Rule Breaker (Breeds 20)

“Of pain,” Dagger growled.

“Damn him,” Diane whispered beside him.

Lawe could only shake his head, reaching back to rub at his neck and send a small prayer heavenward. Rule was determined to destroy himself and his little mate, it seemed.

“Go,” Diane urged him. “You have all that freaky Breed sense going on, you’ll know what to do and say far better than I will.”

“You could come with me,” he urged her gently.

“Go,” she waved him away. “I’ll just want to convince her to go with me and kick his ass. That’s not what she needs. Don’t worry, I’ll wait right here for you.”

Bending his head, he brushed a quick kiss to her lips before following Gypsy, waving the doorman back as he moved for his phone where it lay on the small counter just outside the doors. No doubt, his first instinct was to contact Jonas Wyatt. Lawe really didn’t think Rule needed Jonas poking his nose into this right now.

Gypsy stood to the side of the entrance, just out of sight of those inside, huddled in the shadows.

Pausing, Lawe breathed out heavily before stepping to her, watching as she quickly shifted to hide the fact that her dress was still partially unzipped. Shrugging his jacket from his shoulders, he gently laid it across hers, pulling the edges together in the front.

She looked up then, her pretty dark green eyes bright with unshed tears.

“Tell me,” he said softly, his vo

ice filled with an understanding he feared would never be enough for whatever Rule had done to this young woman. “What stupidity has my brother acted on this time?” Barely brushing the soft flesh beneath her jaw, he urged her to glance up at him as he smiled back at her gently. “I believe the scientists may have dropped him on his head one time too many when he was a babe.”

She didn’t smile back at him. “No stupidity,” she whispered instead. “He’s just a man.”

“A Breed,” he corrected her, thinking it an oversight.

She shook her head slowly, her eyes dazed with confusion and such aching hurt that it tightened his chest.

“No,” she denied, her voice thickening as she swallowed. “He’s just a man.”

Whatever Rule had done, he had cut so deep into her woman’s soul that Lawe actually feared now that repairing it might be impossible. He hadn’t just hurt her feelings, he thought, shocked; Rule had sliced her open.

And that simply wasn’t like his brother.

Of the two of them, Rule had been the one more prone to cuddle and spoil his lovers. He laughed with them, teased them more than Lawe ever had. He had never, at any time, done anything more than hurt their feelings when he moved on.

“What has he done, Gypsy?” he asked her again, urging her to confide in him. “Perhaps, whatever it was, he didn’t mean to hurt you as deeply as he obviously has.”

“Hurt me?” She jerked her head up, staring back at him with patently false surprise. “There’s no hurt, Enforcer, I promise. He even offered to drive me home. I simply preferred to find my own way. That’s all.”

The blatant lie almost had his lips curling in another smile, one that would assure her he had seen through it. But the white-hot agony pouring from her deserved far more than even a facsimile of humor.

As he stared down at her somberly, her lips suddenly began to tremble before she lifted her fingers and forced them to stillness.

“I want to go home,” she whispered, and she felt so lost, so very alone that his heart absolutely broke for her, and he was reminded vividly of that night, nine years before, when she had whispered those same words.

“Carl,” he called to the doorman.

“Yes, Enforcer Justice?” Carl maintained his distance, though he too watched Gypsy worriedly.

“Would you call down and have my driver pull my car around, please?” he asked the doorman.

“Yes, sir.” Carl moved quickly to do as he was asked, calling down to the Breed parking level where one of the enforcers on duty would be waiting in case they were needed.

Then he turned back to Gypsy and ached to find a way to comfort her. Unfortunately, there was little he or even Diane could do. The scent of mating wasn’t as strong as he’d scented on others, but it was there. Another male’s touch could be extremely painful during Mating Heat. He couldn’t even pat her delicate shoulder. Diane couldn’t give her one of those girl hugs that she was forever giving her friends.

Gypsy was forced to stand alone, without comfort. And for that, Lawe thought, his brother deserved to have his ass kicked.