“Don’t look at her,” Dane said to him. “Look at me.”
Jeff’s gaze flew back to his. “Dane, man, it was just—”
“A joke, banter—yeah, I heard you. The thing is … I know you’re lying to me. But I don’t think you truly believe my Vienna’s a gold-digger. You just wanted to hurt her. Why would that be, Jeff? Were you one of the ones who singled her out when she first came to work for me? One of the ones who crashed and burned?”
“I wasn’t trying to hurt her—”
“You’re still lying to me.” Dane tipped his chin toward the exit. “Why don’t you come outside with me, Jeff?”
Uh-oh. I gripped the table, ready to push to my feet if necessary. “Dane.”
Jeff shook his head. “I’m not going to fight with my boss.”
“I’m not your boss anymore,” Dane told him. “As of two minutes ago, you no longer work for me. Now get outside.”
I stood. “Dane, he’s not worth it.”
“No, he’s not. But you are.”
Jeff stood his ground, the dumb bastard. “Why go outside? Why not just take care of this in here?” He cast a quick glance at our group, and I realized he expected one of them to intervene and stop the fight before it could start. But no one said a word or made a single move, as if striving to remain off Dane’s radar.
“Because if we do it in here, I’ll have to make sure it’s over with quickly—the management will overlook a sucker-punch, but it doesn’t like brawls.” Dane took a fluid step toward him, so tightly controlled yet so alive with menace. “Outside.”
“Nah,” said Jeff. “I say we just—”
Dane slammed his fist into the prick’s jaw like a fucking pro. Jeff’s head snapped to the side with the force of the blow, and his eyes went out of focus. Lights out. Jeff dropped to the carpet, almost knocking down his chair. It all happened so damn fast … and I wasn’t as progressive as I’d like to believe, apparently, because all that strength and power affected me on a very primal, viciously sexual level.
God, I needed help.
I rounded the table and touched Dane’s arm. “We should go.” The spectacle hadn’t gone unnoticed, and I didn’t fancy watching my fake husband get arrested. “Hanna, thanks for inviting me.” I promised to call her soon and then exited the bar with Dane.
Outside, I took a long breath. I didn’t know who I was angrier with—Jeff for being a sack of shit, Dane for coming here to pick me up like it was past my curfew, or myself for finding that little display of violence something of a turn-on.
“Well that was fucking fun.” I sighed. “Why did you come here?”
“It would have looked rather strange if I hadn’t, since I’m a man who wouldn’t like even the thought of my wife sitting in a bar without me right beside her. You should have called me the second things got ugly in there.”
“I was handling it.”
“You shouldn’t have to. Did anyone else in there try some ‘banter’ with you?”
Knowing a bunch of people would lose their jobs if I told him what happened, I instead replied, “No.”
Dane put his face close to mine. “I want their names.”
“Nobody said—”
“Don’t lie to me, Vienna. I want every name, and I want to know everything they said. You can tell me about it in the car.” Dane took my hand and began to lead me across the wide road. “Is this going to become a thing now?”
I frowned. “What?”
“You not coming straight home from work.”
“No more than you returning to o-Verve or attending late dinner meetings has become a thing, I’m sure,” I said primly. As we reached the center of the road, I dropped my purse. “Shit.” I bent down and grabbed it.
Hearing an engine rev up and tires screeching, I looked to see a pair of blinding headlights speeding through a red light while swaying almost drunkenly. The jeep collided with another car, sending it skidding along the road … toward us.
I froze for what felt like endless seconds as an old memory hit me hard. But I snapped out of it when Dane began yanking me toward the curb.
I could hear the car still skidding toward us. I could smell the burn of rubber chafing the ground. It slowed to a halt just as we reached the sidewalk. It was right then that my heel caught on something and I tripped.