“Is he hurting my dad?”

I swallow, not knowing how to answer that.

“He deserves it,” the kid says. “I don’t like it when he hurts me, but I’m not big enough to stop him.”

My hearts aches from the sadness in his voice, and suddenly I want to hurt his father myself.

“What’s your name, kid?” I question softly.

“Ian Bradley,” he answers. “Is that guy going to make him stop hurting me?”

“Yes,” I answer without thinking. I have a feeling that after Royal is done with him, that fucker will be too sore to do anything for a while. “He’ll do everything he can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” I run my thumb over his bruised eye. “Stay here.”

Storming my way over to the pool table, I stop dead in my tracks when Royal pulls out a gun and shoves it in the guy’s mouth.

The guy starts mumbling and trying to pull away, but Blaine grabs the back of his head and holds it still.

“You like the way my gun fucking tastes, you piece of shit?”

The guy shakes his head in a panic.

“No! No, motherfucker!” Royal shoves the gun deeper into his mouth and pulls back the hammer, making him squirm and drool as he struggles to get away. “Touch your kid again, and next time you’ll be tasting my fucking bullet.”

Blaine slaps the back of the guy’s head as he starts mumbling something over and over again. “I can’t fucking hear you,” he says in his ear. “Gonna have to talk louder.”

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles louder so we can all hear this time. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Remember that shit,” Royal barks. “Be expecting visits from me for a while.”

He pulls his gun out of the guy’s mouth and leans his head back in frustration as he notices me watching him.

His eyes stay on me for a few seconds as if he’s trying to read me, before he turns to Blaine. “Make sure the kid can remember my number by heart. Don’t let them leave until he can repeat it back on his own.”

“Fucking done,” Blaine says with a nod. He grabs the douche bag by the back of the hair and pulls him up to his feet. “Go wait outside until we send your boy out.”

He nods his head, while fighting to catch his breath. “I’ll do that and I won’t touch him again. Shit, I promise. I mean it. I won’t . . .”

Royal gives him a look that sends him rushing out the door. After the door closes behind him, Royal opens his jacket and puts his gun away, while locking his eyes with mine.

He looks worried, as if he’s just done something in front of me that he regrets.

“Go with the boys.” He runs both of his hands through his hair, tugging in frustration as he breaks eye contact. “I need a bit.”

He doesn’t wait for my response, before turning away and walking into a room, slamming the door behind him.

By the time I walk back over to Madison and the guys, Blaine is walking Ian away from the bar and outside to send him off with his loser father.

So many emotions are running through my head that I have no idea what to do or think.

Madison seems just as stunned into silence as I am.

The weirdest part is that I feel like what he did was a good thing. He cares about the boy’s safety and that only tells me that his heart is still there somewhere.

It may be broken and in pain, shattered from loss and hurt, but it’s very well there and in the right place. I just hope I can find it before it’s too late.

I have no idea what this man is doing to me, but I’m afraid for it to stop . . .

“FUUUUCK!”

Screaming out in frustration and complete hatred, I grab my desk and flip it over, before kicking my chair against the wall, leaving a dent.

I’m so fucking heated and disgusted that I can barely breathe right now from the anger that is running through my veins.

I never meant for her to see me threaten a man’s fucking life, but when I saw the kid all bruised up and beaten, my head filled with rage and I lost it. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it either.

It’s fuckers like that abusive piece of shit out there that provoke me and eat at me, creating the dirt that I’ve become.

Pressing my hands against the wall, I hang my head low and take a few long, deep breaths, before I end up going back out there and pulling the fucking trigger.

There’s too much darkness inside my head to stop it if I get one more look at the kid.

Standing here, my whole body stiffens when I hear the door open and see the light spill into the small room, but I’m too tense to pull my eyes away from the wall, so I just close my eyes to the sound of her heels echoing throughout the room.

I tilt my head back and suck in a deep breath, when I feel a set of dainty arms wrap around my waist and hear the sound of her soft breathing as she rests her head against my back to comfort me.

We stay like this for a few minutes, before she slides around my body and into the space between the wall and me.

Avalon’s eyes are deep as she takes me in.

Her hands run up my body, opening my jacket to expose my gun. She runs the tips of her fingers over it, while looking me in the eyes.

“You helped that kid tonight, Royal.” She grabs my face, pulling it closer to hers as I stiffen. “Someone needed to protect him. He had a lot of bruises.”

“I wanted to kill him,” I admit. “I almost did.”

Giving me a pained look, she grabs the back of my neck and brushes her lips over mine, calming me. “But you didn’t. Instead, you gave him a reason to fear hurting his son again. That’s probably the best thing anyone has done for that kid.”

Fuck me . . . this woman.

Closing the distance between us, I tangle a hand into her long hair, crushing my lips to hers.

Feeling the tenderness of her sweet mouth against mine brings me back to sanity, making it easier to see clearly and let go of some of the anger that’s burning inside of me right now.

She does shit to me. She makes me feel less like a monster and more like the man I once was; the man I wish I could be.

“Fuck,” I whisper against her mouth, while pulling her hair back and tasting her sweet breath against my lips. “I need you . . .”

With strength, I flip her around, pressing her body against the wall. She moans out in surprise and places her hands against the wall for support.

Wrapping one hand around her tiny throat, I yank her dress up and pull her panties down below her ass with the other, before undoing my pants and reaching inside to pull my hard cock out.

Her breathing picks up and she cusses under her breath, as I rub the length of my erection across her ass, before reaching in my pocket for a condom.

I hold my cock against her ass; working her up as I stroke it a few times, before ripping the wrapper open with my teeth and rolling the condom over my length.

Gripping her waist, I brush the head of my cock over her slick pussy, teasing her and making her whimper, before entering her in one deep thrust.

“Ah . . . fuck . . . fuck . . .” she screams against my arm, before biting it. “Holy shit . . . that hurt.”

I yank her neck to the side and graze it with my teeth, while repeatedly pulling out and thrusting back into her, making her move up the wall and bite me harder with each hard thrust.

“Harder,” I demand, causing her teeth to dig into my arm. “Hurt me as much as it hurts you to have me inside you.”

“I can’t,” she says, while fighting to catch her breath. “Nothing can compare to what it feels like to have you inside me, Royal. It hurts more than you know.” She leans her head back and moans as I push in deeper and stop. “But I want to feel you so badly,” she whispers.