Page 46 of Dangerous Men (Fortune City Mafia #1)

SYDNEY

I always knew Chase was a coward.

But watching him cry on the ground, hands cradling his broken and bloody nose, I realize I never knew just how much of a coward he really was.

“Who the fuck are you?” Chase whines, staring up at Sebastian.

Sebastian looks like a dark, avenging god standing there in the fading light, staring down at my ex as he cowers on the ground.

“I’m your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t leave right now,” Sebastian answers. He’s impossibly calm as he stands between Chase and me, the blood on his swelling knuckles the only indication of what he’s just done.

“You punched me .” Chase takes his hand away from his nose and stares at the splash of red there in disbelief. “That’s… that’s fucking assault!”

“It is,” Sebastian agrees with a nod.

Chase sputters. “I could have you arrested!”

“You could try. But I promise you, if you go to the police, they won’t do a thing about it.” There’s a cold surety in Sebastian’s voice as he says it. “I doubt they’ll even take your statement. But go ahead. Try it.”

“Fuck you,” Chase snarls, getting shakily to his feet.

“She told you to leave,” Sebastian says, taking a calm step toward him. Chase scrambles back, holding one hand out as though to ward him off. “You should listen to her before this gets a lot worse.”

Chase looks at me, his eyes pleading.

“Go,” I tell him, making my voice as firm as I can. “And don’t come back again, Chase. I mean it. We’re done.”

I almost expect him to put up a fight. To show Sebastian that same anger he so easily unleashed on me, time and time again. But that’s not how cowards act.

“We’re not done,” Chase mutters, shooting me one last furious look before he turns to leave. “Not by a long shot.”

I stare daggers at him as he walks away. It’s not until he’s gone and out of sight that I can finally breathe again. I count to ten. I try to think happy thoughts. I try to remember my therapy mantras.

I can’t think of any. Not today.

“Did he hurt you?” Sebastian asks, turning toward me. There’s an intensity in his eyes I’ve never seen before.

Hurt me? Even where he’d grabbed me, it hadn’t hurt. Just … surprised me. But I’d been worried, for a moment. Reminded of the times he had…

I shake my head.

Sebastian nods slowly. “Good. That’s good.” A drop of blood falls from his split knuckles onto the pavement. He doesn’t even seem to notice.

“We should get some ice on that,” I tell him, taking him by the other hand and tugging him toward my place. “Come on.”

He’s pliant as I drag him up the stairs and to my apartment door. But he stops in the doorway, frozen, after I unlock it and let myself inside.

Sebastian stares at the threshold like he can’t bring himself to cross it.

“Are you a vampire or something?” I ask, smirking. “Do you really need an invitation to come in?”

“No. No, I just…” He stares around at my place but doesn’t move. You’d think I was asking him to commit a mortal sin, just by inviting him inside.

I shake my head, making my way toward the kitchen. “Jesus, come in, you freak. Stop being so weird about it.”

He takes a long breath and finally steps inside, closing the door behind him.

“I don’t know if vampires need permission to use the furniture,” I call out to him as I open up my freezer door. “But you should sit down.”

I don’t own any ice packs, and whatever ice I have is buried beneath several months' worth of frozen dinners. I pluck a freezer-burned package of peas out of the mess of ice cream and microwave meals, and wrap it in a paper towel, hoping it will be better than nothing.

“Has he done this before?” Sebastian asks when I come back into the living room. His eyes are piercing as he watches me from the couch. “Followed you home?”

“No, never. I haven’t even seen him since he came by the café.” It feels strange talking about it. “And before that, not since the charity banquet.”

I sit down next to him, taking his injured hand and holding the bag of frozen vegetables against his knuckles. When my leg touches his, he flinches, going tense.

“Does it hurt?” I ask.

Sebastian shakes his head.

“I barely feel it,” he says. He won’t look at me. His eyes are glued on the wall, the fingers of his left hand tapping ceaselessly against the couch.

There’s a brown paper bag on the floor between his legs.

“What’s in the bag?” I ask, frowning at it.

Sebastian’s eyes flick to it and then to mine so quickly I almost miss it.

“Epsom salt,” he says softly. “For your pain.”

Oh.

After he’d taken that phone call earlier, I’d forgotten all about him promising to get me some. It’s a nice gesture. Strangely kind, coming from him.

“Thanks,” I say quietly after a moment.

Silence descends between the two of us. It should feel awkward. I’m basically holding his hand, even if it is just to keep the bag of peas in place. But it feels… comforting. Nice.

“I can’t believe you did that,” I tell him after a while, chuckling as I say it. “You just… punched him. Out of nowhere!”

“He deserved it,” Sebastian says.

“For touching me?” I ask. When his only answer is to give me a scathing look over the rim of his glasses, I laugh. “Wow, you guys really are crazy, you know that?”

Sebastian’s head tips back against the couch, and to my shock, he laughs too, a huge smile forming on his face.

“You really have no idea, Sydney,” he says, shaking his head and grinning.

I’m so stunned, it takes me a moment to process what is happening. But when I do, I let out an animalistic squeal, scrambling closer to him to see it more clearly.

The smile on his face vanishes.

“Oh no, don’t hide it! I saw it!” I say excitedly. “That was a smile. And a laugh !”

“I didn’t smile,” Sebastian lies .

“Bullshit,” I say. “You can’t lie to me. And I already texted everyone to let them know. Your reputation will never recover.”

I let out an exaggerated gasp when he smiles again. Not a little smirk. Not the faintest twitch of his lips. A full, uninhibited smile that curves up both sides of his face.

“I knew it!” My laugh is a little too loud, bordering on manic. I scramble over him, climbing over his leg to grin down at him. “Oh my god, ladies and gentlemen, he’s not a robot! Wait until I tell everyone. ”

“Sydney.” Sebastian’s voice is a warning. Something flickers over his face. An emotion I don’t recognize.

His uninjured hand flexes on the couch next to me. For a wild moment, I think he might touch me.

And I suddenly realize what I’m doing. Where I am. With my leg thrown over his, I’m practically sitting in his lap.

We’re close enough to kiss.

“Sorry,” I mumble, scrambling away from him. My cheeks are burning hot, my heart beating so fast I’m almost dizzy from it.

Sebastian is so still next to me, I’m not sure if he’s breathing. He doesn’t look at me. The quickly thawing bag of peas has fallen to the ground. I clear my throat awkwardly, and pick it back up, taking his injured hand again and laying the bag over his knuckles.

He really does have gorgeous hands. I try my best not to notice.

Sebastian is quiet for a long time before he speaks again.

“Are you really okay?” he asks. When he turns to look at me, his face is just as blank as always. “You can be honest with me.”

“Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you for… for intervening,” I say. “I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, and… I’m glad you were there. ”

“He said he was trying to reach you,” Sebastian says, fingers of his uninjured hand drumming nervously against the couch.

I blow out a long breath.

“Jade blocked his number on my phone,” I tell him. “So he probably has been. It’s not like I would know. I’m not interested in hearing any of his shitty apologies anymore.”

“Sterling will want to file a restraining order,” Sebastian says. “I can get the paperwork started, but if you have any?—”

I tense, accidentally squeezing Sebastian’s injured hand. He turns to frown at me but makes no other complaint. He doesn’t even wince.

“Don’t tell Alec,” I plead. “Please, Seb.”

Sebastian watches me closely, eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

I wait for him to ask me why, and truthfully, I’m not sure what to tell him. But if just hearing that I had an ex was enough for Alec to buy his company and threaten to fire him, what would he do if he thought I had one stalking me? One that would, maybe, try to hurt me?

To my surprise, Sebastian agrees.

“Okay,” he says. “I won’t tell him.”

My heart skips.

“Really? You’ll keep this between just the two of us?”

He nods, slowly. “On one condition.”

“Sure, anything,” I tell him.

“If he does anything like this again, I need you to call me. No matter what time it is, no matter what you think I’m doing, I want to know. Immediately, Sydney. Can you do that?”

I nod.

“Where’s your phone?” he asks.

I reach into my pocket and hand it over.

He takes it with his left hand, fingers flying over the screen as he unlocks it.

“How did you know my passcode?” I ask.

“It’s the same as the bathroom code in your shop,” Sebastian answers, sounding almost amused that I would ask. “It wasn’t hard to guess.”

He pulls up the contacts and enters his information, sending a text to the new number. A second later, a phone buzzes in his pocket.

“I mean it, Sydney,” he says, handing my phone back to me. The look in his icy blue eyes is so intense, so fixated on me, it makes me feel a little lightheaded. “You call me, day or night, okay?”

“And you’ll break his nose again?” I joke.

Sebastian’s eyelid twitches.

“Something like that,” he says.