changes your mind.”
Zak’s mouth covered hers, his tongue an invading army. Cassie fought for air as she tried to push him away, but even drunk, he was much stronger than his lanky frame indicated. She didn’t have enough room to knee him in the groin so she did the next best thing.
She smashed her high heel down and ground the point into his foot.
Zak broke the kiss, roaring an obscenity, as his body seemed to magically fly away from her. Then Cassie saw why.
Rhett had Zak by the collar. He slammed him into the wall face first. She heard the dull crunch and knew the comedian’s nose had broken.
The two women exited the restroom at that moment and one of them screamed. That started the other one screaming and their two-part harmonies could have shattered glass a block away.
Cassie watched in horror as Zak, his nose gushing blood, spun away from Rhett and then slugged him directly in the eye. Rhett’s head snapped back and hit the wall as Zak attacked Rhett’s ribs. Rhett roared something unintelligible and fought back, pummeling Zak, his blows striking Zak from his face to his stomach. Blood was everywhere.
The women kept up their symphony, drawing a crowd at the edge of the hallway. She heard Ken yell Rhett’s name, and then somehow Breck bullied his way through and pulled Rhett off. Zak lay still on the ground. Her eyes met Rhett’s. She ran the few feet between them and they clung together.
Then the flashes began. Cassie knew immediately that the paparazzi had somehow made their way in. Rhett turned them away from the intrusive cameras but the damage had been done.
“Call an ambulance,” Rhett hollered, trying to protect Cassie from the blinding light.
“Back off!” Breck shouted at the photographers. He stood and tried to block the scene from their lenses.
Rhett peeled off his jacket and slipped it under Zak’s head. As people pressed around them, he told Cassie, “He’s breathing. He’ll be all right. He’s got to be all right.”
Somehow, Breck came up with a few cloth napkins and Cassie mopped the blood from Zak’s face. He moaned.
“You’re fine, Zak,” she whispered. “The ambulance is on its way.”
His eyelids fluttered a few times and then opened. He glared at Rhett. “This piece of ass is worth our friendship, Hotshot?”
Rhett’s arm went instinctively around Cassie. “Pretty much, Zak.”
The comedian groaned. “Does this mean I can’t play poker with the gang anymore?”
Rhett frowned. “Not if you try treating Cassie like some two-bit whore in a back alley. And not if you continue to drink yourself into these stupid situations. It’s time you got help.”
Zak sighed. “I better get some really good material outta this, Hotshot. Fight stuff. Hospital stuff. Nurse sympathy.” He managed a weak grin. “Lots of nurse action.”
“Are you serious?” Cassie asked. “You’re beaten to a pulp and all you’re thinking about is your act?”
Zak shrugged. “Sorry, Cassie. The act always comes first—but sex is never far behind.” He grinned sloppily. “If I do rehab, I’m bound to get some great stuff from there.”
“Coming through!” yelled a paramedic. “Move over, people.”
Rhett and Cassie stood and moved back to the restroom doors.
“I’m so sorry,” Rhett apologized. “I saw him on you and you struggling and I went nuts.”
Cassie took his hand. “I know. I’m sorry, too.”
“You didn’t do anything, babe.”
Cassie steeled herself. “Rhett, maybe this isn’t meant to be. I seem to bring trouble with me. I can’t imagine what this incident will do to your career.”
His fingers sank into her arms. “Don’t say that, Cassie. Fuck my career! I have enough money to live on for the rest of my life. I could paint houses or train horses or sack groceries. It wouldn’t matter. I don’t care what the papers print. I do care what you say. Please. Don’t leave. Promise me.”
Cassie saw in his tortured eyes how much he really cared for her. Tears began to flow down her cheeks.
“I won’t leave you. I love you,” she blurted out.
Rhett’s forehead came to rest against hers. “I love you, too.” He kissed her deeply, clinging to her as a drowning man would a piece of driftwood.
”Excuse me.”
They broke apart and Cassie saw two policemen standing in front of them.
“Mr. Corrigan, we need to speak to you about what happened. You, too, Miss.”
CHAPTER 22
Rhett held the Ziploc filled with ice against his face as he left Pomodoro, partly to ease the ache along his cheekbone and eye and partly to block his face from the