I’d forgotten about that coward-ass piece of shit – punching me while my back was turned. Scumbag. I pushed through the crowd to find he’d been strung up from one of the huge rafters by thick, heavy cord. His head was about two feet off the ground as he struggled upside down. Judging from the bruises already forming on his face, and the cut dripping blood onto the floor, he’d been ‘knocked’ a few times during detainment. I pushed a few more supernaturals aside, and bending over I got reasonably close to his face. Despite his predicament, he still sneered at me.
“Always so brave when you’ve got the quads watching your back.” His teeth were a little bloodstained. He spat onto the floor. “You disgust me.”
Reaching out, I grabbed his chin, hard, squeezing it slowly between my fingers and palm, letting my shifter strength flow along my arm. His eyes widened, but he didn’t make another sound. “You come near me again, Melly, and I will fucking take you apart piece by piece.” I’d already started planning it. “I don’t need the Compasses to destroy you, I have every weapon already at my fingertips. You live now only on my generosity. An attack like that, on a council leader’s daughter … Jonathon is going to want your head.” I shoved him hard, he swung out away from me. “And I might just let him have it.”
As he swung back, I spun and kicked out. My shin cracked him in the temple, knocking him out cold. “Tell my father to let him go with a warning this time,” I said to Lincoln, knowing he’d chat with Jonathon first. If Melly came at me again I’d be the one to kill him.
Braxton stopped me with a hand on my right biceps. “Jessa, he needs to die.” I shook him off. “He fucking hit you while your back was turned. He’s a coward, and his weakness is only going to hurt Stratford in the long run.”
I could see by the tight jaw, clenched fists, and raging fury in his eyes that Braxton cared nothing for the town. He was pissed that I’d gotten hurt. He was always my sweet protector. But I was a big girl and could look after myself.
“I have a feeling he won’t come after me again.” I shrugged. “Lesson learned.” Okay, I might have been overly optimistic, but I owed the guy one last chance.
Melly groaned as he woke from his little nap.
“If he steps within ten feet of you again, he’s dead.” Braxton’s voice had no inflection at all. He was serious. And scary. “No more chances.”
Mischa followed us as we left the room. The six of us were the sole focus of attention from the others, but as the doors slammed shut behind us I could hear the noise inside start up again. Gossip was already flying around.
Braxton was staring at the ground as we walked, his fists still clenched, and I swear small rumbles were shaking his chest, although I couldn’t really hear anything.
Jacob distracted me from his brother. “Don’t find yourself alone with that guy, Jess. He has the strength to kill you. If you hadn’t pulled your face in the last second, he probably would have.”
I shook out my hair, wincing as the slightest tenderness still plagued my head. “I can handle him.” I was great at false bravado. “But I don’t understand why he would try and kill me.”
That would have ended in his death or imprisonment in Vanguard, for a very long time. But my money was on dead … by one of the Compasses.
Braxton lifted his face then and I ground to a halt. His blue eyes were a blazing inferno of fury. He was literally vibrating, he was so wound up. “I saw it happening and couldn’t get to you fast enough.”
“You strung him up?” I asked. Braxton must have been like a step behind Maximus despite the fact he’d been across the room.
“I would have killed him, but I needed to make sure you were okay first. I was heading back to break his neck when Max convinced me that wasn’t the best option.”
Maximus groaned, rubbing his hand down his left side. “And I’m pretty sure you cracked my rib, asshole. I owe you for that, and despite the fact killing him was a great option, I figured that wasn’t the way you wanted to end up back in the prison.”
I noticed then how teary and scared Mischa looked. She had her arms wrapped around herself tightly. “You okay?” I moved closer, standing right in front of her. God, how anyone couldn’t tell we were twins I had no idea. We were identical, everything except for the eyes and a few freckles.
“I don’t think I’m cut out for this life of violence. How do you live with it all the time? Watching your backs? I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I’m having a breakdown and I haven’t even been here for a month.”