AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d landed another punch, not caring about the blood that spurted over me from his nose. I didn’t care that he wasn’t fighting back as I hit him again and again, revelling at the groans he was making. I pulled my leg back to give him a kick for luck when Destiny pushed me aside again.
“No,” she screamed. “Joey, no!”
I grabbed her shoulder to move her away, but she rounded on me and pushed me hard in the chest. The fear in her eyes made me take a step backwards. I had never seen her look so scared, and it made the bottom drop out of my stomach.
“Don’t put your hands on me,” she spat at me, tears brimming in her eyes.
“I’m sorry.” I held my hands up in surrender. “I would never…”
She looked down at the floor and then back at me. “He’s bleeding, look what you’ve done to him.”
“He insulted you, he…” I protested, looking down at the man groaning on the floor. “He offered me fucking drugs. I’m an addict, Destiny, who the hell does that?”
Her bottom lip started to tremble as she pointed a shaking finger at me. “You shouldn’t have hit him. You didn’t just hit him, you’ve beaten him up, you’ve made him bleed.” She pulled in a shaky breath. “You put your hands on me.”
I shook my head. “I would never, ever, hurt you.” I reached out for her, but my heart splintered when she took a step back. “Dest.”
“No. No, I can’t.”
Ronnie appeared in my periphery, and he moved to put his hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged him off.
“Joe,” he warned.
“No,” I snapped. “You heard what he said!” I turned back to Destiny. “I did it for you.”
Shaking her head, tears streamed down her face. “You have no idea, do you?”
“Dai—”
“No,” she cut me off. “I’m not interested. Just leave me the fuck alone.”
She practically ran from the bar, not even stopping when she barrelled into Denny who was walking through the door.
“We should go after her?” Ronnie said, looking between the disappearing Destiny and me. “And we need to sort him out.” He pointed at the rigger who was now pushing himself up from the floor.
“We’ll sort it.” Laura had joined us and was peering down at him. “Barney!”
“I’m on it,” Barney, the head stage roadie, said, appearing at Laura’s side. “You did a good job there, Joey. Him talking about the boss like that, he fucking deserved it, never mind the damn drugs. Jase, help me get him outside.”
“I’ll fucking sue the lot of you,” the rigger yelled as he was pulled to his feet.
“Shut the fuck up,” Barney growled. “And don’t even think about it, because if you do you’ll be blacklisted on every fucking tour going for eternity.”
“We need to let Ali know?” Ronnie said, rubbing a hand over his face.
I closed my eyes and groaned. More shit of mine for her to deal with. “Can you call her?” I asked, opening one eye to squint at Ronnie. “I need to go after Destiny.” I was desperate to talk to her. I had to find out what she was thinking and feeling.
Ron nodded and turned away with his phone at his ear as Amber appeared putting a palm on my chest. “I’ll go and find Destiny,” she said, giving me a sad smile. “I think you may need to keep your distance for a little while.”
“But—”
“No, Joey. Trust me on this. I know about her past and this here tonight just brought it all back.”
My heart thudded to a halt, and I felt like I might puke.
“Shit. I only wanted to protect her.”
“I know.” She patted my shoulder. “It’ll be okay but let me check on her. Tell Ronnie I’ll see him back in the room.”
