Knox's Girl (Carmichael Series #1)✔️

Bad Turns Into Worse

**Edited**

Poppy's POV

"Eric, go! I don't want to think about what he might do when he's this angry," I hissed, trying to push him away from me to add some space between the two of us.

"What the fuck, Poppy? Is that your boyfriend? I'm not going to fucking leave you! What if he hurts you?" he yelled over the roar of music. Thankfully, the place was as crazy as Eric promised, so the massive crowd slowed Knox down at first.

"Eric, you don't understand! If you aren't here I might be able to get through to him, but if you don't leave right now he could hurt you," I stressed, but he still wasn't having any of it.

"Poppy, I just said I'm not going to stand by and give him the chance to hurt you!"

"I swear, Eric, Knox can lose his temper and do a lot of stupid things but one thing he would never do is lay a hand on me! You can trust me on that!" I insisted, begging him with my eyes to listen to me. I could hear Knox shouting in the distance, the crowd that'd been preventing him from reaching us beginning to thin out. I knew if I didn't convince Eric to scram within the next five seconds, he'd be better off dead.

"Then why do you look so scared, Poppy?" he challenged.

"I'm not scared for myself, you dummy! I'm scared for you! You're my friend and I don't want you to get hurt because of my freaking bonehead of a boyfriend!" I finished yelling right as I felt a large hand grip my forearm and pull me back. Too late!

Everything became one large blur from that moment on. When my eyes finally adjusted to the scene before me, I was absolutely mortified. Knox had Eric pinned against the wall with his fingers wrapped around his neck. His hold wasn't tight enough to choke him, but enough to restrict Eric's breathing and scare the daylights out of him. Eric was frantically clawing at Knox's hands, his eyes wide with fear as Knox got in his face and began speaking to him only loud enough for the two of them to hear. I grabbed at the back of Knox's shirt and yanked, trying everything I could to get his attention. I slapped, scratched, and pounded against his back, but he wasn't having any of it.

It was the first time in my life I felt truly and completely helpless. Not a single bystander was willing to step in and come to Eric's aid, or even try to help me pry Knox off of him. My chest tightened with fear as adrenaline coursed through my body. I didn't want to think about what would happen if Knox tightened his grip and lost further control over himself. An idea suddenly came to me. It was incredibly stupid, but it was an idea nonetheless.

"Knox if you don't stop this instant I'm going to take my top off in front of everyone!" I growled. I heard rather than saw him drop Eric to the floor, his broad frame blocking my view. He turned to face me, still seething with anger.

"Don't fucking test me, Poppy. I fucking told you what would happen if you went out with him, but you chose to do it anyway. How stupid can you be?" he snarled. My body had a mind of its own as I reached up and grabbed a hold of the collar of his shirt before yanking his face down to my level. I opened my mouth to start screaming at him when Eric's gentle touch on my forearm caught my attention.

"Why don't we take the rest of this altercation outside, security is coming our way and I don't want to deal with all that bullshit right now," Eric rushed out while nodding his head in the direction of an exit. I headed towards it without another word spoken. Once outside I turned and pinned Knox down with my eyes.

"I cannot believe you," I trembled out before doing my best to force the emotion from my voice. I needed to be strong.

"Poppy-" he began.