Chapter 5 #2
The man’s hand tightened on her shoulder and Meg couldn’t hold in a whimper of pain. Galen’s dark eyes flicked to her face and then to the source of her pain. He’d been pissed before. Now he looked downright lethal. “Get your hand off her.”
“Lord Mikos—”
“If you don’t stop touching her right fucking now, I’ll start by taking your hand, and that won’t be where I stop.”
The man’s hand spasmed on her shoulder, but none of that emotion leaked into his voice. “Threats don’t become you.”
Galen kept coming, his measured steps telegraphing the kind of violence Meg had only ever seen from a distance.
If she thought for a second he was coming at her, she might have died on the spot out of sheer terror.
The man behind her stepped back, dragging her and the chair with him, but he was too slow.
Galen grabbed his wrist and twisted, the sick sound of bone breaking echoing through the quiet of the room.
He planted a foot on the side of the chair and sent her skidding out of the way and then he was on her attacker.
Meg tried to fling her hair from her face so she could see, but she only got glimpses of Galen’s fist rising and falling, of the fury coming off him in waves, of the meaty sound of contact as he punched the man over and over again.
He wasn’t lost in a rage, though. There was only icy anger written across his face as he delivered each blow, a punishment for the offense of touching her.
Oh my god.
He lifted the man by the front of his shirt and shook him. “Feel free to deliver this message in detail to my father: no one touches Meg. You come for her again and a beating will be the least you’ll suffer.” He disappeared down the hallway, dragging first one man and then the other after him.
Meg focused on drawing in air from a room that seemed to have none. She just… He just…
What the hell was going on?
Galen reappeared and moved quickly to her side.
She couldn’t stop a flinch as he knelt next to her, couldn’t stop a sob from working its way through her chest, though she’d be damned before she let it past her lips.
He went still, his dark eyes thawing. “I’m going to cut the zip ties, Meg.
” When she didn’t immediately respond, he kept speaking in that soft, measured tone.
“You’re safe, okay? They won’t be back.”
He didn’t sound like he believed it any more than she did.
Galen pulled a knife from somewhere and a second later she was free.
She should have run. Should have screamed for help again.
Should have done anything but sit there like an idiot as he examined her hands, massaging the feeling back into her fingertips.
The gentleness was so at odds with the scrapes across his knuckles from the beating he’d just delivered that it made her head spin.
He just kept rubbing her hands as if his touch would make everything better, would send her an hour back in time before…
She still didn’t know what those men wanted.
Not really. Her pain, a message to Theo, something.
She opened her mouth, but what was there to say? This changed nothing. It couldn’t.
“Come on.” He stood and tugged on her hand, pulling her effortlessly to her feet.
It would be so easy to go with him, to let him stand between her and whatever new threat arose. Because there would be a new threat. If Galen’s father sent those men, then… God, she didn’t know. She just didn’t know.
Shock.
Meg was in shock.
She dug in her heels, forcing him to stop moving. “What just happened?”
He looked around the bar as if seeing it for the first time. “You’re safe,” Galen repeated.
“I think we both know that’s a lie.”
He gave a short nod, ceding the point. “You need to come with me, Meg. You’re not safe alone right now.”
But she couldn’t just let herself be towed along by the current that was Galen and Theo. Meg pulled against his grip, narrowing her eyes when he didn’t immediately release her. “How did you know to be here tonight?”
Another hesitation, this one more pronounced. “I’ll explain once we’re somewhere safe.”
That sounded a whole lot like he’d find a way to distract her from her questions once they were somewhere “safe.” Or hand her off to Theo, who would no doubt dodge her questions with the ease of a career politician because that’s exactly what he was.
Meg twisted her hand in Galen’s grip and grabbed his wrist. “Galen, I need answers. Now.”
“No, you don’t. What you need is to get out of here before the adrenaline crash knocks you on your ass.”
“Don’t tell me what I do or don’t need like you know what’s best and I’m a stupid kid. I said I need answers, and I mean it.”
He cursed long and hard. Galen shot another look toward the back of the bar, obviously weighing his chances of just hauling her out of here so he didn’t have to bother with her questions.
He finally turned to face her, speaking in short, clipped sentences.
“My father found out about you. That means Theo’s uncle knows about you.
This was a test, putting out feelers for more information.
I stepped in, which means they know you fucking matter.
Now they won’t stop coming for you until they have the answers they want. ”
“You tipped your hand when you stepped in. Why?”
His dark brows lowered and he stared at her for a long moment. “You know damn well why.”
It finally hit her that Galen’s father had sent those men. She ran her free hand over her face, trying to think past the fear coursing through her in time with her heartbeat. “Your father and Theo’s uncle are behind this?”
“For the last fucking time, we will talk about this when we get to the apartment.” He gave wrist another tug that nearly sent her off her feet and towed her out of the bar, barely pausing to let her lock up behind her. “You can’t come back here.”
“Oh, fuck right off with that noise.” She pocketed the keys and looked around. “You didn’t kill them and throw their bodies in the dumpster, did you?”
He blinked. “Give me a little credit. If I was going to pull off a double murder, I’d at least stash the bodies somewhere that wouldn’t link back to you.”
Meg couldn’t decide if that was actually comforting or just downright scary. In the end, it didn’t matter. She let him drag her along to the street. “I need to go home.”
“Wrong. If they sent someone to your work, there’s no doubt someone at your place.
” He flagged down a cab and all but shoved her inside, following her in and crowding her across the seat with his massive body.
He took up too much space, and her body tightened in response to his thigh pressed hard against hers.
She could say it was the adrenaline messing with her mind, but Meg tried not to make a habit of lying to herself.
There was no one to blame for her riding Theo’s cock all night a mere three days ago except herself, just like there was no one else to blame for her wanting to crawl into Galen’s lap and have him reassure her that everything would be okay.
You know better.
You can’t afford to let someone else handle your problems. You know how that ends.
She cleared her throat as he gave the address to the driver. “I’m assuming that you’re going to make a call and assure your father that I have nothing to do with either you or Theo, and then I’m going to go home.”
He didn’t say anything, didn’t look at her. The only response was a slight tightening in his jaw.
Fear curled through her stomach and slithered outward. “Right?” The strength bled out of her voice, leaving her sounding weak and scared. “Right, Galen?”
“I don’t have an answer you’re going to like.”
“Then give me the one I won’t like.”
Silence reigned for several blocks. “My father has certain goals in place, and bringing me back under his influence is one of those goals. He’ll use whatever—whoever—he can in order to make it happen.” He turned a dark look on her. “Right now, he’s likely decided that he can use you.”
Why?
But then, Meg knew why. Galen had warned her, after all, and she’d ignored that warning just like she’d ignored the little voice inside her that said she would regret giving in to her desires.
Lust and logic never went hand in hand, and after a lifetime of clinging to logic, she’d let lust take the wheel.
Now she would pay the price.
She should have kept pressing him, but the events of the last however-long bled through her, sapping what was left of her argument.
What if she demanded he take her home and then someone broke in during the night?
She had a deadbolt on her door, but that wouldn’t keep out someone determined to get in.
To get to her.
The man had said he wanted to have a conversation about Theo, but that didn’t make sense if Galen’s father had sent him… did it?
She didn’t know enough. Meg might as well have wandered through a magic mirror for all she understood the rules here.
In her world, men did not send muscle after women their sons fucked once or twice.
They did not hurt people the way the man had seemed to insinuate they would hurt her if she didn’t give them the answers they sought.
She didn’t sign up for this.
She didn’t want this.
But Meg couldn’t help feeling like whatever mirror or wardrobe or method of travel she’d wandered into, the return path to reality was now closed to her. There was no going back, no matter how desperately she wanted to.
It took too long and nowhere near long enough to reach the apartment where Theo waited. Galen didn’t speak again and she had nothing to say. His answers were not answers, and if there was one person who would know how to fix this, it was Theo.
She hoped.
What if Theo doesn’t want to fix this? You’re a fly trapped in a web. Does it matter if it’s of Theo’s making or someone else’s?
You’ll be devoured either way.