Goddamn bastard. My gut clenched as fury surged through my body.
He was going to pay.
I broke into a run, dodging people and dogs and babies in carriages. I almost fell a couple of times, losing my footing on the uneven concrete on the outskirts of the skate park. Too many people, and yet no one paying attention. The sun scorched my eyes, making the scene in front of me ripple and bend with streaks of light, but I didn’t stop until I reached them.
“You’re going to want to let her go.” I was a deep breath away from panting, but my voice was steady and strong.
He didn’t seem to hear me. But she did.
As if shocked, she twisted her head to look back at me.
The guy was looming over her. Then he withdrew something from a pocket on his shorts that glinted in the sun.
I charged for him before my eyes had even processed what I’d seen.
A bloody knife.
He grabbed her with one hand and barely spared me a glance as he shouted something over his shoulder.
A big blur of insanely tanned flesh bum-rushed me, taking me out at the knees.
There were two of them. Pity I hadn’t realized that sooner.
I didn’t think, just drew up my knee and swung my fists and aimed to inflict as much damage as possible. I had to get to Zoe.
That fucker was going to rue the day he’d met Ian Kagan.
Five
I grabbed for the tie of my bikini top that the shithead had snipped. “Fucker!”
Was something dripping down my back? When I pulled my hand away, blood smeared my fingers.
My hand shook. At least I was pretty sure it was blood. I hadn’t been using anything that crimson in color today. I curled forward, clamping my forearm over the triangles of my bathing suit top so I didn’t flash the whole damn world.
“What part of piss off didn’t you catch?” I’d unbuckled my coverall straps around lunchtime. They were tucked in and tied at my lower back in deference to the heat. Not helping me right now in the least.
I scuttled back against the wall. Paint stuck to my skin, pissing me off even more. Not only was this jackass hassling me, but now he was ruining my work. Fucker. The spray paint hadn’t dried yet since the wall was approximately the heat of the sun.
How the hell had he found me? I’d been careful to stay out of sight all damn day. Then again, I’d been so involved with my little corner of the world for the last few hours, a meteor shower could have started and I would have missed it. Today was a hot one, and I was more than ready to pack it in. I just had one little corner to finish.
I still had an hour of sun, dammit.
A blast of vitriolic shouting jerked my attention from my current problem to a new one. It couldn’t be him. Was the heat getting to me that much?
Rattlesnake dude nodded to his friend, who took off toward the guy coming over to us. The bastard then crouched in front of me. “What are you hiding for? You’ve been eyeing me all day.”
“I have not.” I’d been avoiding. Totally different thing.
He reached for me with thick, chalky fingers. He smelled like sweat and rubber, with clothes that definitely hadn’t seen a washing machine in far too long. I was not in the right position to fend him off. Bent had taught me plenty of defensive moves, but none that included being hamstrung by nakedness.
“You’re going to want to let her go.”
Distantly, the way he talked made me frown. Accented. Then there was a scuffle of feet, the squeak of sneakers, then more grunts. For fuck’s sake, it really was him.
Rattlesnake curled his big, calloused fingers around my arm. I kicked out, but it was in vain. He was looming over me, his eyes on my tits.
“Get the fuck back!” My voice was more screech than shout. “I wasn’t leading you on all day. I was avoiding you.”