Free Noah by Justine Elvira Page B

although,
when she sees you down here she's not going to want to hop in a
cab."
    "Kendall? Why are you going to get Kendall?"
    "Because I'm short staffed tonight and my bouncer
couldn't leave to escort her out of the office so I came to do it,
and thank God , I did. I
would never forgive myself if something happened to you,
shorty."
    Fixing my skirt I lift a hand to my cheekbone to
assess the damage. I feel a small cut where the bastard on the
ground broke skin with the force of his punch. I wince as I touch
it because it burns.
    Noah is going to be so mad when he finds out
Kendall's not up there. I might as well rip the bandage off and
tell him now before he wastes a trip.
    "Umm, Noah." I put my head down and look at my feet
as I slightly pout my lower lip, hoping it does the trick.
    He steps in front of me, his black Chucks entering my
line of vision. He's in jeans and one of the shirts his bartenders
usually wear. His palm meets my shoulder and he squeezes gently.
"What's the matter, shorty?"
    "Kendall's
not in the
office."
    "What do you mean? Of course she is. She closed for
me tonight."
    "No, no she's not." I pause to swallow and take a
deep breath. Shit's about to get real. Here it goes. "I closed down
the office tonight."
    The soft, tender expression on his face as he
comforted me just moments ago is gone. In its place is a very
pissed off Noah.
    "You what!" he yells as he drags a hand through his
brown hair. Scowling , he
begins to pace the ground in front of me. When he turns right he
stares down at the man on the floor like he wants to kill him, and
when he turns left he's looking straight at me as if he's never met
me before. He goes back and forth, and back and forth, and the
silence in the small area behind the stairwell is starting to feel
suffocating. I need to get out of here. I need some fresh air.
    When Noah's back is to me and he's walking in the
direction of my assailant, I walk out from behind the stairwell and
onto the sidewalk. Something about the early hours in the city is
both comforting and terrifying. It's quieter, filled only with the
sounds of passing vehicles, but in the shadows you know bad things
can happen.
    Things like what just happened to me tonight.
    My chest expands as I take in a deep breath, inhaling
the cold night air, and when I exhale that first breath I
immediately feel better. I continue to suck in as much fresh oxygen
as possible before I'm forced to go back under that stairwell and
talk to Noah.
    I hear his voice from behind me and it's calm,
nothing like how he sounded a few moments ago. "You can't just walk
away from me, Skye. This is serious."
    "I know, Noah, and we'll talk about it, but right now
I just want to go home. Can I go home?"
    "We can't yet."
    He pulls out his phone and dials 911. We wait for the
police in silence and when two squad cars and an ambulance arrive,
Noah takes them back to the stairwell where my attacker is still
knocked unconscious. He must have hit him pretty hard.
    I give my statement to the police and
thankfully , it
wasn ’ t as bad reliving
what happened as I thought it would be. They let me give my
statement right there on the street. I'm not forced to go down to
the station and I have a feeling Noah has something to do with
that. He'd been talking to the cops about how I was still shaken up and
want ed to go home.
    They end up taking my attacker to the hospital with a
police escort to make sure he's okay before bringing him in. Noah
hails a cab for us to take home to the apartment. We ride all the
way to our apartment complex in silence. There really
isn ’ t much to be said
about the attack tonight that hasn't already been said, and there
is no way I want to discuss why I was working in Forbidden Desires'
office tonight. If he's this mad about a few hours in an office,
he'll have a shit fit when I tell him I've actually been working
for him for months.
    Noah tips the driver and once we're at my front door
I remember Caleb's not home and I'll