Like take home the one woman that would get my head knocked off by Emmie.
Oh, fuck that! What was I going to do about Lana?
“Did we..?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words “have sex.” That would just be the nail in my coffin. That would mean the end of everything I loved and cherished. Oh, GOD! I had fucked up so bad.
“No.” Gabriella shook her dark head. “No sex.”
“Fuck!” I felt the tears sting my sinus cavity. That didn’t mean shit! So what if I hadn’t had sex with her? She had still been in my room and I had been drunk. Something must have happened even if we didn’t have sex. “Get your fucking clothes on and get out!” I bellowed.
“Trust me, Demon. I was doing just that. I’m not exactly proud of myself, you know.” She dropped her towel and pulled on her panties. The sight of her naked body did nothing for me. If anything, I was more disgusted―disgusted with her, but mostly myself.
I put on a pair of boxers and followed her out of my room to make sure that she left. I felt the tension as soon as I left the bedroom, knew that I was about to walk into a war zone the second I opened the door. Clenching my jaw I took a step forward, ready to face this like a man…
Man or not, I wasn’t ready for the punch that Layla aimed at my throat!
She was standing by the couch, blocking Gabriella’s path to the door. She was glaring at Gabriella hard, her body tense, ready to pounce. I was debating on whether to step in or not, leaning more toward not, when suddenly I couldn’t draw a breath.
A wheeze escaped me and I doubled over, trying to suck in air. The fact that I had nearly swallowed my Adam’s apple wasn’t lost on me as I fought through the pain.
“Do you think I would just let you walk past me without dealing with you?” I heard Layla saying. Her tone was so frosty, goose bumps popped up on my arms. “I don’t let little bitches like you hurt my family.”
Gabriella screamed in pain and I raised my head to find her on the couch where Layla had pushed her over. The little Italian was probably second guessing her choice of keeping her hair long as Layla wrapped it around her fist and shook Gabriella’s head like a rag doll while she screamed in her face.
“I will fucking end you!” Layla spit in her face. “Do you hear me, bitch? End you!”
Jesse pulled his wife off the other woman. “Okay, babe. I think she gets the point.” With his arms wrapped tightly around Layla’s waist, he pulled her back, but she was still kicking and swinging her arms in her determination to do just as she had promised.
Gabriella had a bleeding lip, and I saw a hand full of hair still gripped in Layla’s hand. Tears poured down Gabriella’s face. “I didn’t screw the Demon!” she screamed back at Layla once Jesse had her at a safe distance. “We didn’t even kiss.”
“Yeah, so that explains why you were naked in bed with him.” Emmie’s frosty voice came from across the living room, and I turned my head to see her sitting on the chair as if a cat fight hadn’t just taken place mere feet from her. Fuck, she was pissed. I could see the temper that went with that red hair of hers burning in those wild green eyes.
“I was drunk!” Gabriella excused. “I didn’t think about it when I was trying to get comfortable.”
One brow rose. “Why were you even here in the first place?”
“He could barely stand after the second bottle. Axton was off with his new flavor of the month trying to keep Liam from screwing with her. I felt bad for the drunken slob.” Gabriella wiped her bleeding lip with the hem of her shirt. “So I helped him home. Even as drunk as I was, I still wasn’t nearly as gone as he was.”
Emmie sat there staring at Gabriella for a full minute. Her eyes narrowed at the other woman, as if looking for any signs that she was lying. God, I hoped she wasn’t lying because I didn’t know what I was going to do if something had happened.
“Get out, Gabriella. Don’t look at any of my guys again or you will think that the beating Layla just gave you was a tickle compared to what I will do to you.”
The pain was fading now, so I saw the look cross Gabriella’s face. The bitch really didn’t know when to stop when she was ahead. I grimaced as she opened her smart-ass mouth. “What are you going to do, little miss perfect? Nothing, that’s what, or you would have done it when I told you that BS about your precious Nik…”
She broke off with a scream as Emmie went flying at her, nails pointed right for her pretty face. Gabriella tried to protect her face as Emmie’s fists swung back. The sound of slapping echoed in the room, and I saw another handful of Gabriella’s hair, gripped in Emmie’s hands this time. Emmie’s curses would have had a sailor blushing the way she spat them out.
“Emmie!” Jesse had given her a good two minutes before he tried to step in, but Emmie was too far gone in her rage. “Enough, Em!” He tried to pull her off the other woman but only got a scratch across his cheek to show for his efforts.
I wasn’t about to step in. Gabriella deserved everything she was getting. If she had been smart, she would have kept her mouth shut and left. Instead, she had opened that mouth of hers, and Emmie had been unable to control herself a moment longer. It had been more than two years coming, but the dam was now busted wide open, and Emmie wasn’t going to stop until she had it all out of her system.
It was Layla that put an end to the fighting. Still pissed at the other woman, she was none to gentle as she grabbed Gabriella by the hair and pulled her out from under Emmie. When Emmie went to follow, Layla put herself between the two of them. “She’s had enough, Em.” Layla’s calm voice broke through Emmie’s red haze. “She’s just a little crying ball of fur now.”
Layla pushed Gabriella away from her, and she landed on her ass―hard. Layla pulled Emmie into her arms, rocking her. “It’s okay, Emmie.”
Finally, Gabriella played it smart and left. I didn’t give her a second glance as she brushed passed me. The door slammed shut behind her, but my gaze was on the two women sitting on my couch.
“You really need to cut your nails, Em,” Jesse complained, and I got a good look at the scratch on his right cheek. It was about an inch long and bleeding.
“Fuck!” Emmie was full of remorse. “Oh, Jess, I’m sorry!”
“It’s just a scratch, sweetheart.” His gaze shifted to me. “In light of Gabriella’s confession, I’m glad I don’t have to stomp your fucking ass.”