Page 44 of Crash & Burn

“Fuck off,” I spit, but that only pisses him off. His sleazy grin contorts, and I know I said the wrong thing.

“Don’t be such a bitch,” his grip on my arm tightens as I try to pull away and I am wishing I went straight to the booth after the show ended.

I look around, and there is no one close enough to be in earshot with music playing while the next band gets ready to perform.

He uses his grip on my arm to push me back to the wall, and I am no match against him. I feel like I’m sinking further and further underwater, but I will not let myself drown. He is grabbing my left arm, so I fist my right hand, hoping it is recovered enough to be used again, and I move to swing just before I hear a familiar boom of a voice. But, this time it isn’t thanking the crowd for coming.

“Hey! What the fuck are you doing?!” Mateo yells, bringing all the attention in the surrounding vicinity to us. I see him running up to where the guy is holding me, and I see Theo and Silas running behind him, but there is no sign of Eddie.

I know Mateo, and his tactic will be to deescalate the situation, but I don’t know if a guy like this is going to back down easily.

“Mind your fucking business, pretty boy. You should be more concerned about your shitty music than your groupies,” the asshole gripes, still not letting go of my arm.

I watch Mateo’s nostrils flare, and Theo and Silas both look like they are about to snap, but all three of them know they have to stay calm. The last thing they need is to make a scene at their first show and earn the reputation of hotheads who beat up people in the crowd.

“Watch it,” Mateo barks, “that’s my sister, and you’re going to take your hand off of her. Now.”

The asshole has the audacity to laugh, but he is smart enough to let go of me. “Whatever, she’s not even—“

Eddie’s fist meets the side of the guy’s face before he can even finish that sentence. I didn’t even see where he came from.

“Fuck,” I hear Theo say under his breath before him and Silas grab Eddie before he can swing again.

Mateo rushes up to me while the asshole cups the side of his face, red-faced and looking like he is about to cry. Mateo wraps an arm around me as he turns to Eddie and points right in his face. “Don’t you dare,” he growls, and I can tell by Eddie’s face that he has no intention of stopping there. It takes me a moment to register that Mateo, Theo, and Silas all acted in quick unison the second Eddie threw the punch.

Theo has Eddie by the right arm, and Silas has him by the left. Mateo put himself right in the middle of Eddie and the guy with no hesitation.

Has something like this happened before?

I take this moment to look at Eddie. He has the same look of anger he had at the bar with Annie and Drew, only this is ten times worse.

If I didn’t know any better, I would think that Eddie has every intention of killing this guy.

I don’t know what comes over me, but I instantly feel responsible. “Eddie, hey. Eddie, look at me,” I say from under Mateo’s arm.

Eddie’s eyes meet mine, and there is an instant look of relief. The anger momentarily fades, and he rips his arms away from Theo and Silas before joining me grabbing the arm that the guy was gripping and looking it over.

Mateo watches him before he turns back to me, “Are you okay?”

“He left a fuckinghandprintaround her arm,” Eddie growls, and before any of us can do anything, Eddie is stomping over to the guy who finally found his footing and started walking away.

“You’re dead,” Eddie bellows. “You’redead, asshole.”

Luckily, security caught on to what was happening and two of them were already heading over to grab the guy.

“We got it,” one of them says to Eddie, holding out his hands. Eddie sees enough through his anger to stop charging at the guy.

“Get him out of here!”heyells at the security guard. “Now!”

The security guard nods and joins the other, and the two of them escort the guy out.

Eddie turns around and comes back over to us, and I can see Mateo’s wheels are turning, and he does not like the conclusion he is coming to.

Eddie looks at me one more time before heading in the direction of backstage, the crowd around us quickly dissipating, and Theo and Silas follow him.

“Mia, are you okay?” Mateo asks again.

I nod because I’m not sure I trust my voice right now.

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