Rosie grabbed my arm, hauling me as best she could over the back of the couch. I scrambled to keep up. To get to safety. The two men were like a hurricane, destroying everything in their path. Warm blood splattered my face, then I was up and over, falling onto the floor, crawling away to stand by Nell.
Both Joe and Pat entered the fray. I think Joe tried to tear the men apart, but Pat seemed to have lost his senses. While trying to land a punch on Eric, he clipped Joe’s arm. Joe defended his brother. Of course he did. The couch was shoved back, sliding toward us. I put out my hands, pushing back before it made impact. Rosie grabbed Nell’s arm, dragging her into the hallway.
Fuck. I’d never seen a fight before. Not like this.
I wanted to heave. And Vaughan was in there, caught up in that mess. The thought of him getting hurt made me want to do something extreme. God knows, he’d stood up for me more than once.
“Don’t,” said Andre, pulling me farther back before I could do something stupid. Probably unnecessary, my feet were stuck, frozen. The rest of my body was pretty much stuck too, deep in shock.
On the floor, the four men fought it out. I could only see blood and violence, Vaughan and Eric still struggling on the floor. In the hallway, Nell gave into the impulse to puke. The sound and smell made me swallow hard. I took deep breaths.
Time seemed to be messed up. Because it didn’t feel like that long until I heard sirens fill the air.
“Thank god,” I said, sagging against Andre.
His arm tightened around my waist, his head leaning against mine. It wasn’t sexual in the least. We both needed the comfort.
“It’ll be okay,” he said. “They’ve all been friends for a long time. They’ll work it out.”
“You really believe that?”
He puffed out a breath. “No.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I stood at the foot of Vaughan’s bed, slowly looking the half-naked man over. Moonlight shone through the open window, a summer breeze toying with the curtain. The things he did to me. All the emotions and effects of just being near him. Crazy. It was crazy.
“What?” he asked, voice husky.
“Just thinking.” I smiled.
“About?”
“How hot you look lying on your bed with a bag of frozen beans stuffed down your jeans to ice your bruised balls.”
One side of his cracked, puffy lips started moving upward. Then stopped. “Ow. Thanks.”
“Is there anything else I can get you?”
“No.” He patted the mattress beside him. “Sit with me awhile?”
“Sure.” I sat by his side, trying not to move the mattress too much and aggravate his sore bits. Kind of hard considering the beating he’d taken.
“Can’t believe Eric kneed me in the groin,” he said, sounding wounded. “Even for him, that’s low.”
“You did attack him first.”
“Mm.” He sighed. “He had no business talking about Nell like that. I don’t care what’s gone down between them or how long I’ve been away. I’m still her brother. No way could I just stand by and let him say those sorts of things.”
“I get that you needed to defend your sister.”
He made a noise. God only knew what it meant.
“I thought it was nice of Officer Andy not to throw you all in jail.”
Vaughan snorted. “He would have if Nell hadn’t been here. Schmuck. Couldn’t believe the way he was crawling up her ass.”
“It’s just as well she could talk him into walking away.”
He watched me from his one good eye; the other was hidden beneath an ice pack. Shadows and lumps marred his beautiful face and one side of his ribs.
“I better let you get some sleep.”
“You okay?” he asked.
I halted, searching for the right words. Thing was, there were none. “The fight scared me, Vaughan. Hell, it terrified me. You could have been seriously injured.”
“Lydia,” he said, then stopped. With various pained noises he moved himself over, making more room. “Lie down.”
With nil grace, I did as asked, kicking off my shoes and lying down on the bed beside him. Head on the pillow, I immediately started to yawn. It had to be three, four in the morning at least. Any alcohol-induced happy buzz had worn off hours ago. Soon enough the sun would be rising. What a night.
“Hey.” He hooked my pinkie with his, holding on tight. “Thanks for worrying about me.”
“I was worried about all of you.”
A pause. “That’s not what you said.”
“Yes, it was.”
“No. You said, you could have been seriously injured. ‘You’ meaning me,” he said, carefully turning his head to face me.