“Go to hell!” She kicked out at him once more, catching him hard in the chest. Just like all those mannequins at the gym. “And you can take your little art project with you!”
She ripped open the door as he went stumbling back, and took off sprinting down the hall towards the elevator. Her hair streamed out behind her as she ran with all her might—not daring to look behind her. She’d just slammed her fingers down on the button, when a strong hand caught the back of her dress and yanked her clear off her feet.
She fell to the ground with a muffled shriek. All the air rushed out of her as the silhouette of a tall man dove on top—pinning her to the floor. She struggled and kicked, but was no match for his strength. She tried screaming for help, but the second she opened her mouth, a hard slap to the temple had her head spinning in a daze. Another slap, and her body went suddenly still.
Choking on a thick cloud of incense. Blinking slowly as the world blurred in and out of focus. She punched him in the face and tried to knee him in the balls.
“Lacy?!”
“Logan?”
“Get the FUCK away from her!” Logan shouted.
A sharp impact shook her where she lay. Another one rocked the very floorboards. The third was followed by a sharp cry, and the inescapable weight pressing her down suddenly lifted.
With a look of wonder, she slowly opened her eyes...only to see that beautiful face staring back at her. It was pale. Tense with panic. Bleeding from a cut above the eye.
“Lacy?” Logan said her name again, sinking at once to his knees with a look of pure devastation on his face. “Honey, are you alright? Please—say something! Talk to me!”
He seemed scared to move her. Worried he might do more damage.
“Clary,” he slipped into the nickname again, his lovely blue eyes focused intently on her face as he ever-so-gently stroked back her hair, “give me some sort of sign. Talk to me. Please.”
Lacy gazed up at his face. Blinked three times. Then lifted a hand to her temple.
“...ow.”
Chapter 28
When Lacy opened her eyes, she thought that the nightmare would be over. Her white knight had come to save her. Now was the part where they were supposed to ride off into the sunset. Hand in hand. Completely free.
It wasn’t until that same white knight was suddenly ripped away from her, that she realized their troubles had just begun...
There was a sharp cry, followed by a muffled profanity as Logan was lifted suddenly into the air. Just as he was leaning down to kiss her. That lovely smile still lighting up his face. He flew back through the air, before crashing hard into the opposite wall—falling to the ground with a muffled groan as pieces of glass from a broken picture rained down on top of him.
“How sweet.” Lacy looked up to see Peter pacing on the ground in between them. A stream of blood was trickling down from somewhere inside his hair, and he kept shaking out one of his arms, like he was trying to regain the feeling. “The billionaire flies in to the rescue.”
Before Logan could get up, he rushed forward—kicking him squarely in the ribs. There a quiet snap, followed by a muffled groan, as Logan’s blonde head sank into his arms.
“Stop it!” Lacy’s voice was so shrill, she almost didn’t recognize it. By now, she had managed to pull herself to her feet, but the room was still spinning. Despite all of her kickboxing over the last few years, she had never taken an actual, ungloved punch to the face. Let alone two of them. Let alone from a guy who looked like he was coming up on seven feet. “Just stop it!”
A helpless distraction, but an effective one. Peter turned his attention away from Logan and rounded on her instead, staring down at her swaying body with a sinister smile.
“But you know I can’t do that, Clary.” He recycled Logan’s nickname with a little sneer, as if he planned on saying it many more times that night. “You see, your precious boyfriend is just going to have to wait his turn. He might get you in the long run, but this is my night. My night,” he said again, stepping even closer. “And I plan to enjoy every second of it.”
She stumbled into the wall as he caught her by the back of the neck—tilting her face up for a kiss. The smell of his aftershave turned her stomach, and she was ready to kick him in the balls as hard as she could. But she had clearly underestimated the billionaire in question.
While Peter might have had things all planned out, Logan had plans of his own.
“LET HER GO!”
There was a vicious cry as he came out of nowhere, tackling the man on the fly. The force of the impact rattled the very walls, and a second later, both men were falling to the floor in a violent tangle, both thrashing around and trying to get the upper hand.
Elbows were flying. Hair was whipping back and forth. Knuckles were smearing streaks of blood all over the floor. For one horrifying second, Peter circled around behind and wrapped his arm around Logan’s neck in a chokehold, but Logan simply smashed his head back with all his might—breaking the man’s nose.
“Sorry,” he panted, pushing shakily to his feet while kicking the man in the ribs at the same time, “but I was never that good at waiting my turn.”
Lacy was in his arms the next second. Gripping onto him for dear life, as her attacker shuddered and groaned on the ground behind them. She wanted to be held. To be comforted. To be reassured that everything was going to be alright. But Logan hadn’t risen to the top of a high-stakes corporate ladder for nothing. When the adrenaline started flowing, he didn’t panic. He grew suddenly calm. A dangerous, chilling kind of calm. She tried to lean in, but he pulled back—catching her gently by the arms as he looked her up and down, scanning for damages.