Holy shit.I just got sucker-punched in the head.
I’d seen the news about this happening all over Chicago, but I never thought I’d be the lucky victim. Turns out? It sucked even worse than I’d imagined. The good news: I didn’t lose consciousness. The bad news: something split open because now a dribble of sticky, warm blood cascaded down my ear and neck.
Gross.
And as I lay here, trying to catch my bearings, I also decided that chivalry and human decency were pretty much dead. The few pedestrians in the area continued to amble by like a woman getting sucker-punched wasn’t worth looking up from their screens.
Welcome to the big city, I guess.
To his credit, one dude did stop and ask if I was okay. But he didn’t exactly wait for my answer. When I stumbled to my knees and mumbled, “Yes,” he walked off.
Damn it to hell.In the category of Shit Nights, this one was inching its way to the very top.
Resigning myself to sitting on my ass, I brought my hand up to check if my head was still attached. Based on how the pain was escalating, I wasn’t entirely sure. Good news: the side of my head seemed intact.Yay.Bad news: the bleeding was worse than I thought. My entire hand was covered in blood, dripping onto the sidewalk like a crime scene.
“Jesus!” a male voice barked.
Okay, maybe I’d jumped to conclusions about chivalry being dead because, suddenly, a Good Samaritan was at my side, his arm protectively wrapping around my shoulders.
“Dakota, are you okay?”
I knew that voice. I managed to lift my eyes and met the very worried gaze staring back at me. Eyebrows pulled together, attention sweeping over my body, looking for injuries.
“Ryker?”
“The fuck happened?”
“Why are you here?”
“Are you shot?”
He touched the side of my head, and I winced.
“No. Why did you come down here? The dinner party’s still going on.”
“That’s seriously your question right now?” His voice cracked with disbelief. “What happened to you?”
“You first.”
“Are you kidding me?” he snarled. “You’re hemorrhaging all over Chicago, and you’re asking me why I happened to come down the elevator?”
“I’m not hemorrhaging. And yes.”
His lips thinned like he couldn’t believe I was holding my medical assistance hostage over something so trivial.
“You were incredibly upset and went off alone into the night when there’s a potential crime family threat after you. You thinkI’m not going to follow you out and make sure you’re okay? Jesus, I knew we should have hired security for tonight.”
Well, that was … really nice of him.
Too bad he didn’t come, like, two minutes earlier. Maybe we could have snapped my attacker’s dick off together. #Bonding.
“Thank you. That’s very chivalrous.”
And now that I was thinking about it, why was he the one who came? It stung, realizing Axel hadn’t checked on me. In his defense, I’d specifically told him I needed space. But now that I knew said space came with a fist to my skull, I’d definitely changed my mind. A girl could do that. Pretty sure I’d read in a magazine article somewhere that it often happened after one got punched in the head.
“Where is Axel?”
Ryker continued examining my head, half paying attention to his answer. “Last I saw, he and Mathew were going at it.”
