Don't call me doll

Chapter 24:

Bernardo seemed to appear out of nowhere, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards him protectivally. Dalia flinched and raised her fist, but paused. Instead carefully slipping her arm out of Bernardos tight grip. As for Riff, he quickly changed his demeanor to his normal confident, arrogant, persona.

"¿Estás bien? He was only a couple steps behind." Bernardo looked her straight in the eyes and grabbed her shoulders. Dalia shrugged, but before she could answer Riff did for her. "Come on Nardo, you think that lowly of me? I'd never attack a lady." He smiled walking forward and sticking a cigarette between his lips.

Dalia rolled her eyes, the action fully transformed him into the typical cool New Yorker image. Bernardo tensed, removing one hand from her shoulders while keeping the other on her protectivally. "Stay away from mi familia." He grumbled, Riff chuckled and removed the cigarette, breathing out the thick toxic smoke right into Bernardos face.

"Wow, the bunch of you really got to realize, we're in America. English."

"Loco arrogante pequeño gringo americano malcriado..." Bernardo hissed in a threatening and angry tone while pointing his finger at Riff just barely not touching his face. Riff moved his finger to the side and threw a glance towards Dalia with a raised eyebrow. She rolled her eyes, but nodded.

"He's calling you a crazy arrogant little spoiled American gringo. Pretty accurate." She joked, Riff rolled his eyes at her comment and held back a chuckle.

"At least I'm supposed to be here." At this, Bernardo swung his fist to wipe Riff's cocky smirk off of his face. Dalia flinched at the attack, and began worrying as Riff's smile returned, larger. "You're gonna regret that." Riff punched Bernardo square in the stomach. Causing him to lean over and clutch his pained abdomen.

"Stop! Stop!" Dalia tried to grab their hands and stop them from attacking each other. But it clearly wasn't working. Eventually, she managed to push Bernardo away and grabbed Riff's wrists. She stared up at him and gave him a pleading look to stop. He paused, and sighed. Nodding, then relaxed his hands and arms.

But Bernardo had sprung up again and shoved Dalia to the side. He continued to swing his large fists at Riff, who was now dodging and blocking instead of punching back. "Bernardo! Stop!" Dalia exclaimed, getting back to her feet and trying to grab his hands. Bernardo knew what he saw though, the way they stared at each other. And the way Riff stopped fighting after she just looked at him, now all he could see was red.

"AH!"

Dalia clutched her cheek, as Bernardo smashed his knuckles into her face. Both men turned to look at her, and stopped. Tears brimmed in her eyes, as Riff turned to look at the guilt ridden and fearful Bernardo. "Dalia! Lo siento mucho, ¿estás bien?" Bernardo reached to check the forming bruise, but she backed away and shook her head.

"You better run." Riff grunted, the pair turned to look at the man whose hands were balled into tight fists and his eyes were glaring at Bernardo. A glare that sent chills down Bernardos spine and goosebumps spread across his skin. Dalia even shuddered a bit, but she gathered herself and placed a hand on Riff's arm to calm him.

"Riff, no more fighting."

"Doll, don't stop me."

"Riff. I said no. Now." She spoke through gritted teeth and gave him a look that both calmed and frightened him. Riff nodded, but pointed his finger down at Bernardo aggressively. "If you touch her. Ever again. I will stab you in the stomach." He grabbed Dalia's hand and started down a path that she had memorized.

Bernardo opened his mouth to argue, but Dalia turned her neck and shook her head definitely. Then turned forward again. Bernardo stopped, and turned away.

A/N: SURPRISE! A Thursday update! Ok, in complete transparency, I am an idiot lol. I basically wrote this chapter, put it into the book as a draft and never published it...Meant for this to come out last Sunday, so sorry about the wait!! BTW, there will still be an update on the 26th, might be a bit on the short side. But promise it'll exist!

Also, some sad news. I had to put Invisible Freaks on hiatus until this book is done. Hopefully there will only be about 5-10 more chapters. 10 being the max, but I definitely want to get to 30 chapters. So back to normal announcements! Thank you to everyone who reads, comments, votes, and/or follows! I couldn't do this without the support of all of you!

Thank you for your patience and support!