“Get the hell away from her,” Zack barked. “Now.”
He didn’t want this man so much as touching her. Thinking to protect her from Zack? This guy had shady written all over him. What the ever-loving hell was Gracie’s association with Sterling and why was there possessiveness written all over the other man’s face? As if Gracie belonged to him, was his to protect when she’d always been Zack’s. But then maybe . . . God, he couldn’t—wouldn’t—go there. His sanity was already hanging by the barest thread and he was precariously close to losing all semblance of control, he who was always in control, his emotions always tightly in check.
Gracie let out an inarticulate sound of fear and even with her behind Wade it was apparent she was in full meltdown. Wade turned to his assistant, allowing Zack a brief glance at Gracie, whose face was red and swollen, tears streaking down her cheeks and so terrified that it broke Zack’s fucking heart.
Beau intercepted Zack, putting his hand on Zack’s shoulder.
“You need to back off, man,” he said in a low voice. “Look at her. Is that what you want to do to a woman ever?”
Eliza was at his other side, her arm curled around his arm, obviously in support, but so too was her sympathy for Gracie evident in her eyes, her features as stricken as Gracie’s own.
Gracie’s fear and distress was palpable in the room. No one was unaffected, least of all Zack. But why was she afraid of him? It made no goddamn sense! The world had gone crazy around him and he needed answers. The longer he went without them, the more insane it was driving at him, eating at his very soul until he was about to go mad with it.
“Back the fuck off,” Dane growled.
It pissed Zack off that members of his own team was putting themselves between him and Gracie, as if they feared him hurting her. Him. Jesus Christ. But then they’d never seen him so unhinged and out of control. They were likely having their own what-the-fuck moment and wondering just who the hell they’d hired when, until now, he’d always been cool and unflappable, even under the most extreme circumstances.
“She is—was—my goddamn life,” Zack choked out in a gut-wrenching tone.
Gracie was struggling against Wade’s hold on her, obviously in a bid to escape. To run. To get as far away from here—Zack—as possible. Wade’s hold only tightened on her. And that only served to piss Zack off even more. This man had no right to touch her, to hold her against her will, even if he thought he was protecting her.
“Call the police,” Sterling barked at his assistant.
Dane held his hands up. “Whoa. I think everyone needs to take a step back and calm the hell down. You called us here.”
“And I’ve asked you to leave,” Sterling said bitingly. “Which you’ve refused to do. So unless you get out in the next three seconds, the police will be called and you will be charged with harassment. One has only to look at her to believe that charge.”
He nodded again at Cheryl, who seemed frozen in place, eyes wide, still clutching the painting that had started it all.
“We’re leaving,” Dane said calmly.
“No, the hell we’re not!” Zack roared. “Not until someone gives me some goddamn answers!”
Eliza gently pulled him a short distance away from Beau and the others and said in a voice too low for the others to hear, “Hon, come on. You’re doing more harm than good. Look at her. Really look at her. She’s scared out of her mind. And this standoff isn’t doing her any good. I understand that this is important to you. But you know where she is now. You know who she is. I’ll help you. I swear I won’t rest until I help you get the information you need. But right now, you have to leave or this is going to get even uglier than it already is. And if this woman is important to you, which she obviously is, then you aren’t winning any points here. Don’t do or say something you can never take back. Take the high road. Not out of respect for that egotistical asshole, Sterling. But for Gracie. Do it for her.”
Dane and Beau both closed in on Zack, Dane gently nudging Eliza away with a soft directive to remove herself from the situation and then they both took Zack by the arms and hauled him toward the door.
It went against every fiber of Zack’s being to simply walk away, as Gracie had apparently once done. To just give up, without a fight, for the single most important person in his life. The only person who’d ever meant the entire goddamn world to him. The woman he would have done everything for. Sacrificed anything for, no matter how important. Would have protected with his life. And would have spent the rest of his life loving and cherishing her to the exclusion of all else.
But his team wasn’t giving him a choice. He struggled, but Isaac and Capshaw added their strength and they forced him past where Sterling stood, glaring them all down, his arm still tightly holding Gracie, who was firmly shielded behind his much larger body.
In the end, they simply subdued him, though it took them all, and with their combined strength they pushed him into the parking lot.
He wanted to hit someone. His fists were clenched and his body language was clearly defiant. The others knew it. Beau pushed him against his truck and got into his face.
“I don’t claim to know what the fuck just happened back there, but you need to pull it together and fast. This isn’t you, man. You don’t treat a terrified woman like you just did. You don’t push the issue when she’s out of her mind with fear. I get this is important, but there has to be another way than you ending up in jail on assault and harassment charges.”
Zack shoved him back and then closed in, going nose-to-nose with Beau.
“You tell me, if that was Ari. If someone got between you and Ari and then told you to back the fuck off. Would you just walk away? Take the fucking high road?” Zack roared, throwing the last two words out with the disdain they deserved.
Beau paused, his eyes flickering with instant understanding. Then he closed his eyes a moment and sighed. “Jesus. So it’s like that.”
Rage. Grief. Fury. Soul-deep sorrow. They engulfed Zack and despair slammed into him like a tidal wave. His shoulders sagged and he closed his eyes, leaning back against the vehicle and out of Beau’s—his friend’s—face.
Eliza’s cool hand covered his arm, squeezing just enough to get his attention and wrest him from the fog surrounding him.