He roared. “That’s exactly what you’ll do! Stay the fuck out of this. It’s my ass if you get hurt, too.”
I sighed. “Where did you say you--?”
“Fuck!”
I held the phone away from my ear at his exclamation.
“Fuck. Fuck. Shit. God damn it!”
I frowned. “What? What is it?’
“An accident. It’s blocking the fucking road!”
I winced. “Reroute. How much longer?”
I heard his engine revving before his voice sounded in my ear again.
“Fucking hell, three minutes. I’m three minutes out. I have to take the alleys to get to you.”
I sighed. “Better make it two if these guys are really gonna hurt a woman.”
“What? No. Bambi, damn it, listen to me!”
But I hung up the phone.
I slipped out of the crevice and stood to my feet. Max’s phone was already lighting up again, but I slipped it into my back pocket. I looked around me, trying to figure out what I could grab to use as a weapon before I charged these assholes. I slipped to the front of the dump
ster and opened the top. There was nothing but black bags of trash in there. Rotten food that made my nose curl. Leaves that had gotten blown down this way and kicked up into the damn thing.
Then my eyes settled on the glistening object in the corner.
“Bingo.”
I jumped and pulled the wine bottle out of the trash before touching back down onto my feet. Without thinking, I slipped around the corner. Max was grunting as he tried to get up. I heard the pain laced in his voice as the men kept driving their boots into his ribs.
“Get off him!” I roared.
My voice startled the men enough for them to leave Max alone. And before I could think straight, I rushed them. With the bottle over my head and my eyes trained on the men in black, I felt wine dripping down my arm. Over my shirt. Down onto my jeans as I sprinted toward them.
“Dani, no!” Max bellowed.
But it was too late.
The man that had charged Max got a bottle to the back of his neck. And as he sank to his knees, I whipped around and clocked the other man in his jaw. I whirled back around as Max scrambled to his feet. But before I knew it, one of those dumbasses had their arms wrapped around Max, ready to take him back down.
And that shit wasn’t flying with me.
“You. Let. Him. Go!”
I punctuated my words with blows to his back. I felt the wine bottle creaking and cracking in my hands. I finally brought it down against the back of the man’s head, and it shattered, breaking into pieces as he finally slumped. He took Max to the ground. I saw the man’s head bleeding as I drew in shallow breaths through my nose.
“Dani, look out!”
I whipped around, the sharp broken neck of the bottle still clutched in my hand. The other man tackled me to the ground, and I saw something shining in the corner of my eye. He started laughing, taunting me as he straddled my flailing body, holding a knife to my neck.
“You really should learn your place, bitch.”
I snarled. “Stay the hell away from us.”