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“Goddammit, Roach. I’m not letting them do that to you.” His hands came around my middle, and he hoisted me up off the floor.
“No!” The scream ripped from somewhere deep inside me, some place where the pain was so acute I was sure I was bleeding. I thrashed out, kicking and screaming, elbows flying, fighting him with everything I had.
His grip only tightened when he hauled me backward down the aisle, ignoring the way I scratched and kicked at him. “Let me go! Let me go!”
People lined the hallway, all of them staring at Vaughn dragging me out. “Help me!” I screamed desperately at them, but none of them moved. Not one person stepped in to stop him.
Someone held the doors open, and we burst out onto the street, sunlight momentarily blinding my eyes but doing nothing to stop the agony coursing through my body. “Stop, please!”
My cries for help triggered the memories of my attack. The darkness rushed in, taking out my vision again, stiffening my muscles until they ached. “I can’t breathe,” I whispered. “I can’t breathe!”
I was right back there. Trapped by men intent on hurting me. No escape. Their weight pinning me down.
“What the fuck are you doing? Let her go!”
I knew that voice. It broke through the darkness. He hadn’t been there for me last time, but when I opened my eyes, he was all I could see. Tall. Strong. His gaze a mixture of fury and need. All of it directed at me and the man holding me captive.
“Fang,” I gasped out. “Help. Please.”
“Who the hell are you?”
The binds around me loosened, the man standing me up on two feet.
I stumbled at having to hold my own weight on legs that tingled with lack of circulation.
Fang didn’t answer. He caught me with one arm, pulling me tight to his side, while the other arm swung back and connected with Vaughn’s face.
I blinked.
Vaughn.
Not Caleb. Not Caleb’s friends.
I shook my head, trying to clear my foggy brain and decipher what was real and what was in my head.
“Jesus, fuck, man!” Vaughn howled. “What was that for? The cops were going to sedate her if I didn’t get her out.”
“Don’t fucking care,” Fang growled. “You put your hands on her when she told you not to.”
“I was helping her!”
“Not anymore. I’ve got her.”
Vaughn looked at me. “You know this asshole?”
His lip was already swelling. Guilt rushed in that I’d been the cause of that, when all he’d been trying to do was help me. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head and spit out a mouthful of blood. “Tell your guard dog to take a Valium next time. I’m her brother, asshole. I wasn’t going to fucking hurt her.”
Fang glanced down at me, but I had no idea why Vaughn would have said that. Our parents hadn’t even gotten a chance to sign their wedding certificate before they’d collapsed. He was not my brother.
But it stopped Fang from following up his first punch with a second.
Something flashed in Vaughn’s eyes, and it startled me to realize Vaughn had just lost his father too. I reached a hand out but stopped short of actually touching him. “Vaughn…”
He shook his head. “Don’t ask me if I’m okay. I’m as okay as you are, with the addition of a busted lip.”
I cringed. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”