“Let go of the lady.” His fists clenched at his side.

I glanced at Lila, then back to the fucker. Who the fuck was he to tell me to do anything? Instead, I pulled her closer.

The douchebag reached for me, and I let go of Lila, ready to lay him out. He was half a second from getting my fist in his fucking face when Lila stepped between us.

“Enough! Jesus, knock it off.” She pressed her hands against our chests while attempting to glare. “Nathan, you can let go now. Drew, back off.”

His eyes never left mine, refusing to back down. “He was grabbing your arm, Lila. Hard.”

And I fuck her even harder.

“Yes, after saving me from some drunk sleaze on the dance floor,” she explained. “Then he proceeded to lecture my drunk ass about watching out for myself.”

Andrew’s glare wavered and relaxed, his jaw flopping open like a fish before closing and looking between us.

“Really?” he asked.

I didn’t relax at all, the adrenaline flowing freely, my body geared up.

“What’s going on?” Caroline asked as she looked us over.

Lila rolled her eyes. “Just a misunderstanding and too much testosterone.”

Testosterone she was going to be fucking filled with on the dance floor if Andrew kept looking at her. I was caught between wanting to fight every guy in the building and fucking her right there.

“Okay, then,” Caroline said, looking between all of us. “We ordered another round of drinks back at the table. Join us, Drew?”

Fuck. I didn’t want the tool anywhere near me or her, so I hoped he declined.

“Sounds great, Carrie.” He smiled and held his arm out. “After you, Lila.”

I allowed no gap between us, forcing him to step behind me. When Lila wobbled, it was my hands that steadied her.

I forced a neutral look and a fake smile to keep attention off what just happened. It was a series of fucking slips, and I realized being out in public with her was not a good thing. All logic left, possession taking its place.

When we got back to the booth, I made sure to sit next to her, but Andrew secured the other side. I wasted no time placing my hand on her thigh again.

“Okay, so who’s this newbie?” Andrew asked.

The whole table laughed, so I remained silent, reigning the gut reactions in. My attempt to keep the peace was going to leave bruises on Lila’s leg.

I listened as they talked about Vivian, the woman whose position I filled, trying not to laugh when Caroline gave her surprised reaction that she just left. The truth and the rumors created an interesting dichotomy.

Jack had already given me Vivian’s job long before she left. She’d received enough warnings to suspect her end was near and just wanted to screw the company and Lila over by quitting without notice.

A waitress arrived with half a dozen drinks and set them down. Ian pushed a bottle of Dos Equis toward me.

“Thanks, man.”

“You don’t need that,” Andrew said.

Douche fucker says what? I looked over to find Andrew trying to push Lila’s Long Island from her. What fucking say did he have in what she did?

I smirked at the death glare she threw at him, almost laughing as she tipped the glass back and chugged the contents.

“Don’t mess with my drink, Drew,” she said, the glass half empty. “I need it.”

“No, you don’t,” he argued.

“It’s the only way I can sleep, okay?” Her voice cracked as she spoke, almost like she was to the point of tears. Even her body language mimicked it in the way her bottom lip trembled and she rubbed at her eyes. “I just want to get some fucking sleep. I can’t fucking drink every night, so let me sleep tonight. I can get more than a couple hours in and my brain will shut down.”

My brow scrunched as I looked at her. What the fuck was she talking about?

“Her insomnia’s back,” Caroline said.

Insomnia? More things about my enigma suddenly made sense. The way she passed out, not rousing as I moved her around, a result of pure exhaustion.

I also remembered the bottle from her drawer—Triazolam and Sonata. Not one, but two different options. Probably because of the dependency issues with the Triazolam, but I knew for a fact how it could help with night terrors, which I suspected she suffered from as well.

“All right, off topic Lila. I’m not interesting enough. Next topic,” she said, waving her hands in front of her, almost like she was trying to wipe away the conversation.

Andrew snorted. “I see you still love to be the center of attention.”

“Yeah, yeah. Drunk, depressed, center-of-attention-hating, stupid, ugly…”

There it was again. The self-deprecation painting an image of how warped she was inside. Evidence of how someone fucked with her, maybe even abused her.

By the look on Andrew’s face, I had a feeling I was on the right track.

“Okay, enough,” Andrew said as he took the glass from her. “I think it’s time to get your drunken ass home.”

She let out a whimper that shot right through my cock. “I drove.”

“You definitely aren’t driving. I can take you,” Andrew said.

My grip on Lila’s leg tightened at his words. There was no way I was letting him anywhere near her, especially in her current state. It was obvious he had feelings toward her, and not all in the past tense.

It was there in the way he looked at her, the way he tried to protect her.

He was her knight in shining fucking armor, and I was the conductor of the darkness.

“I can take her home.”

Everyone’s attention diverted to me. Four sets of eyes stared at me before Lila began laughing.

“Oh, Caroline, I forgot to tell you. The asshole lives in my building!”

The asshole? Apparently they’d talked about me a bit.

“You know I can hear you, right, drunkie?” I swept my fingers against the inside of her thigh, keeping her attention on me and not the idiot on the other side of her.

She stared at me, her glassy eyes moving in and out of focus. “Do I look like I care?”

“Don’t hold back on me now, Palmer. Let it out.”

“I was going to go into great detail on where to stick it, but thought it might be a little too rough for our party here.”

Rough? Oh, she was going to know rough soon enough.

Ian laughed. “Oooh, Lila’s getting surly.”