Page 203 of With Us

Inhaling, I gathered my courage.

I’m not strong.

I’m not scary.

I’m not graceful or fast.

Okay, I’m also not good at amping myself up.

I may not fit into this part of Theo’s world, but I’ll be damned if I stand by while someone tries to mess with him and our life.

No one fucks with us.

Moving as quickly and quietly as I could, I held the bat ready and got only as close as I had to. I started my swing just as the man turned around. His eyes widened and my instincts yelled at me to pull back, but I ignored them. The bat connected with his head as Theo jumped up.

“Dahlia, shit, ru—” Theo started before it was too late. When the man hit the ground, Theo grabbed his gun and searched him, removingfourmore weapons.

“Holy shit,” I wheezed, watching blood pool as the man didn’t move. “Oh, crud, did I kill him? I killed him.” I clutched the bat.

“No, he’s still breathing, gattina.” Theo rubbed my arms. “It’s okay, you just knocked him out. You did good. I’m gonna call Luc.”

“I texted. The elevator isn’t moving, though.”

“I need to stay here with him, can you go press the emergency stop button and see if it’ll start again?” When I didn’t move, he shifted so he blocked my view of the body. “Can you do that?”

“Yeah. I can apparently do anything.”

“Yeah you can. That’s my girl.”

Damn straight.

Reaching in, I pressed the button and quickly stepped out before the elevator doors closed. The numbers above started descending again. I was heading back to the room when Luc came quietly through the same doorway I had used.

“Hi, Luc,” I said, my tone weirdly cheery.

His eyes examined me before stopping. “Is that my autographed Red Sox bat?”

I looked down to see the bat still in my hand. “Yes. Yes, it is.”

“And is that blood dripping from it?”

I glanced down again before repeating, “Yes. Yes, it is.”

Luc rushed down the hall, quickly scanning the conference room before looking back at me. “You’re a hell of a woman, Dahlia.”

“Yes. Yes, I am.” I handed him his bloodied bat. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go out to the couch and put my head between my knees before I pass out.”

Leaving them to deal with everything, I did just that.

Theo

“What the fuck happened?” Luc asked, setting the bat down on a table. He rummaged around in one of the cabinet drawers before pulling out some zip ties. With a practiced ease, he restrained the unconscious man.

I pulled out my cell, shooting off a couple texts. “I had a meeting with Sammy and Susan about the fights. They left, and I turned around a minute later to a gun in my fucking face.”

“I was in the lobby shooting the shit with them when Dahlia texted. Thank fuck she was here. Also, remind me to never get on her bad side.” Luc looked down at the man, smirking slightly before his mouth flattened. “He needed a keyanda code to get up here.”

“Dale and Gabe are on their way. Since this is connected to Ben, I’m leaving Niall out for now.”

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