Wrong Side of Town

“No!” My voice shook as I jabbed him hard in the chest. “I am not listening to you anymore! You can’t just play with my emotions all the time. I’ve been nothing but polite to you since I started tutoring Dylan, but you can’t even show me a little respect and be civil towards me. You have no right to keep me safe. I mean nothing to you.”

The cold mask that Vincent had always worn around me completely shattered. His brow was pinched together like I’d said something to seriously hurt him. It was then that I realized that Vincent’s mask had been made from fragile glass. Now it was broken.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he said, his voice low. “I was pissed off when I said that, but I still shouldn’t have said it. I should’ve called you to explain.”

My chest was heaving from my outburst, but the anger was fading away now. My emotions were a complete train wreck; I was a complete train wreck. I felt completely depleted. There was no fight left in me anymore.

“Then explain,” I said, my voice heavy with defeat.

The sooner I knew what was going on, the better. I couldn’t say that the sooner I knew what was going on, the sooner I could return to my life because my life was a lot worse. Being swept up in Vincent’s world made me forget about my own problems. And my world didn’t have Dylan in it. Or Vincent.

Relief flitted across his face and his shoulders relaxed. Those dark eyes of his focused on me, pinning me to one place. “We participate in amateur fights. It started as a thing between us and the Allbrooks, but it’s turned into a huge deal now. There’s a lot of money involved in the fights and everyone likes to play dirty.”

I slowly nodded, realizing that that’s what Conor had been talking about. He had said something about Vincent losing them money. “I don’t understand why he would come after me. I have nothing to do with this.”

Vincent’s jaw tensed. “I heard what he said. He saw us together and he thinks that you’re my girlfriend, that you mean something to me. He tried to use you to get to me.”

“But I don’t mean anything to you,” I choked out. “He’s got the wrong person.”

Vincent turned away from me, once again completely blocking me out. He had this way of showing his vulnerable side, but then just as quickly he would put his shield back up again.

Just then, Three ran back in, locking eyes with me. “Your sister’s here, but she refuses to come inside with me. She almost ran me over!”

Darting a glance at Vincent’s back, I slowly approached Three. “Sorry about that. She can get a little sassy.”

“I think she thought I was going to steal her car,” Three said as he began to follow me outside into the cold air. I immediately wished I was back inside the warmth of the auto shop and close to Vincent.

“I thought something similar when I first saw you.” My tone was light, but inside I felt heavy, like a weight was crushing my organs.

Savannah was parked on the side of the road several feet away. She was peering at us suspiciously over the steering wheel as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.

When I turned to look behind me, Vincent wasn’t there.

I tried not to let it get to me that he hadn’t bothered to come out and see me. It just proved my assumption was correct; I meant nothing to Vincent.

Giving Three a small smile, I ducked into the car, trying to ignore the gnawing in my chest.

Chapter Twenty

Vincent

Last night I’d let Estella walk away from me without telling her how I really felt. Again.

I really needed to stop acting like such an asshole to her all the time.

The feeling had never hit me at such full force until the moment I’d heard Conor threaten her. And then my entire world had spun out of control and fear had gripped me by the throat and squeezed and squeezed until I thought I was never going to recover ever again.

If Estella wasn’t in my life, I knew I would never recover. It had just taken me a while to realize what she meant to me.

At first there’d been resistance on my part. I hadn’t wanted to let a woman into my life because women were manipulative and they screwed everything up. But Estella wasn’t like that. She was something entirely different. She was made up of something that I’d never had in my life before. And now it was impossible for me to let go of her.

She’d imprinted herself into my life; she was a constant and I needed her.

I needed her more than she could ever understand and I should’ve fucking told her that.

But I would tell her. I was going to tell her everything. I’d tell her how I felt and what she did to me, and maybe we could make sense of this craziness together. Because a lot of it wasn’t even making sense to me—how I could fall for a girl from another world.

But I had. That’s what was happening here. I had never felt such a strong desire to protect anyone, except for Dylan, but now I felt that way about Estella, and I was sure as hell going to make sure that no one came near her again.

“Are you sure you wanna do this, man?” Goat’s voice broke into my thoughts, and I looked around to find him staring at me. He actually looked worried. Hell, maybe I should be more worried about this, but I wasn’t.

We stood outside The Demon Rest which seemed like a fitting name for the shit ass, run-down bar that we were about to enter. I mean, Allbrook was a shithole by any standards, but The Demon Rest was definitely one of the worst places around these parts.

It was also where the Allbrook Gang hung out and a little birdie had told me that I’d find Conor here right now with only a couple of other guys with him. This was the perfect time to send him a clear message: don’t mess with the people I cared about.

But I knew why Goat was so worried. If I went in there and roughed Conor up, I’d be starting shit with the Allbrook Gang, and I was doing this without Ryder’s knowledge.

If Ryder found out this had something to do with Estella then he would lose it. It wasn’t just about her though—Dylan also had to be protected and the only way I could be sure that he’d be safe was to target the cause of the problem.

“I know what I’m doing,” I said, nodding at the other guys that’d come with me. “Let’s go and show them what it means to mess with a Madden.”

There was no more hesitation; there were no more questions. I had made up my mind and the guys would follow me regardless of how this played out.

I led the way, pushing open the door to the bar and letting the smell of despair hit me—cigarettes, booze, and sweat—this is where the lowest scumbags hung out, so it was pretty fitting for the Allbrook gang.

The bar was almost empty; there were the usual tables and stools scattered around, but the interior was pretty shitty. The scantily dressed girl wiping down tables eyed us up as we strode inside, but I barely glanced at her—my focus was simply on kicking Conor’s ass.

A dart board had been hoisted against the wall close to the entrance as though it was going to improve the depressing surroundings somehow. Nope, no chance in hell of that happening. There was a single pool table on the far end of the room, and my eyes immediately singled out Conor with three other guys as they hovered around the table, in the middle of a game.

Rage filtered through me when I saw how at ease he was; he didn’t have a single care for the fear he’d inflicted on Estella. This asshole was going to pay.

“Fancy seeing you down here,” I said, keeping my tone light as we flanked the four Allbrooks.

Conor flinched and their conversation died down as they all turned to face us. Fear darted across Conor’s face, but he quickly replaced it with an easy smile as though he was greeting old friends.

“Glad you could take time out from your busy schedule of hand holding to pay us a visit, Vincent. I’m touched.” Conor placed a hand to his chest, mocking me.

“Well, Conor,” I said, taking three steps forward so I was in his face, “the thing is, I don’t like it when the people close to me get hurt. It makes me real mad, ya know?”