Adam, Enough Said (This Can't be Happening) (42 page)

“Yeah, but I’m your jerk.”

I rolled my eyes and he moved to guide me in the right direction.

Outside the court
room door, just before Adam opened it for me, he bent and kissed me.

“I’m gonna run to the office real quick like we talked about. I hav
e a couple more things to tie up, you’ll be in there for at least two hours and there’s nothing I can do right now. Remember, all you’re doing is postponing your case to give you time to find an attorney. You won’t need one, but you need the time…or
I
need the time to work on getting the case dismissed. Did you get all that?”

I rolled my eyes
again and smirked. “Yes, Baby, I got it the first five times you told me.”

He grinned
back, his mouth swooped down on mine and then he muttered, “Call me as soon as you’re done so I can come get you. And wait for me inside the building, not outside.”

Then he let me go and
I felt his eyes watch me walk inside.

Exactly t
wo hours later, I walked out of the court room and headed straight for the restroom. I wished I could have waited, because the thought of using a court house restroom kind of grossed me out, but alas, I’d had way too much coffee and my bladder was about to explode.

I also wanted to get as far away from Missy’s bitch-ass as
fast as possible.

I hated her
so much I knew that if she got near me I’d end up back in jail.

She’d sat
in that court room the entire time in her too-tight clothes looking smug, but the worst part about the whole thing was that she sat there looking smug with Johnny, Adam’s old best friend from college.

A nic
e guy with shit taste in women.

Adam
actually stopped talking to Johnny, because he’d stayed with Missy after our apartment showdown when I’d moved out. But who would have guessed that their relationship would have lasted this long?

Definitely not me
and I could guarantee Adam neither.

Actually, my bet was that she
got pregnant just to keep him. Stupid bitch. I didn’t even know if that was what happened, but I’d bet money it was close.

The
poor guy had looked depressed too. He looked good, really good, don’t get me wrong, but he also looked totally miserable. Most of the time I’d done a good job of keeping my eyes off them, but the few glances I took, almost made me feel sorry for him.

Every time Missy would lean over and say something to Johnny, he’d scowl and look offended. Then his eyes would lock with mine and they’d go soft. I wasn’t a mind reader, but he hadn’t been hard to read. He hated Missy
, probably just as much, if not more, than everyone else. I’d have to remember to tell Adam, who I needed to call as soon as I got out of the restroom.

But I never got that chance.

It happened as soon as I finished washing my hands and right before I reached for the paper towels. My hips were forced into the sink and the side of my head was slammed into the mirror. I never saw it coming. I vaguely heard a crack through the ringing in my ears, but I didn’t know if it was from my head or the mirror.

“
You dirty fucking whore,” I heard Max’s voice hiss in my ear just before he spun me around, slammed the back of my head against the mirror and held me awkwardly with his hand at my throat. My back was bowed to accommodate the sink and it hurt so badly I thought it might snap.

“Please,” I wheezed, but his grip on my neck
constricted. I lifted my hands to bury my nails in his skin, but he didn’t even flinch.

“
You just
couldn’t…fucking…wait,”
he ground out through his teeth. “You’re a dirty fucking whore. I’d fucking kill you right now if I could, but I plan on getting what I deserve first, and you’re the only one who can get it,” Max finished hissing through his teeth.

He looked terrible.
Scary. Nothing like the same Max I remembered. He’d clearly gone days without shaving, his hair was nearly an inch longer and he had black bags under his bloodshot eyes. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in months.

“I don’t have anything of yours,” I
wheezed as loud as I could.

“
Yeah you do, bitch, and if Alfredo wasn’t fucking looking for me, I’d have gotten the shit myself and you’d be dead right now.”

I didn’t know who or what he was talking about
, but I knew I didn’t have anything that belonged to him. However, I wasn’t thinking straight because I was concentrating on breathing.

I turned to stone when I felt h
is free hand clench around the top of my thigh, close to the V between my legs, and he squeezed so hard, I whimpered in pain.

“
If I had more time, I’d fuck your dirty cunt on this floor. But I’ll come back for you, and when I do, you’re gonna do whatever the fuck I want. Until then, here’s a little something to remember me by…” He let my neck go and I gasped for air. He gripped me under the chin and pressed his fingers into my cheeks so excruciatingly hard, it brought tears to my eyes. He pulled me from the wall, his lips collided down on mine, so brutal our teeth clashed, and if they could bleed, I’d be drained.

I shoved and clawed at his chest, but when he didn’t budge I star
ted crying. As soon as my first sob broke free, he threw my face away so hard, I crashed into the wall at my side.

“
Tell Adam I said hi,” he spat.

And with that, he
turned. I slid down to the floor, heard the door to the restroom open, and then Max’s snapped, “Move outta my fucking way,” which was immediately followed by a gasped, “Oh my God!”

F
or some reason, it sounded a hell of a lot like Missy’s voice.

Then
the door shut and I heard silence.

I
took a moment, gathered the minimal control I had left, took a deep breath and touched the spot on the side of my head that was throbbing. The first thing I felt was wetness and I froze. I was terrified to look, but I was too concerned with how bad the cut was not to. So I dropped my hand and stared

It was co
vered in blood. Not a little… a lot. And I didn’t do well with blood which was inevitably why I started to feel lightheaded.

I started to see spot
s and I would have passed out, had the restroom door not banged open. I looked up in time to see Johnny run in. Luckily, curiosity over his strange arrival pushed the faintness to the back of my mind where it lingered.

“
Mia, are you all right?” He bent and got in my face.

“I’
m okay, I think,” I answered hesitantly.

He grabbed me under the arms, helped me to stand and never took his arms from around me.

“You’re not fuckin’ okay. Your head is bleeding.”

At his words, I leaned into him further to prevent from falling flat on my face
when I passed out, and that’s exactly what two officers saw when they entered the restroom. As they started rushing toward Johnny, I stopped them with a panicked, “I know him! He’s only helping me.”

“What the hell is g
oing on here?” one of them snapped and I winced. I wasn’t sure how I needed to handle the situation, but I knew I needed Adam. Surely, he and Spencer wouldn’t want me telling these officers what was going on with Max.

Internal Affairs meant just that, didn’t it? Internal?

“She was attacked. I saw a man in a police uniform shove my ex-girlfriend and run out of here. I came in, she was on the floor and she was bleeding,” Johnny answered before I could finish thinking and I knew I had to snap out of it.

“H
e’s right, but I really need to call my husband.”

Wow!
I was
not
used to saying the word husband, but I was surprised it rolled off my tongue with such ease.

“
Adam Bryant, he’s a homicide investigator and he’s next door waiting for my call,” I finished and I tried to pull away from Johnny, but he wouldn’t let me go. And for some stupid reason, I touched my head again, felt the wetness and decided it was a good thing he didn’t release me. Luckily, I managed to stomach through calling Adam who, needless to say, flipped the fuck out.

Three
minutes.

That was all the time
it took for Adam to show up.

And he wasn’t happy.

The energy in the room had already been dangerously high, but the moment Adam walked through the front door, the energy rose to levels beyond the possibility of calculation. The rage radiating from his body was so immense I was amazed the lights didn’t flicker. All the officers in the general vicinity could feel it too, and I knew this by the way they seemed to cower away as Adam passed them by.

I had never met a man who could
walk into a room and have that kind of effect, and truthfully, it was quite scary, but at the same time, his confident stride calmed me instantly. And even though I was still terrified, there was no way I could miss how sexy as hell it was that my own personal Sergeant was coming to care for me.

Man, this
cut on my head is making me delirious
.

But the only man who
didn’t seem to feel Adam’s wrath was Johnny who was no longer holding me, but he was still close by my side. And as soon as Adam saw that, I saw his shoulders stiffen, but he didn’t pause in his steps.

“
Jesus, Baby, are you okay?” he asked, ignoring Johnny, but instead of pulling me into his arms like I needed, he tilted my head to the side, moved my hand that was holding the bunched up paper towels, and parted my hair to check out my wound. I heard his sharp intake of breath and hissed, “That son of a bitch!”

He put my hand back in place
, kept his hand over mine and I tried to reassure him. “I’m okay. It stings, but I feel fine now.”

He narrowed his eyes and growled,
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re okay now, but we’re goin’ to the fuckin’ hospital to have that looked at.”

“But I don’t want to go to the hospital
, Adam. I’m fine,” I responded, but I could tell by his expression he wasn’t swayed.

“
Mia, I love you and I’m really glad you feel okay, but if something happens to you later because I didn’t take you to the hospital, I’ll be out of my fuckin’ mind. I’m already so pissed off at myself for not staying with you.” He paused, but not long enough for me to respond. “You have a bad gash on the side of your head; you’re bleeding and you’re having it checked out.”

I opened my mouth to tell him I was really fine and
that a hospital wasn’t necessary, but he covered my mouth with a finger and murmured, “For me, Baby. Please. Don’t fight me on this. I just need to know that you’re okay.”

My heart melted at
hearing the concern in his voice.

“I’m sorry,”
I whispered.

His face didn’t gentle, but he did wrap
me in the embrace I’d longed for.

He kissed my forehead and
mumbled, “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for, Mia. This is on me. This is my fault. I should have been here and I wasn’t. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

I relaxed against him.

“It’s not your fault. You had no idea this would happen--”

“Mia, he set your goddamn car
on fire outside our house. I never should have left you alone.”

I sighed and closed my eyes wondering how in the world I’d gotten
myself involved with someone as crazy as Max.

“Adam, you went to work so you could take more time off to
be with me. It’s not your fault.”

“Baby, it is,” he grow
led before changing the subject and asking in the same growl, “And what the fuck is he doing here?” I assumed he was talking about Johnny, who he just glared at.

I pulled away from him and answered, “He was with Missy.
She’s not here, but he found me in the restroom.”

“What the fuck,” Adam hissed
, narrowing his eyes.

Johnny
muttered, “She’s my ex-girlfriend.” Then he explained, “Missy tricked me into coming here. I thought this had to do with my daughter, not some fucked up shit that had to do with Mia. When court was over, Missy did say she needed to discuss custody of our daughter - which I have - so I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. She went to the restroom, I waited outside, and that’s when I saw a man shove past her. Missy looked terrified and said she saw someone was on the floor inside, so I checked it out and found Mia.”

“
Wait. You have a daughter? With Missy?” I asked in disgust, because I couldn’t believe I’d guessed right, not because he had daughter. Though, I couldn’t really picture Johnny as a father and to think he had custody of his daughter was insane. I only saw him a couple of times years ago, because Adam had stopped talking to him pretty much as soon as we’d hooked up. But I had heard stories. And they were all bad. And Johnny still looked very much like a bad boy, with his perfectly messy, chocolate brown hair, chestnut brown eyes, square, scruffy jaw, six-footish frame, large build and the very visible tattoo that peeked out from the collar of his shirt on his neck and appeared to end at his wrist.