“Yes. When I told you where we’d be going tonight, I knew you’d think it would be boring.”
“Really? Now who’s stereotyping? Just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate art.”
She took her hand away—damn it—and crossed her arms over her chest. “Really? Because I distinctly overheard you talking to Shane about it at the gym, about what a—your words, not mine—pussyhe was for hitting up all those ‘stupid museums’ just to keep his wife happy.”
“You should never eavesdrop, Zoe. It’s very unbecoming,” Gavin said in a deliberately prissy tone.
She tried not to laugh. And failed.
As she collected herself, he nudged her toward the sidewalk, and they walked back to the parking garage on Mercer. “So it was okay going there, even though you miss your sister?”
“Yes. I’m glad you went with me.”
Touched that she’d asked him to go even though she’d known it would be difficult, he nodded. “This was about more than your sister though.”
“Oh?”
“This was about trying to torture me. Confess.”
“Well, the trip did have that going for it.”
They continued to tease, passing a few other couples out for a stroll. But the encroaching darkness, and the unknown, kept Gavin on edge, especially when he spotted two unsavory men walking their way. They seemed a little too aggressive for casual strollers. And they were focused too intently on the lady and her kid coming toward Gavin for him to ignore them.
His adrenaline buzzed. “Hey, Zoe. Wait here for a minute, okay?”
She blinked. “Ah, sure.” She paused on the sidewalk, watching with understanding when the skeevier of the two guys, the one wearing a beanie and an olive-green jacket, reached for the lady’s purse strap.
“Hey,” Gavin yelled and moved closer.
The young boy with the woman looked frightened, so Gavin smiled.
“Hey, Mike, is that you?” he said to Beanie, who was still reaching for the purse.Almost there…
Beanie froze. Next to him, his friend sneered. “His name isn’t Mike, dickhead. Get lost.”
The lady and her boy moved quickly away, now behind Gavin. Content innocents wouldn’t be caught in the melee to come, Gavin kept his smile and stepped closer to the thugs. Both men smelled as if they hadn’t bathed in weeks. Up close, their pupils didn’t look right, and their jittery mannerisms hinted at drug abuse. Beanie was the taller of the two but didn’t have the mean look his tweaker friend did.
“Not Mike?” Gavin frowned. “Hmm. Must be his doppelgänger.”
The tough guy said, “What?” Then he looked Gavin over, glanced at Beanie, and shrugged. “You’ll do. Give me twenty bucks.”
“Or what?”
“What do you mean, or what?”
“I mean, if I don’t give you twenty bucks, what then?”
Beanie raised his shirt and showed off a gun tucked into his pants.
It looked dirty, and Gavin marveled that the guy hadn’t accidentally shot his dick off, if the thing was actually loaded.
“Is that a 9mm? Do you mind?” He tugged the pistol free, ejected the magazine, and cleared the round from the chamber in seconds. Then he tossed the gun into the dirt beside him, along with the magazine and round. “What do you have?” he asked the mean one.
But Mean Guy was already pulling a knife. He looked stringy but strong, and no match for a Marine with a grudge against bullies. Gavin heard loud chatter near them as they gained an audience. Then a siren in the distance. But this being the city, there was no guarantee the wailing sound signaled police coming for these two idiots.
So he handled things. He grabbed Mean Guy’s hand, twisted his wrist to make him drop the knife, and used his free hand to punch Beanie in the nose when Beanie took a step toward him.
Beanie dropped, holding his face, and moaned. Mean Guy shrieked in pain and held his wrist. But Gavin hadn’t snapped it, as much as he’d wanted to.
