Page 75 of Meant for You

I tugged her back in and cursed. I knew what was going through her head, what she was remembering, and I didn’t want it there. “Come on.” She and Trix followed me to the truck and we climbed in.

“Where’s Lila?” Eves said.

She was standing by Riff, and we all watched as she put her hand on his arm, looking up at him. He said something and gently removed her hand and stepped back, crossing his arms. Lila looked distraught, blinking up at him several times before turning away and striding back to my truck.

I watched Riff watch her until she climbed in.

Then he got on his bike, started it, and roared off.

“I’d like to go home,” Lila said, voice shaky. “Can we just go home?”

I started the truck. We’d planned to camp out at Riff’s, but I got the feeling he wouldn’t be there even if we showed up. He had club business to take care of, and worse, it involved his own family. So I headed back to Springhaven.

I reached over and rested my hand on Eves’s thigh, heart still fucking pounding after seeing her go after some guy twice her size. Freaked the hell out over what could’ve happened.

“Okay?”

She turned to me, and I let out the breath I was holding, afraid that I’d see that look in her eyes again, the one I’d seen over a year ago. Fear. So much fear. But there was no sign of it.

She covered my hand and we stayed like that the whole way home.

* * *

“I’m scared,” Everly whispered against my chest.

The banging on the door grew more insistent. I tightened my hold on her and kissed the top of her head. “I’ve got you.”

The music was turned up, the drunk assholes singing out in the living room got louder, and the banging fucking kept on going. The rage inside me pumped hot and thick through my veins until I couldn’t contain it another moment.

Everly started trembling.

I snapped. “Don’t move,” I said to her.

She grabbed my hand as I climbed off my bed. “Dane, leave it. Please.”

The rage had a hold of me and I couldn’t keep it in anymore. Yeah, I was barely seventeen, but I was tall and I was strong. I worked out a lot because I had to be strong to protect Everly.

I dragged the chest of drawers out of the way, the wood screeching across the floorboards, slid the lock back, and yanked open the door.

A red-faced, shiny-chinned creep stood there, swaying.

“I need to use the fucking can, asshole,” he said, face filled with fury before his gaze slid behind me to Everly and he grinned. “Didn’t know Wayne provided party favors. My turn next.”

I saw red, grabbed the fucker by the throat, and threw him across the hall. His body hit the wall with a thud. He stared at me, a stunned expression on his face.

I moved in on him as he tried to stumble to his feet and knocked him back down. “The fucking bathroom is down there, asshole. You bang on my door again, I’ll fucking end you.” I walked back into my room, slammed the door, threw the lock, and slid the drawers back in place.

Then I stood staring at the scarred wooden door in front of me, shaking so hard from rage, from adrenaline, from fear, my teeth were chattering. I’d been in fights before. I’d fended off drunk pricks in this house. But this was the first time I realized what I was capable of.

And that I would do those things without even thinking about it if it meant protecting Everly.

Delicate arms wrapped around me from behind and squeezed tight. “It’s okay, Dane,” Everly said against my back. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

I jolted awake and blinked up at the ceiling.

Fuck.

I scrubbed my hands over my face, attempting to scrub that dream, the memory, from my brain at the same time. I glanced at Everly beside me, and the churning in my gut slowed and settled.