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Sera reaches sideways for Eilish. I catch her upper arm and pull her behind my shoulder as another man breaks through. An empty chair stands between us, so I kick it into his shins. He pitches over the seat, and my knee catches his mouth before he reaches the floor.
“Stay behind me.”
Her eyes cut to mine. “Don’t start giving me orders.”
“Then stay behind me, Sera.”
A man charges between two tables, shoulder lowered, heading for the gap between Sera and Eilish.
I step into him before he reaches them.
Pain shoots through my ribs, but I keep my feet, grab him by the hair, and send him headfirst into the edge of the table. Glass breaks. He drops.
“Kane,” I call out.
He looks over after landing a solid punch. “Take Eilish home.”
“And Sera,” Eilish snaps. “I’m not leaving without her.”
“We’re all leaving,” I tell her, wrapping my hand around Sera’s arm and yanking her into me.
Eilish is the duty. Getting her out is straightforward. Keeping Sera with me is anything but.
She pulls against me. “Hands off. We’re in public.”
“I know.”
“Then let go.”
“No.”
Kane reaches Eilish and puts a hand on her back, steering her toward the door. She twists, trying to see Sera through the bodies closing in. “Sera!”
“I’m right here,” Sera calls, voice full of steel.
The tall one with the red throat comes out of nowhere, grabbing for her.
I spin her out of reach, snare his wrist before he touches her, and twist until his knees buckle.
“Back the fuck off,” I snarl into his face. “Or I swear to fuck, I’ll end you right now.”
“She’s the reason Cormac will never fix a car again,” he hisses.
“No, asshole.” I shove him into Nolan, who takes him down without a word. “He brought that karma on himself when he hurt her.”
When I glance back at Sera, she’s already throwing a left hook at the other man. His jaw cracks sideways, and he staggers into the table behind him.
Christ.
The sight of her like that gets under my skin in the worst possible place.
It throws my mind straight back to the Kinnanes’ garden, to her wrists straining in my hands, her warm mouth against mine, and the awareness that I’ve fucked her with all that violence spilling out of her.
“Outside. Now,” I order, steering her toward the door as she shakes out her fist.
Sera stays tight to my right, her shoulder brushing my arm. My hand lifts toward her waist before I force it back to my side. Protecting her is one thing. Pulling her against me in front of the whole bar would stake a claim I have no right to make.
A bottle swings toward her head from the right. I step across her and take the blow on my forearm. Glass bursts against bone, and a shard slices through the skin below my wrist. Blood runs over my hand, but I drive my elbow into the man’s jaw and send him sideways into the wall.
