Bay didn’t have a coat. I wrapped mine around her shoulders, loving seeing her holding onto the edges of the lapels.
Inside the car, Eric sat up front. Emily and Holden were in the back row talking and texting. Bay and I sat in the middle, the seat she’d usually sit in on her own while the two in the back hammered out the details of her life and Eric took up sentry mode.
“Shit.” Holden let out a long low breath.
Bay’s laugh was cut short and she turned to him. “What’s wrong?” Her fingers stopped kneading my thigh, meaning I could concentrate on more than her breast pressed against my chest. The tease was well worth it and kept me even closer to the edge of telling the driver to turn right around and get back to the hotel.
She followed his gaze out the tinted window to the car. “Shit.”
Tension filled the car. What was supposed to be a one-hour meet-and-greet with contest winners and a first listen to a couple tracks off the album looked like a mob scene.
“I told them not to announce the location.” Holden shoved his phone up to his ear, raising his voice at whoever was on the other end.
“What do we do?” My arm tightened around her waist.
Her hand, which had just been teasing me, stroked my leg to calm me.
I tried to calm myself, but it wasn’t working. My pulse skyrocketed. My blood rushed in my veins with adrenaline spiking.
People were everywhere. They weren’t screaming or shouting, but their anticipation was palpable from here. Photographers had also descended, large intrusive lenses primed and ready for the perfect shot.
“It’ll be okay.” She turned to me with a small smile and a flicker of fear. “This happens sometimes.”
Eric leaned in between the front driver and passenger headrests. “We’re going to circle the block. They’re trying to get more security to the door. The parking garage is blocked off, so there’s not another way in right now.”
The building had restaurants along the bottom and offices up top. It was a standard twenty-story building of stone and glass except for the hundred people crammed in around the main entrance.
My jaw tensed.
Her hand smoothed down my shirt. “We’ll be fine.”
I wasn’t sure if she was saying it to me or herself. My heart rammed into my ribs.
Worry thickened the air inside the car. The chatter and joking died during the four right-hand turns on the way back to the front of the building.
Every cell in my body screamed for us to turn the hell around and get her out of here.
The circle around the block didn’t do much as far as security went. They were overwhelmed.
“We’re going to go in through one of the restaurants instead.” Eric called out from the front seat.
Our trip went straight past the main entrance, but by now people seemed to have noticed who the car belonged to, so the alternate entrance didn’t stop the tide of people from swelling, only throttled it temporarily.
Bay took my coat off and handed it back to me, almost nibbling her lips before looking like she remembered her makeup and squeezing them together. “We promised the designer we’d get full shots of the dress.”
She’d shivered when we got into the car, even under my jacket. My anger at the whole situation bubbled up. Why the hell would she agree to a deal where she’d freeze her ass off just for pictures?
“It’s October.”
“It has long sleeves. I’ll be fine. We’re just running straight inside.” Her gaze darted out the tinted windows to the swell of people.
Bay squeezed my hand. Emily and Holden maneuvered to the door, and Eric jumped out.
The flashes went off, blindingly fast, before we even slid off our seats.
In seconds, the press was on. Whether it was strangers or Bay’s team, bodies pressed against us, jostling and squeezing us on what felt like a charge up the field with a three-hundred-pound linebacker attached to each arm.
We were swept toward the entrance. The flood of people grew by the second.
Bay reached out as papers and markers were shoved into her face to try to sign memorabilia as we tried to shove toward the entrance. Her voice was strained. Her smile was stiff. Her gaze was filled with fear.
A spike of protectiveness slammed into me, shooting me straight to the edge.
More people rounded the corner. The thirty feet from the curb to the restaurant entrance felt like a fight against a riptide trying to drag us out to sea.
It happened in a blink, almost a flash. One second, she was smiling, signing autographs, struggling to move forward even with my arm around her. The next, my gaze snapped to a face. One that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
It was beyond starry-eyed, bordering on unhinged.
A gap in the line of fans who clustered to squeeze in for another picture opened and the shot was taken.
The lunge was clean, snap-to-the-quarterback quick. His fingers wrapped around a shiny metal blade.
I jumped in front of her, sandwiching my body between her and the throngs of people pressing in so tightly I couldn’t breathe. Or maybe I’d been holding my breath. Adrenaline screamed through my veins. White-hot rage burst free from my chest.
My fist slammed into his face. I hit him once. Twice.
The crowd parted. Screams ripped through the air.
I grabbed his hand, squeezing his wrist hard enough to crush bone until the knife clattered to the cement.
One more slam of my clenched fist into his face. Grabbing him by the shirt, I flipped him down onto the ground. He struggled to get up, face smeared with blood.
My hand shot to his throat, my fingers tightening. The cloud tinged with flecks of red and rage threatened the edges of my vision. I wanted to squeeze even tighter until his gasps and desperate clawing at my hand ended. I wanted to slam his head into the ground until he stopped moving. I wanted him to never be a threat to Bay again.
Bay. I needed to make sure she was okay.
Coming back to myself, I loosened my grip from crushing to restraining.
Eric crouched down beside him along with three other suited security guards with a set of zip ties and rolled the attacker over onto his stomach.
The adrenaline thundered through my veins, my heart sliding out of overdrive. I took a step back. Then another. A cavalcade of people flooded in, knocking into me.
A hand touched my arm. I flinched.
Bay stared at me. Not with fear, but concern. Her gaze searched my face.
I recoiled, not wanting her to look at me. Not wanting to have done this to her again. Bitter bile burned in my gut.
More security poured in around us. Holden and the rest of the team made room for the cops who’d just arrived. He caught up with us and hustled us both inside the restaurant.
No longer under the crush of people and danger, my hands shook. I clenched them and stared at the blood that covered my hands, dripping off my fingertips. The slow dotted pattern marking my path.
“Dare!”
I flinched.
“Keyton.” Bay reached for me and I stepped back, banging into the table behind me. Silverware and glasses rattled.
“Bay!” Holden bellowed from the door, shoving through people. He was here. He’d take care of her.
I spun and took off. Past the tables of stunned diners through the double doors leading to the kitchen. The screams in my head quieted, leaving me only with what I’d just done.
I’d beaten a guy bloody, in front of onlookers and cameras, Bay. My hands shook, adrenaline still scorching its way through my veins. Escape. I needed to leave. To run.