She shakes her head vehemently. “No, I kneed him in the balls and took off before he could really do anything.”
“Good girl,” I immediately tell her.
She pales as her eyes meet something over my shoulder. I turn to look at the door where some drunk has just stumbled in. He’s a big, pot-bellied motherfucker, but I’m still taller and bigger than him—the difference being I’m all muscle. I’d done nothing but work out in prison, trying to make myself stronger and pass the time the only way that kept me sane.
“Is that him?” I ask as I turn back to her, only to see an empty booth staring back at me.
“Fuck,” I swear under my breath as I see her heading for the back of the bar. I don’t know where she thinks she’s going, but she won’t be getting out that way.
I chase after her and catch up with her just as she’s fixing to enter the ladies’ room.
“Hey, baby, hold up,” I tell her, gently grasping her arm.
She turns to me, gasping, her eyes wide. She relaxes when she sees it’s me, and that fills me with an undeniable sense of pride that she must feel somewhat safe with me.
“I have to get out of here,” she says desperately.
While I want nothing more than to march back out there and beat her stepdad’s ass, setting her mind at ease and not losing her is more important, so I nod before wrapping my arm around her waist and steering her toward the kitchen. “Come on. I know a way out the back.”
I’m friends with the owner, so I come and go as I please, using whatever entrance I please, and no one bats an eyelash. I steer her through the kitchen and out the back door into the alley.
I lead her around the front to where my black SUV is parked and open the passenger door for her. “Get in,” I nod at the SUV.
She hesitates for only a moment before she glances back at the bar where her stepdad is probably still inside looking for her before she obeys and slides into the seat.
I shut the door behind her before walking over to the driver’s side.
I don’t know what act of fate brought us together tonight, but I vow to myself now that fucker will never get near her again. No one will ever hurt this princess again if I have anything to say about it.
* * *
Hadley
I glance over at the man in the driver’s seat. He’s huge—bigger even than Randal, but somehow I sense that he won’t hurt me.
His muscles budge underneath the sleeves of his black short-sleeved shirt. He’s wearing a silver chain around his neck along with a leather necklace too. The exposed parts of his arms are covered with ink. I wonder if his chest is tatted too.
His hair is dark and cropped close to his head. Stubble lines his jaw, casting shadows on his face.
He’s wearing jeans, and I can see how huge and muscular his thighs are in them. His legs seem to take up the entire front of the SUV.
“Where are we going?” I ask him softly. It strikes me that I should be more worried than I am. I’m in the car with a stranger, letting him take me to some unknown destination, yet I don’t feel a fraction of the fear that I felt every night living in the same house as my stepdad.
I just feel…relief. Relief to be putting some distance between me and my would-be assailant.
“My place,” he answers gruffly. “I can’t leave you out here alone with no shoes and nowhere to go.”
“What makes you think I don’t have anywhere to go?” I ask him.
He raises an eyebrow at me, his gray eyes flashing over to me knowingly. “Do you?”
I look away from him before admitting, “No.”
When I look back over at him, he’s frowning, and his hands seem to tighten on the steering wheel. “So, what were you planning on doing?”
I shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know. I just acted on fight or flight instinct, you know? I just had to get as far away from him as I could. I figured I’d figure the rest out as I went along.”
“How old are you?” he suddenly asks me.