’d accepted my apology, then he turned and walked to his car. I stared after him for a bit, stalling.
Exhaling, I turned back around to face my fears. Literally. And found him already standing so close to me.
I fought the urge to take a step back.
Just as he opened his mouth to speak, I cut him off.
“I should go.”
He raked a hand down his face, sighing. I swear the man had sighed at least fifty times since he’d come here.
“I’ll drop you off.”
“No need to worry about that.”
“How do you plan on getting home then?” He demanded, looking so frustrated, I feared he was going to…cry? “Look at this place. Not one single vehicle has passed, and your phone’s not on you so you can’t call an Uber. Do you plan on walking?”
I opened my mouth to snap at him that it wasn’t his job to care about me anymore when his expression gave me pause.
I looked at him. Really looked.
Maybe I wasn’t the only one suffering from the break up. Or was that wishful thinking?
Because he looked like shit.
He looked like he hadn’t shaved in decades. The whites of his eyes were almost completely red-and what the hell was he wearing?
The fact that I still had a soft spot for him pissed me off to no end, but I couldn’t stop myself from muttering “Fine.” And marching to his car.