I didn’t see anyone around, but there were plenty of places that someone could be lurking. My body was tense as my fight or flight mode kicked in. Something wasn’t right. I could feel it.
Movement to the right drew my sharp gaze, and I saw a familiar figure shuffling along the edge of the parking lot. He wasn’t looking my way, but I headed toward him anyway, leaving my station at the door unattended for a moment. It was the homeless man that had come here weeks ago, confused and disoriented. Now, as I drew closer, I could hear him mumbling to himself, his words a nonsensical stream of babble.
“Hey, buddy,” I called out when I was ten feet away.
He froze, his body going rigid. When he looked at me, I could see fear in his eyes even in the low lighting of the parking lot.
“Do you remember me?” I asked, moving forward very slowly, like he was a skittish animal that I was trying not to frighten away. “My name is Butch. I didn’t get to tell you that last time.”
“The monitor,” he said, nodding.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That’s what you called me before. Where are you going?”
As we spoke, he was no longer so tense and still. Now his body was rocking back and forth, from one foot to the other, as if he were preparing to bolt.
“Can’t stay. Too many eyes,” he mumbled, looking around wildly at the darkness around us.
I couldn’t let him go again. He’d been lingering in the back of my mind since the last time we met. The man wasn’t some lush hobo. He was sick. I just knew it.
“Why don’t you come into the club, and I can get you some food? No one will hurt you in there.”
“No, no, no,” he said, taking a few steps backward. It wasn’t until he backed into the glow of a light shining down on the asphalt from a streetlight at the edge of the parking lot that I realized he wasn’t responding to what I had suggested. He was looking behind me.
Whipping around, I was way too late to react to the man that was coming at me. The glint of a blade in his hand and the wild anger in his eyes were the only thing that I registered before he plunged the pocket knife into my lower abdomen.
“Fuck,” I barked out, stumbling backward. He didn’t let go of the knife, so it slid back out of my stomach, which seemed like a really bad thing. Didn’t they say you shouldn’t take out whatever you’d been stabbed with? I couldn’t quite remember why as a blinding pain stole my ability to think.
Staring at the man that stabbed me in shock, I recognized him as the one we’d ejected from the bar less than an hour ago. I assumed he’d left, since there’d been no sign of him when I took over for Tag.
Apparently, I was wrong. He’d been waiting around for a chance to catch me off guard, and I’d given one to him.
Shit, this is bad.I put pressure on the wound in my stomach, hoping to slow down the blood flow.
“That’s for kicking me out of the club, asshole.”
Are you fucking kidding me?This was about being booted from Black Satin? I’d assumed that he was attacking me because I was an Outlaw Soul and he was Las Balas.
Then headlights washed over me just as the homeless man launched himself at my attacker with a cry of rage. I was so startled that I didn’t even notice that the car that had entered the parking lot was a familiar one. It came right up to the three of us and parked.
“Butch!”
Sabrina’s voice was both a soothing balm to my soul and a most unwelcome sound while there were two men wrestling around, fighting for a knife and I was too hurt to defend her. In fact, I was losing a ton of blood and needed to sit down before I passed out.
I sat down on the curb hard and the impact travelled up my spine, aching. It was nothing compared to my knife wound though. I’d been in plenty of fights in my time, but I’d never been shot or stabbed.
I wouldn’t recommend it.
“Oh my God, are you okay?” Sabrina asked, suddenly in front of me, squatting to my level. The worry in her eyes was nice to see. At least she didn’t hate me for breaking up with her.
“What...are you…”
I couldn’t seem to form a full sentence and my limbs felt heavy. Dimly, I knew that I was losing too much blood, but I couldn’t focus on that right now. Sabrina was here. She was back in front of me and all I wanted to do was kiss her.
There was a muffled yell nearby and she turned away. That was when I remembered there was a fight going on nearby.
“No,” I said, the word a groan. “Stay away.”
But she didn’t listen to me. Instead, she stood and started toward the men until one of them stood up.
