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I wasn’t even sure I gave a shit about any of that right then.

Not when I could feel the turbulence ricochet through the air. The sharp crack of it as she pushed out through the front doors.

And I was moving, shoving through the bodies, boots pounding the worn hardwood floors as I went.

A riot incited in the middle of me.

I tossed open the swinging door and barreled out into the night.

The party was rowdier than it had been the last time we were out there. People dancing around the bonfire. Bodies in varying states of undress scattered on the chairs and picnic tables.

I didn’t have to search for what direction Elena had gone.

I could feel her out beyond the fire within the cover of the trees.

In the direction where a ton of motorcycles were parked beneath the lush, leaden branches of the oaks that circled the area.

I followed her trail. Hands in fists and my heart in my throat.

I nearly crumbled when I found her hidden beneath the shadows of leaf-laden branches, barely illuminated, but I was sure that I could recognize her silhouette in the pitch of night if I needed to.

One of her hands was pressed to a massive tree trunk to support herself where she was hunched over, bent in two.

Panic lit, and I raced up behind her. “Elena.”

She threw out her free hand. “Don’t. Please, just leave me alone. I don’t think I can take you telling me the way I’m supposed to feel right now.”

Vulnerability seeped into her tear-stained voice.

Fuck.

She was crying.

Everything softened as I whispered, “I don’t think I can leave you, Elena.”

She choked a pained sound, though her words were soaked with soggy sarcasm. “I know. I know. It’s your job to keep tabs on me at all times.”

“No, Elena. I can’t leave you because you’re upset. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I could barely make out her expression as she looked back at me. Her brow was twisted up tight. “I don’t⁠—”

Her eyes suddenly blew wide, and she whirled back around, bending over farther as she wretched.

The alcohol she’d been drinking all night revolted with a vengeance and spewed all over the ground.

“Oh, shit,” I rasped, and I knelt behind her, rubbing my hand up and down her back.

“Just leave me alone,” she whimpered.

“Not a fuckin’ chance, Elena,” I murmured, and I dug into my back pocket and pulled out a napkin, dabbed it to her mouth. “Let me take you back to the house.”

Her head frantically shook. “No. I just want to go home. To my apartment.”

Part of me wanted to argue with her, but it wasn’t right. Coercing her into the shape I thought best for her. “You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” I didn’t hesitate to hoist her up and into my arms.