Page 93 of Lance

His fist is at my jaw so fast I don’t have time to brace myself. I stumble backward, the force of the punch snapping my head back. Layla shouts something but I barely hear her. I push forward toward James, getting a hard punch in at his stomach, before Dylan pulls meaway.

“Stop it, you idiots,” hegrunts.

“Get out of the way, Haylee!” James yells, struggling to get pasther.

“What in the hell is going on?” a familiar voice roars, and I groan. Louis. He pushes his way between me and James, glaring back and forth between the two ofus.

“Nothing,” I mutter, wiping at my jaw. I seem to bebleeding.

“James, get the hell out of here,” Louis says, his voice low and tight. “Upstairs, now.” He turns to me. “There’s a car outside foryou.”

I glare at him. “What the fuck, Lou? You’re sending me away? He threw the firstpunch!”

There’s something mixed with the anger on his face. He’s anxious. Concerned, maybe. “You need to get home, Lance. One of the label’s lawyerscalled.”

My first crazy thought is that they finally found Angie. It’s followed by a rush of fear.She can’t havehim.

But then Louis continues and I realize it’s much, muchworse.

“The social worker at the hospital has been trying to call you,” he says and it takes a minute for the words to sink through the panic that’s now flooding my system. “Simon is there. There’s been anaccident.”