Аманда Хокинг - Switched

“Don’t damage her!” the girl insisted, her eyes flashing wide. “She’s not to be hurt!” Not to be hurt. Okay. That’s a good thing. I can work with that, at least. Maybe I could use it to my advantage.

“Yeah, easy on the merchandise!” I tried to pull my arm from him, but he refused to let go.

I had already decided that I wasn’t going wherever these two wanted to take me. Even if it was just back to Förening with Elora, I still didn’t want that, especially if I was going to be forced. Since they were under some kind of instruction not to hurt me, I thought I might have some leeway with fighting them. I only had to get a few houses down, then I’d be at home, and Matt kept a gun under his bed. He was ridiculously protective of me.

I elbowed the guy in the stomach as hard as I could. He made a coughing sound and doubled over but didn’t let go of my arm. I kicked him in the shin and raised my arm so I could bite his hand that was gripping me. He yowled in pain, and then the girl was in front of me. He had let go of me, and she tried to grab me, so I punched her. Unfortunately, she dodged it, so my fist just connected with her shoulder. Then I was off balance, and the guy grabbed me around the waist. I started screaming and kicked at him as hard as I could.

Apparently he got tired of that, so he dropped me on the ground. I was on my feet instantly, and he grabbed my arm again and turned me so I was facing him.

He raised his hand and slapped me harder than I had ever been hit before.

Everything went white and there was a ringing in my ear. He let go of me, so I collapsed backwards on the grass behind me.

“I said not to hurt her!” the girl hissed.

My neck ached from the force of his hit, and my jaw screamed painfully. The back of my eye had a spreading pain, but I knew I couldn’t just take it laying down. I tried to stagger to my feet. She kicked me, not hard enough to really hurt, but enough so I’d fall back. I laid on my back and stared up the lightening sky and realized that I didn’t stand a chance against them.

“I didn’t! I was subduing her!” the guy growled and looked down at me. “And if she doesn’t knock it off, I’ll subdue her again, but harder this time!”

“Let’s just get her to the car,” she sounded exasperated.

He bent down to try and pick me up, but I hit away his hands. I was laying on my back, and I lifted up my legs. I wasn’t really trying to kick him, but I was going to use my legs to push him back if he came near me. In response, he hit my calf hard enough to give me a Charlie horse, which I just gritted my teeth through. He put his knee on my stomach, holding me down so I couldn’t fight as much. When he tried to grab me, I pushed him back with my hands, so he grabbed my wrists, pressing them tightly together with one hand.

“Stop!” he commanded. My eyes were welling with tears because I knew I couldn’t really fight him off, and I had no idea where he was going to take me or what he would do with me. I tried to pull my hands free, but he just squeezed tighter and my bones felt like they were about to snap. “Just stop!

We’re going to take you no matter what!”

“Like hell you are!” Finn barked, his voice coming from out of nowhere.

I swiveled my head, trying to see around the guy that had me pinned to the ground. The girl stood just to the side of us, but between her and the guy I could see Finn, and I had honestly never been so happy to see anyone anymore.

Tears of relief spilled over my cheeks, but I didn’t even care. From where I was laying and the way the street light him, Finn looked glorious towering over everyone.

“Oh, dammit,” the girl sighed. “If you hadn’t spent so much time fighting with her, we’d be out of here by now.”

“She was the one fighting with me!” the guy insisted.

“Now I’m the one fighting with you!” Finn growled, glaring at him.

“Get off her! Now!”

“Finn, can’t we just talk about this?” She was trying to sound sultry and flirty when she took a step closer to Finn, but he didn’t even look at her, making him score even more points with me. “I know how you feel about duty, but there’s got to be some kind of arrangement we can come to.” She took another step closer to him, so he pushed her back, so hard she stumbled and fell backwards.

“I hate fighting with you, Finn,” the guy muttered, and reluctantly, he let go of my hands and took his knee off my stomach. I took the opportunity to try and kick him in the nuts, and reflexively, he whirled on me and smacked me hard again.

Before I could even curse him for hitting me again, Finn was on him. I had rolled onto my side, cradling my repeatedly injured face, so I could only see part of what was going on. My attacker had managed to get to his feet, but I could hear the sounds of Finn punching him. The girl leapt on his back to stop him, but Finn elbowed her in the face, so she collapsed to the ground, cradling her bleeding nose.

“Enough!” The guy had cowered down, putting his arms over his face to protect himself form anymore blows. “We’re done! We’ll get out of here!”

“You better fucking get out of here!” Finn shouted, sounding angrier than I had even known he was capable of. “If I see you anywhere near her again, I will kill you!”

The guy walked over to the girl and helped her to her feet, then they both turned and headed down the street to a black Porsche parked nearby. Finn stood on the sidewalk in front of me, watching them until they got in the car and sped off down the road. When he was certain they were gone, he smoothed out his black hair and turned to me.

I was still laying on the ground, and he knelt down next to me. Tears were drying on my cheeks, but I didn’t even bother trying to wipe them away.

Gently, his placed his hand on my cheek where I had been slapped, and the skin was tender, so it stung a little, but I refused to show it. His hand felt too good to push away. His dark eyes were pained when he looked me over, and as terrible as everything had been up until this moment, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything because it led to this, to him touching me and looking at me like that.

“I’m sorry it took me so long.” He pursed his lips tightly, blaming himself for not getting here sooner. “I was sleeping, and I didn’t wake up until you were completely panicked.”

“You sleep in your clothes?” I asked, looking at his usual dark jeans and button-up shirt combo.

“Sometimes,” Finn admitted, and he pulled his hand from my face, much to my dismay. “I knew something was up today. I could feel it, but I couldn’t pinpoint it because I couldn’t stay as close to you as I would’ve liked. I never should’ve slept at all.”

“No, you can’t blame yourself.” I tried to sit up and Finn took my hand, helping me up. “It was my fault for coming out of my room.”

“What were you doing out here?” Finn looked at me curiously, and I looked at the ground, feeling embarrassed.

“I thought I saw you,” I admitted quietly. His face went dark again and he looked away from me.

“I should’ve been here,” he said, almost under his breath, and then he got to his feet. He held out his hand to me and pulled me to my feet. I grimaced a little, but what hurt the worst was my back from falling from the tree. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “A little sore, but fine.” He touched my cheek again, just with his fingertips, sending flutters through me. He was looking at my injury very seriously, and then his eyes met mine, dark and wonderful. It was at that moment that I knew that I had officially fallen for him.

“You’re going to have a bruise,” Finn murmured dropping his hand.