Free The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) by Kaitlyn Kroner

face. A menacing smile spread across his face as he looked me up and down. “You new here?”
    “What business is it of yours?” Tyler asked. He leaned over me and came face-to-face with the guy. Probably not the smartest thing to do.
    “What business? What business?” He laughed and looked over his shoulder to four other guys. Great, he has friends . “Well, you see here, this is our table.” He gestured to us. “And will you look at that? People are sitting here.”
    “We were here first,” Mandy said. She flipped her hair behind her. “Go find somewhere else to sit.” Her gaze flicked up and down, and a look of disgust captured her features. 
    The guy stood up and crossed his arms, putting his full attention on Mandy. “No, what’s going to happen is you all will vacate the seats and leave. Or at least the little boys will. I bet we could have tons of fun with you girlies.” My body shuddered. I did not want to have any type of fun with these men.
    “No,” Tyler said.
    The guy leaned over me toward Tyler. I tried to shrink back as best I could. “Do you not understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?”
    “I’m very well aw—”
    “Then you will get your asses out of our seats now,” he boomed. He slipped a knife out of his pocket and started picking at his nails with it.
    My body stilled. The man was playing with the knife too close to my face. One little slip and I could get hit. “We’ll leave,” I said. I wanted to scoot farther away from but I stayed perfectly still. 
    The guy turned his face toward mine and smiled sadistically. “I’m glad to see you have a thinker on your hands.” He put his free hand on my face, causing me to flinch, and ran his thumb over my cheek. “Pretty little thing, maybe you could stay and keep me and my buddies some company.”
    I wanted to hurl his hand away, but I didn't. “No, thank you.”
    “That’s a bummer,” he said, licking his lips.
    Bile rose in my throat. I fisted my hands until I could feel the nails bite smartly into my skin. “If you can just put the knife away, we'll leave.”
    “We're not leaving,” Tyler gritted out. I wanted to smack him; I didn’t want to be this man’s play toy or pincushion.
    The man looked over at Tyler. “Boy, you must have a death wish.”
    “Maybe you should have gotten here sooner, so you could have gotten the table first. We. Are. Not. Leaving.” Tyler enunciated the last four words slowly. He sat back in his chair and smiled at the guy.
    The man looked at me, winked, and then punched Tyler in the face. I could hear the crunch, like someone stepping on glass, as Tyler's nose broke. Tyler and the chair fell backward from the weight of the punch. George stood and ran over to Tyler, but one of the man’s buddies grabbed on to him, and the two of them went down. Mandy and Sarah threw their drinks, with the glasses, at the man who was holding on to George. Tyler got up, holding his nose, blood pouring down. I could feel the blood leave my face. I was never able to be around other people’s blood. More blood gushed out as Tyler took his hand away, and I gagged at the sight of it. I had to look away, but I couldn’t. He wiped his hands on his pants before he threw a punch at the guy. I moved my head just in time to avoid being hit by Tyler. The man leaped over me and into Tyler, tackling him to the floor. George was now fighting with the man on the floor while Mandy and Sarah were both in headlocks by a different guy. They were scratching at his arms, but it was no use. The guy wasn’t budging. It would have been very comical if it had been a different situation and I hadn’t been involved. 
    I slowly made my way off the seat at the same time Tyler pushed the man into me. We both fell, the man landing on top of me, knocking the wind out of me and my forehead smacked into the ground, stars bursting into my vision. The man was so heavy I could barely breathe. He was still on my back when Tyler