Page 85 of Only For You

“Will! No!”

Tristan staggered backwards after Will’s fist connected with his face. Will shook his hand and winced, but there was satisfaction on his face as Tristan put a hand to his bleeding nose. Around us, people shouted and held up their cameras, and panic scratched at my throat. Will had to get out of here before things got any worse.

I tugged at his arm, but he may as well have been made of stone the way he stood there glaring at Tristan. I understood. Beneath my heightened emotions, I was ecstatic that the disgusting jerk got what was coming to him, but there was too much at stake to enjoy the moment.

“Come on, Will. Let’s go,” I begged, dragging on his arm.

He nodded without taking his eyes off Tristan, and with the way Will’s jaw feathered with hate, I spared the creep a quick glance, too. Tristan scowled at the red stain on his fingertips, and when he lifted his head, violence painted his features. Will’sarm tensed beneath my hand, and as Tristan lunged for him, Josh looped an arm around my waist and hauled me out of the way.

My back was turned, but the cracking thud of Tristan’s fist landing on Will’s face made me scream. Josh handed me over to Jess and Birdie, and they pulled me away. I fought against them as they wrapped their arms around me, frightened by the way Will was hunched over with his hands on his knees and then panicked at how he shook himself, straightened, and squared up to Tristan. Blood dripped from his mouth and down his chin, landing on the white collar of his dress shirt. I had to get to him. Touch him and run my hands over him and make sure he was okay.

I needed to get close enough to Tristan to kick him in the fucking balls.

But Josh, Logan, Isaac, and Luca were already there. Everyone was shouting, hurling insults and warnings and threats on top of each other. Josh and Logan held Will back, one of them on each of his arms, and Luca stood in the middle, keeping Tristan and Will separated with his outstretched arms. Isaac held Tristan from behind as the dickwad pretended to grapple against his grip. Coward.

I was peripherally aware of the press of bodies in a half-circle around us. The cloying scent of a hundred different perfumes mingling together. The heat of so many people confining us in a tight space. The loud murmur of talking and gasping and quiet questions. The cameras. But there was too much happening all too quickly for me to think past getting to Will.

I shoved against Jess and Birdie’s iron-firm hold on me. “Will! Let it go!”

Tristan had stopped struggling enough that Isaac was now dragging him away from Will towards the back exit, and as Isaac yanked open the door, Luca took a shaken Tash into his arms.Will roughly shook off Josh and Logan and watched Tristan leave with pure hatred burning in his gaze. Jess and Birdie let me go, and I closed the few steps between me and Will like my life depended on it. He breathed heavily through flared nostrils, and I worried as much about the split in his lip as I did the fever in his eyes.

I reached up to run a gentle hand over his jaw. “Are you all right?”

Will jerked back from my touch. He had his back to the cameras, and he watched with a hard jaw as the rear door closed behind Isaac and Tristan. When they disappeared, the heat in Will’s glare dimmed. Something disturbing passed over his features, a look of sadness or resignation or both.

I dropped my hand as apprehension replaced adrenaline in my body. The energy in the room was loaded with anticipation, and the voices around us grew quiet.

“Will?” I set a cautious hand on his arm. “Let’s go up to the loft and talk. I can help you clean up.”

He still wouldn’t look at me, and my apprehension dialled up to alarm. It took effort to swallow.

“I fucked up,” he muttered.

“No, you—”

“I fucked up!” Will glanced behind him at the cameras, then at me. “I can’t do this. I have to go.”

I watched him walk away with his head bowed, and the flutter of dread in my chest grew stronger. The crowds parted around him, and his long legs carried him across the room too quickly for me to pull myself together and follow him.

“Is he okay?” Jess asked beside me.

I wanted to say yes, but I couldn’t. I didn’t believe it.

“He’ll be fine,” Logan replied, but he didn’t sound confident. “He just needs a few minutes to cool off.”

Logan was wrong. I was more certain of that than anything else. I lifted the hem of my dress and took after Will, not caring that all eyes in the room watched me go. Will was in pain, and my place was by his side.

52

Abbie

When I didn’t seeWill on the street outside and couldn’t find him inside The Stop, I ran upstairs to the loft and tried there. It was empty and dark, so I called him. It went straight to his message service, and my worry increased tenfold.

I changed out of my evening wear, threw on the first thing I found in my open suitcase, and then ran downstairs again. Before I could decide whether to go back into the party and ask the crew to help me look for Will or go it alone, Adam met me on the street outside. Concern etched his features.

“Is Will okay?” he asked.

I threw up my hands and tried to shake off my anxiety. “I don’t know. I can’t find him.”

---