“Don’t you ever f**k with him,” Auden growled.
“Why,” Billy asked, furious, panting, “cause that’s your job?”
Auden went to shove him again, and that’s when Billy swung—a punch that clipped Auden’s elbow as Auden expertly blocked and dipped, changing his shoving hand into an uppercut at the last minute, aimed right for Billy’s solar plexus.
St. Sebastian was already moving even before the punch landed, because it didn’t matter if Auden could fight Billy and win, it wasn’t just Billy, there were six more of them, and they wouldn’t fight fair, they had no interest in fighting fair. Auden had just given them a reason to lose any last shred of decency when it came to that, because their only code was loyalty, and Auden had just humiliated and then hit one of their own.
The only way this w
