I glance through the windshield to where my brother’s still sprawled out on the hood of my Range Rover. If he dents the thing, I’ll be even more pissed.

Maddie buckles her seat belt and lets out an exhalation that feels horribly heavy.

I brace my arms on the top frame of the open door, because if I don’t do something with them, I’m liable to reach out and wrap her in a hug. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I don’t know,” she admits, looking up at me with wide eyes brimming with tears.

I don’t know what she’s been through tonight, but I’m livid on her behalf. Whoever did this is going to fucking pay. And if my brother contributed in any significant way…

The question that’s been eating at me since the second I got the call comes to mind. Again. And even though I know now’s not the time, I can’t help but ask.

“Did you come here with him?”

Her eyes double in size as she looks from me to my brother, then back again.

“What? No! What the fuck, Dempsey? Do you think I’m out here trying to bag any Haas who’ll take my calls?”

I give her a pointed look. But I still feel like an ass.

“I came here with friends,” she continues, peering out through the windshield to where my brother’s rolling around and groaning on the hood of the car. “On a double date, in fact. Not that it’s any of your business. I was walking out to the barn when I saw this group of guys doing some sort of dumbass fight club thing. Except it was all of them—at least ten of them—against one. When I saw who they were beating on, I stepped in.”

“What do you mean you stepped in?” I snarl. What the fuck is my brother even doing at this party with high school and college kids? And why the fuck did Maddie Wheeler have to be his knight in shining armor?

“I intervened.” She shrugs. “I got into the circle and made them stop.”

I see red.

Ten against one?

And she put herself in harm’s way to stop them?

Rage and gratitude wrestle for dominance in my mind. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if she hadn’t stepped in. And yet knowing she fucking had to because Fielding decided tonight was as good as any to put his mortality to the test…

Without another word, I slam her door closed, then stalk to the front. I grab my brother by the collar of his shirt, hauling his ass off the car and practically dragging him around to the back seat as he stumbles to keep up.