Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Henry
I caught her just in time before she had chance to hit the floor, curling one arm around her waist while I pressed my free hand to her neck and held her.
But even though I should have put Phoebe above everything and everyone else in that moment, all I could focus on was the guy who’d dared to touch her.
The one Jace and Andy were currently trying to tackle to the ground.
There was pushing and shoving, and I was pretty sure Jace’s first punch had landed squarely on the guy’s jaw, but he was a big fucker, and he wasn’t going down easily.
As soon as Bailey and Rhea came rushing over, I reluctantly passed Phoebe over to them.
“Take her,” I told them. “Do not let her go.”
“You got it,” Bailey said, quickly pulling Phoebe into her arms. “What happened, Bee? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Phoebe started. “I’m?—”
I didn’t wait around to hear the rest. I moved without thought, my stride purposeful as I stepped into the chaos around the same time I saw the security fighting their way through the dance floor from the very far end of it.
The guy who’d dared to touch Phoebe didn’t even see me before I grabbed hold of his shoulder, spun him around, and smacked him square in the jaw with all the fury I had within me.
He barely had time to blink before his head snapped back, his eyes rolled, and he crumbled to the floor like the sack of fucking shit he was.
Just like that, the party died down around us, even though the music continued to play, and everyone nearby turned to look our way.
I stood over the handsy little fucker’s body and leaned down to fist his shirt, pulling him off the floor just a few inches as I lowered my face to his, letting him see all the years of rage I had stored within me. And there was a lot.
“Touch what isn’t yours again, motherfucker, and I’ll break every working finger you have, one by one, understand?”
Before security reached me, and with the crowd gathered above us keeping me out of sight, I threw another punch to the guy’s already bust-up jaw and let him fall back to the floor with a thud.
“Fuck, yes, Cohen. That’s what I’m talking about!” cried Andy.
“Jesus, man, you’re insane! Get out of here!” Jace said, pulling my shoulder back until I turned to face him.
Security started shouting over the heads of the other men and women on the dance floor, but the strangers around us seemed prepared to hold them back until we made our swift exit.
I cast a quick glance security’s way before I took off, moving back through the gathering of people until Phoebe stood in front of me again.
Without thinking about anything anyone had to say about it, I scooped her up into my arms and marched her out of the bar with nothing else on my mind but making sure she stayed safe.
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.”
She had no idea how many times I’d hurt myself to protect her and those innocent eyes.
“If there’s one thing you should know about my man here,” Andy said, patting me on the back, “it’s that he’s a chivalrous old soul who likes to defend any woman he sees in danger. It’s one of the qualities that makes women fall in love with him so easily.”
I had no idea what the fuck he meant by that, so I cast him a stern glance, wondering if he intended on making me sound like a complete man whore, or whether he was actually trying to be genuine with his praise.
When I looked at him, though, I saw nothing but admiration staring back at me.
I had no idea how to handle it after feeling nothing but his icy coolness for so long now.
“I think I fell in love with him the moment I saw him put that arsehole on his back,” Rhea said. “You really know how to fight, Henry. Where did you learn how to do that?”
“I—”
“Hey, now, I went after him first. Don’t I get some credit for that?” Jace cut in.
“Sheesh, Jace. It’s not always about you, you know.”
While the rest of them tried to lighten the mood, I locked eyes with Phoebe again, grateful to see a little flush of colour coming back to her grey cheeks, which meant the shock must have been wearing off a little.
“You want to get out of here?” I asked.
She gave a small nod that I’d started to recognise as one of the little things she did when she didn’t quite have the words she needed in any particular moment.
“You want me to walk you back to the apartment?” I asked.
“We’ll come with you,” Bailey offered.
“Absolutely, we will,” Rhea added.
Phoebe turned to both of them, tilting her head and adopting a small smile I saw straight through.
“Girls, I’m okay, I promise. You know I love you, and you know how much I appreciate how much you love me right back, but…
I just want to get out of this dress, get into bed, and go to sleep.
You guys go find another bar with Jace and Andy.
The night is young.” She glanced my way.
“Henry can walk me home and then join you guys later. Right, Henry?”
“Sure.” I nodded, knowing there was no way in hell I’d be leaving her alone to go back to another party or bar.
There could have been a string of topless women waiting to bring my every fantasy to life, and I still wouldn’t have walked away from her for a second.
But whatever I had to say to get her alone and away from all this noise, I’d say.
“See?” Phoebe said, turning back to them. “I suppose I need to finally admit he’s not all bad, even if he is one of the most annoying men I’ve ever met in my life.”
Despite the anger still seeping through my veins, I couldn’t help the weak smirk that rose at that. If I hadn’t known how she really felt, she’d have fooled even me.
It took some back and forth between the girls—most of which I tuned out of, too lost in watching Phoebe’s every movement to make sure she didn’t go into shock at any moment—but eventually, after a lot of resistance, Bailey and Rhea agreed to let me walk Phoebe back to the apartment with the promise that I would text Jace and Andy immediately if anything else went wrong.
Once they’d hugged and said their goodbyes, I turned to leave with Phoebe, only for Bailey to walk up to me without warning and throw her arms around me. She pressed her cheek to my chest and squeezed my body tightly, pouring emotion into it that I had no idea how to respond to.
When she pulled back to look up at me, I swore she had tears in her eyes. “I’m starting to like you, Cohen. Thank you for doing what I couldn’t to that guy back there.”
She gave one last parting hug to Phoebe before the four of them began to walk away to continue their night together… leaving me with the one woman who’d slowly begun to take over every part of my goddamn life.
Phoebe stood before me, her hands hanging limply by her side, all the earlier sparkle of promise gone.
“I’m torn between loving how much freedom your friends give you to make your own choices, to being appalled at how easily they leave you every time you pretend you’re okay when you’re obviously not.”
“Who says I’m not?”
I raised a single brow at her and waited.
“Fine. But they’ve known me long enough to know that the only thing I value more than their friendship is my own space.”
“Have you always dealt with the hard shit on your own?”
“It’s the only way I know how to handle any shit, Henry. Everyone is different, right?”
Not us , I thought. I think we’re the same . “Do you want space now?” I asked instead.
“I probably should.” Phoebe took a step closer as she looked up at me. “But for reasons I can’t understand, no matter how hard I try, I just want you.”
I stared into her beautifully sad eyes, not sure what the hell to say or where to go from here.
My gut told me to wrap her in my arms and make her body sing in ways it never had before, so all memories of anyone else touching her would be erased.
My head told me to tread lightly because of everything she’d just gone through.
“What are you thinking?” she asked with that soft voice of hers.
“How I want to march back into that bar and finish the job properly.”
“You don’t think you hurt him enough already?”
“No amount of pain would be enough for him.”
A sad smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Are you mad because of the kind of man he is or because of what he did to me?”
I pinched her chin between my finger and thumb and tilted it up. “I’m mad because he dared to touch what I’ve already claimed as mine. I don’t share, Phoebe. I never have, and I’ll take down any man who tries to make me.”
She inhaled sharply, her breath soon stuttering out of her, making her chest sink as her eyes searched mine.
I wanted to kiss her there and then. I wanted to press my mouth to hers and pull her body against mine.
I wanted to close any distance between us and show her just how good I was at healing the broken—everyone except myself.
But I wouldn’t be the first to make a move.
Not after what she’d just been through. Tonight, it would have to be in her hands, and if nothing happened, there would always be tomorrow.
Unless my need to take her ended up killing me in my sleep.