Bennett (On the Line 2)

I went over to the splintered coffee table they’d just rolled off of. “You guys, stop!”

“Move,” Liam said with a scowl. He

was pulling a handful of Bennett’s hair, blood dripping from his eyebrow onto Bennett’s cheek.

Bennett grunted in pain and threw an elbow into Liam’s ribs. He tossed Liam to the side and got up, breathing hard. One of his eyes was purple and swollen nearly shut.

“Stop,” he said to Liam. He put out a hand to me, silently telling me to back up. I did, putting a protective hand over my stomach.

Liam caught his breath and jumped up, hurling himself at Bennett again. Bennett stepped back against the wall, dodging the punch Liam had aimed at his jaw. Liam’s fist sank through the waiting room drywall. He let out another primal growl and pulled it out.

“That’s it,” Bennett said, shaking his head as he looked at the gaping hole in the wall. “We’re done.”

He spun Liam around and kicked his shins from behind. When Liam lost his footing, Bennett shoved his face into the seat of a padded chair and restrained his arms behind his back.

Liam turned his face so his cheek was pressed to the chair. “Let me up if you want to live.”

Bennett just held him silently. The staff had evacuated the office and we were alone in the room now.

“What are you going to do?” I asked Bennett.

“Hold him ’til he comes to his senses.”

“I’ll never—” Liam started.

The waiting room door opened then and four uniformed police officers walked in. I knew two of them from work.

“Charlotte?” one of them asked, hand on his nightstick. “You okay?”

“Yes.” I wiped furiously at my cheek. “Liam, you will stop now. You’re both getting arrested. This is over.”

“We doing this peacefully?” an officer asked Bennett.

Bennett let go of Liam and raised his hands in the air. “Yeah.”

Liam raised his head, the chair cushion streaked with his blood. He just nodded, stood, and offered his hands up for the cuffs.

“I’m so sorry, Charlotte,” Bennett said, his voice thick with emotion.

I was too numb to even answer. The waiting room was a wreck. I watched Bennett’s and Liam’s backs as they were walked out, then sank down into the nearest chair.

I definitely wasn’t finding out the sex of the baby today. It looked like instead, I’d be going to the police station to bail out Bennett and Liam.

Bennett

I shifted my hands in my lap, trying to stop the handcuffs from digging into my wrists. It didn’t work. Fucking Liam. I glared at him across the police department conference room table.

“Don’t look at me.” He scowled at me.

“Just enjoying the view of your smashed face.”

“Yours isn’t looking so great, either.”

I shook my head. “Couldn’t have picked a worse time and place, man. You scared the shit out of those people in the waiting room.”

“Like hell. They were watching like it was an episode of Springer.”

“Yeah, it kinda felt like one,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Real classy, douchebag.”