Page 14 of The Clinch
“ENOUGH!”
Bouncers surge in, black shirts, muscle, and urgency. Two hold Leo back, two more contain Travis, who’s still thrashing, trying to break free, one-eyed stare locked on me.
The crowd boos. Phones stay raised.
Leo strains against the hold, chest heaving, Travis’s blood smeared across his knuckles.
“You come near her again,” he growls, voice feral, “and you won’t walk away.”
Travis grins through shattered pride and broken bone.
“Lillian ismine,” he barks as they drag him backward. “She always will be.”
Lillian.
Lillian.
My former name cuts through the bar like broken glass.
“Liz.”
Leo’s voice reaches me, rough and urgent, but Eden gets there first. Her arm wraps around my shoulders, firm and grounding. Nate appears at my other side without a word, solid as a wall.
“We’ll take you home,” Eden says, scanning the room. “Nate and I will stay with you tonight.”
“No.” Leo’s voice cuts in.
Eden turns on him. “Excuse me?”
“Drake didn’t just stumble in here by accident,” Leo says. “He probably knows where Liz lives, which is where you live too. None of you are going back to the Cherokee tonight.”
“Nate will stay with us,” Eden fires back.
Nate opens his mouth to agree, but Leo lifts a hand. “With respect, brother, you’re a big guy and you can handle yourself. But Drake’s a professional fighter.” He flexes his split knuckles, checking the damage. “And he’s good.”
Something in me snaps. That tone. That certainty. A man deciding the shape of my night as if my opinion doesn’t matter.
I didn’t cross state lines just to end up in another corner.
“Hello?” I bite out, jabbing a finger toward my chest. “I’m right here. You’re discussing me like I’m not in the room.” My voice rises, sharp with heat. “I’m not a child. I’m not property. And I can take care of myself?—”
“That’s not what this is,” Leo cuts in.
I whip my head toward him, fury flaring hotter. But before I can unload, Jessica steps in, phone in hand, expression all hard edges and calculation.
“Okay,” she says briskly. “Everyone pause. Leo, you jumped the ropes earlier tonight. That clip is everywhere. Now this happens? To anyone watching, it looks like escalation.”
Her gaze moves between Leo and me. “This is going to be a media storm in minutes. Videos are already circulating.” She hesitates, then looks directly at me. “I can see this is difficult to talk about. But we’ll need to discuss who that man is.”
The words jam behind my teeth.
“And,” Jessica continues, businesslike again, “if he tracked you down once, he can do it again. Plus, I bet the press is already lurking on your block, waiting. If Nate’s with you and something happens, I’ve got another disaster on my hands. Lying low with Leo is the safest option. For everybody.”
My mouth falls open. “You’re siding with him?”
A thousand people just watched my life implode.
A thousand witnesses to the name I buried.
