I’ll Pay You Double
My heart hammers in my chest, that ringing in my ear increasing until I swear I can’t hear.
“I haven’t done anything,” I whisper.
She scoffs, “I saw you with him this morning. You let someone with a girlfriend get that close to you?”
“Shouldn’t you be more worried about the fact that he was so close to kissing me?” I can’t help the way I scoff at her.
She stomps her foot and yells. “Bitch! He’s mine!”
“You should be telling him that, not me.”
That only angers her more and I don’t move in time, partly from the fact that I am not expecting it at all. She slaps me. Hard.
My cheek stings and that crazy look in her eyes, in her pointed nose and arched eyebrows, intensifies. Her face turns red and her nostrils flare.
“Stay away from him.”
I hold my hand on my cheek and stand up straight. “Did you just slap me?”
She crosses her arms over her chest and lifts her chin. “Yes. And we’ll do so much more than that.”
We?
She looks over her shoulder. “Will!”
The door opens and a big dude walks in. He’s tall, not muscular, but he for sure has not skipped a meal ever in his entire life. His shoe size looks like the two of mine combined.
He looks me over and then turns to Sadie. “You’ll keep your end of the bargain?”
She sneers. “Of course. Now, do it. I’m not staying to watch. I don’t like blood.”
I’ll Pay You Double
My eyes widen and I step toward her. “Please.”
“Too late, bitch. You shouldn’t have made a move on my boyfriend.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t-”
“Do not put this on him! Why would he go after you when he has me?” She wags her finger in my face and then gives Will a pointed look before spinning on her heel and leaving us alone.
I look up to Will and shake my head, backing up from him. “You’re not actually going to
hurt me, are you?”
“Eh, I don’t want to, but I don’t necessarily have anything against hitting a woman.”
He takes a step forward, his fist flying toward me. I move fast enough to dodge it, but it makes me miss his other hand that grabs the front of my shirt. I scream as he throws me
to the side.
I hit the sink with the side of my face and I cry, shocked when blood gushes down from my nose. I wipe at it, relief flooding me when it doesnt hurt like it’s broken.
He wraps his hand around my neck and lifts me up against the wall.
“Will, please. Whatever she’s paying you, I’ll double it.”
His eyes rake down my body and he lifts an eyebrow. “She promised me nudes.”
My face contorts in disgust. “Gross.”
He smirks, now knowing that I won’t double her payment. His body is massive and he covers my entire line of vision. All I can do is scream.
The door slams open and Will moves too slowly. By the time he turns to look over his shoulder, his head is snapped back toward me from a punch that echoes in the room.
He drops me and I slide down the wall to the ground, where I gasp for breath and look up to find Will on the floor and Zaid standing over him, raining punches on his face.
Jace stands at the door, his eyes wide.
2/4
# Pay You Double
“Stop, stop, stop!” Will cries, his arms flying to cover his face.
I hold my hand to my nose, checking if the bleeding has stopped and I stiffen when Zaid freezes, his chest heaving, his nostrils flaring.
He steps back from Will, kicking him one last time in the gut before nodding his head toward Jace. “Leave. Now, before I fucking kill you, Will.”
Will cries, sniffling through his tears as he forces himself up, one of his eyes already
swollen shut.
I exhale in relief the moment he steps outside, but all that tension returns when Zaid’s attention goes directly to me. His dark eyes take me in, his nostrils flaring even more and his knuckles cracking when he tightens his fists.
I scoot back when he takes a long stride toward me, gasping when he wraps his arms.
around me and lifts me on the sink counter.
Immediately, his fingers dance across the skin of my arms, my shoulders.
“Zaid, stop.”
But he continues fussing. He looks me over, lifting my shirt to look at my torso, I push his hands away, pulling the hem down. He moves his attention to my face, tilting my head
back as he looks at my nose.
“Zaid, I’m fine,” I grunt, twisting my face away from his hold.
“It’s not broken,” He mutters, eyes narrow while he studies the side of my face.
“I know that,” I reply, swallowing to stop the tears now that the adrenaline has left my
system.
His thumb caresses the side of my face and I hiss when pain radiates across my skull. “You could have a concussion. You’ll definitely have a bruise.”
I nod, too ready to break out into a cry to speak.
He leans his hands on the counter, on each side of my thighs and drops his head between his shoulders, “You want to get out of here?”
3/4
I’ll Pay You Double
I nod, feeling my tears roll down my face.
Zaid says nothing, but he wipes my cheeks with his thumbs and then grabs my waist to lift me down from the counter. He takes my hand and doesn’t let go as he leads me
through campus.
He pays the security guard at the gate in cash and he lets us through to the parking lot.
His car is small, black, and clean, the last part I wasn’t expecting. I sit silently as he pulls away and cross my arms over my chest.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
Zaid’s hand tightens around the steering wheel. “I don’t know what they were thinking.
Will is three times your size. He could have killed you.”
“Maybe that’s what they wanted to do.”
