Page 108 of Just My Type
“To the bathroom, to see if she’s still there.”
Elliot and Amelia look at each other, and I expect to see them rolling their eyes all,Noah is being ridiculous, but both of their expressions are serious as they have a silent conversation.
“We’re coming with you,” Amelia says.
I nod and head towards the bathrooms with them following me, but I don’t get more than four steps before running into my parents, who are talking to Cece, Cooper, Jordan, and Jo.
“Where are you off to?” Cece asks, her eyes fixed on my face, studying me intently.
“I’m looking for Hannah. I haven’t seen her in a little bit, and it seems silly to be worried, but…” I trail off.
“You’re worried anyway,” Cece says.
I exhale heavily. “Yeah.”
Cece takes my hand. “Come on.”
“To where?” I ask.
“To find your girl, Noah. If you’re worried, that means there’s something to worry about.”
Cece’s confirmation that I’m not ridiculous to be worried acts like kerosene, turning my low simmer of anxiety into a blazing inferno. Without another word, I turn and head straight for the bathrooms, my family following behind me.
The angry, male voice filters out of the corridor where the bathrooms are before I even reach it, and I know without consciously knowing what I’m going to find, even before I turn the corner and see the guy I recognize immediately as Hannah’s ex-boyfriend, Brett, with his back to me. His tall frame and broad shoulders are blocking my view of the person he’s cornering, but I know immediately it’s Hannah’s wrists he has bracketed in his death grip. Her hands he has pinned to the wall.
My brain plays a highlight reel of the way she reacted to having her wrists pinned. How terrified she must be. Fury slams into me, but through the red haze, my brain focuses on only two things.
Get Hannah.
Keep her safe.
“Get your hands off my wife or I will fucking end you.” My voice is a growl I barely recognize, and I dimly register the shocked gasps and murmurs of my family behind me when I saymy wife, but I’m too focused on the way Brett’s body goes rigid. How he turns toward the sound of my voice.
“Your wife?” He scoffs, looking between Hannah and me, his hands still locked around Hannah’s wrists.
“My. Wife.” I spit out, my eyes fixed on Hannah, as I calculate how to get her away from him without her getting hurt evenmore than she already is. The look on Brett’s face tells me he’s a powder keg ready to explode, and the thought of what he could do to her—what he might have done to her if I hadn’t gotten here in time—has fear curdling in my stomach.
But the terror on Hannah’s face has me abandoning my calculations, moving straight for them. Before I can get there, Hannah’s face changes from fear to something else. Something powerful and determined that has me stopping in my tracks. I watch as she takes advantage of the space Brett gave her when he turned to me, saying nothing as she snaps her knee up between his legs so hard I would feel sympathy for the guy if he didn’t have the woman I love pinned in a dark corner, about to do who even knows what to her.
The noise that comes from Brett’s throat is barely human as he lets Hannah’s wrists go and bends at the waist, his breath wheezing out. Hannah skirts around him, making a beeline for me, her breath hitching when she sees the rest of our family standing behind me. Standing there for her.
My instinct is to shield her from ever having to see this asshole ever again. But something deeper tells me to keep her next to me. That she doesn’t need me to protect her. She needs me to stand with her. So instead of tugging her behind me, I wrap an arm around her and pull her tightly to my side, tapping my finger to her waist three times to remind her I’m here. I’ve got her. Her body is shaking, but as she faces Brett, her spine snaps straight, her shoulders square.
She’s a goddamn queen.
“What are you even doing here, Brett?” Hannah asks, fixing him with a glare, voice rock solid and dripping with disdain.
“I was invited.” He rolls his eyes, his shoulders drooping just slightly when he notices all the people standing behind us.
That’s right, asshole. She has a whole damn family behind her. Mess with one of us, mess with all of us.
“No, you weren’t,” Jo says from behind us, her voice fierce. “My sister was invited. It was her name on the invitation. Yougot to come when she wanted you here. You are now very clearly the last person she wants here, so you can get the fuck out.”
“Get him, Hurricane,” I hear Jordan murmur.
Brett pulls himself up to his full height ofshorter than meand it may be immature of me to get satisfaction out of that fact, but boy do I ever. Brett faces us all down, and even though I can’t see them, I feel my entire family take a collective step closer to Hannah and me. “I’ll leave when I damn well please. This is a public space, and I have every right to be here. Now if you’ll all excuse me, Hannah and I have some unfinished business to take care of.”
This fucking guy, honestly. Get a clue and have some freaking dignity. I open my mouth to respond, but Hannah holds up a hand, taking a step in front of me.
