Page 48 of Submitting to Them
A heavy hand comes down on my shoulder.A second later, Natasha moves and the guy is screaming.
She’s wrenching his finger back, a terrified but determined expression on her face.
The man flails, grabs my hair, and yanks.
I go down.The impact sends all the air from my lungs.I can’t breathe—I can only stare stupidly at the narrow strip of sky that shows between the two buildings.
Natasha shoves the guy hard.He trips on my arm, loses his balance, and stumbles past me, into the open area of the alley.
“Ella, come on,” Natasha yells, grabbing my hand and pulling me up.
The men rush toward us.I can’t suck in a breath to scream.Instead, I give a gasping yelp and swing my purse around.It hits one of the guys in the face.
“You’re going to regret that,” he snarls, batting my purse aside.
I freeze at first, before realizing that fighting might be the only thing keeping Natasha and I alive.Whatever these guys want with me, it isn’t good.
“Hey!”Another man shows up at the end of the alley—and I recognize his sharp chin and sunglasses.It’s Sebastian’s driver, Kellan.He takes one look at the situation and shouts, “Bash!”before rushing forward.
I expect the guys to scatter, but the nearest one to Kellan takes a swing.Kellan dodges the blow and strikes out with his own fist, clipping the guy in the chin.
The guy takes out a knife and theswickof the switchblade echoes in the alley.
I scream in alarm, but if Kellan’s worried about the knife, he doesn’t show it.Instead, he exchanges swings with the guy, expertly dodging the blade.
Someone else runs into the alley—Sebastian.He spots me, then Kellan fighting.Before he can do anything, the second and third guys rush Sebastian.
Everything devolves into chaos.Natasha grabs me and yanks me away from the fighting.We move to a dumpster and stand behind it.I want to go out there and help, but I know I’d only get in the way.I reach into my bag because I can at least call the police, but my phone fell out when I swung my bag at the guy.
It’s three on two.As soon as one of our attackers goes down, another takes his place.Then another recovers.Currently, Bash is fighting one guy, but a second is approaching him from behind.
“Bash!”I scream.“Turn around!”
He takes a swing at the second guy.His fist makes contact with a loudthwackand I grimace.
Kellan is wrestling the third guy to the ground, but his energy is flagging.The man gets out of Kellan’s grasp and lurches away.He grabs his friend’s shoulder.The two of them take off down the alley past Natasha and me, and the third one shoves past Sebastian and follows them.
Kellan looks like he wants to run after them—Sebastian, too.They both look like avenging angels in their black shirts and dark jeans.But they see Natasha and me huddled by the dumpster, and they stop short.Sebastian’s lip is bleeding, but he doesn’t seem to notice it.His hazel eyes are wild, his knuckles bloody.He’s pressing one hand to his side.He looks me up and down, concern etched on his face.
“Ella,” he rasps.“Are you all right?”
“Yeah.Yeah, I’m fine.”A little scraped up, maybe bruised, but I don’t want to worry him, so I don’t say anything about the scrapes.I’m going to be okay, thanks to him and Kellan and Natasha.
“Natasha?”he asks, his gaze sweeping her.
“I’m okay,” she says, holding my hand.She’s shaking next to me, so I wrap my arm around her.
“What were you even doing back here?”Sebastian asks.
“I’m so sorry,” Natasha says.“It was stupid to go back this way.I had no idea they’d come around.”
“We were trying to get away from those guys,” I say, “but they must have figured it out and come around.”
“Lucky we were already on our way to you,” Kellan says with a frown.“When we didn’t see you walking to the dress shop, we got out of the car to look for you.Hey, Bash?You okay?”
Sebastian nods.“Let’s get the women inside.I don’t trust those guys not to come back...”
He trails off and shakes his head again.He looks terrible—his bloody lip only emphasizes how pale his skin is.
