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He nods, desperate and cornered "Yes, yes, I proht try to fight me like a man, but instead, he stumbles back, then turns and flees He falls into the driver’s seat of his fancy car, and starts the engine, racing out of the parking lot with his tires squealing

I catchhie When I opened the door and saw his hands on her, the fear on her face, I swear, I lostbut red: fury and violence, and the primal instinct to protect her whatever the cost

Carina

I think of her late-night arrival in Beachwood, the shadows in her eyes, the ugly bruise blooht she was just here for so could I be? Shaust There I was, teasing her, taunting her, and all the while…

Dammit This isfor her, breaking into a desperate run "Carina!" I yell, looking wildly around It’s dark out, I can’t see one far "Carina, where are you?"

There’s no reply Hell, I can’t blame her I’m the last person she iven her

And nearly beating the shit out of her father won’t have helped either

I reach the end of the street where the road meets the harbor and stop There’s a distant shadow on the end of the jetty It’s just a sainst the dark of the ocean, but I feel it indown towhat the hell I can say Questions whirl inanswers, but when I finally reach the end of the jetty and see her, every thought wipes blank froht with her ar, and I can hear her crying--the sound of every sob striking right to the heart of me

I’m down on my knees beside her before I can even think "Hey," Ifor her

She flinches back instinctively Da a dark truth I can hardly stand How many people have hurt her? How ently, "it’s just me"

Carina looks up at me with tear-soaked eyes and the expression on her face breaks my heart in two: her blue eyes filled with fatho out, broken, and it sends a bolt of pain through my chest to see her this way I can’t understand how a man could hurt her, put his hands on her--dare to wipe the laughter froone," I reassure her "He won’t be coain, and it’s ain

I should’ve killed that sonofabitch when I had the chance