Shane just clicked his tongue. Humans were so typical. There were billions of men and women on the planet and, of course, there were always those few who wanted one that they couldn’t have instead of picking one of the literally billions of other people. That seemed like insanity more than anything else, and he was probably going to enjoy the next few minutes more than he was supposed to. He reminded himself that he wasn’t supposed to like it. Even saying that though, he knew that he would.
Shane waited for the first one to jump, but another man jumped in with him, hitting him from both sides. Shane let their fists make contact, just so that they would be closer to him. Then, he would be able to pull them close and make them pay. It wasn’t like he could feel the blows anyway. They didn’t even faze him, and Shane was almost disappointed by the fight that the first three gave him, which wasn’t much at all. All he could do was hope that the big blond man did a better job of it.
He turned toward Thom, who was watching him carefully.
“Why would you do all of this for a woman that you don’t know?”
Shane didn’t have an answer and he was no longer giving warnings. He wasn’t interested in them; he was interested in something else. He wanted to hurt the guy, just because he did. He hadn’t had a bad day, but any time that he could harm someone that was a bad person to the core, Shane was more than happy to do so. He took pleasure in it, and he could feel his lips curving up into a smile. This was exactly what he wanted and needed.
The girl wasn’t even on his mind, though when the last standing man threw her to the ground, his teeth clenched together, and he knew that he was going to make it worse for him. Shane couldn’t stand the way that some men treated women. They deserved what they got, just like this guy was going to deserve it too. It made dishing it out that much sweeter.
Chapter 3
Vivica
“Come with me. Don’t just stand there. The cops are going to be here soon, and I don’t want to be here when they do.”
Vivica resisted the hand that went to her arm. She had already gone from one guy trying to help her to another trying to kidnap her. How was she supposed to know if he was any different or not? He could be just as bad, though Vivica knew that she wouldn’t have a chance of fighting him. He was too big, fast, and he fought like the devil himself had gotten ahold of him.
Watching that guy fight the men off and take them all down with seemingly no effort, even the tall blond guy that had scared her so much, had made her feel some kind of way. Vivica didn’t know what to think of him. He didn’t seem human. He’d been punched several times in the face and had laughed, literally laughed. If he wasn’t some kind of robot, Vivica was sure that he had lost his mind. No one fought like that, with nothing to lose and such a smile on their face. He liked it and that scared her.
She pulled her arm back when he tried to grab her again. “I don’t know who the hell you are, but thank you for helping me. Now I have to go.”
There was the sound of sirens going off, and she looked around at the guys in front of her. They were laid out, bleeding, and there was going to be no explanation for any of it. Vivica had lived on the streets, didn’t have anywhere else to go, and that meant that she had run into the cops far more than she ever would have liked to. They were always messing with her, they knew her well, and Vivica could imagine that she would find herself in Orleans Parish Prison system before the night was over.
His reflexes were like a cat, and he grabbed her again, pulling her in the opposite direction of the cops that were most likely going to be there any minute.
“Where are you taking me?!”
“Relax! I am just going to take you home. If you aren’t there to ask questions, then neither one of us will have to worry about it.”
“I wasn’t planning to stick around and wait for the cops anyway.”
“You weren’t?”
Vivica agreed that she wasn’t, and it was hard for her to look at him. He was handsome, dangerous and sexy, all at the same time. Vivica knew that men like Shane were the ones that she was supposed to stay away from. They were trouble, the kind of trouble that she had no business being in.
“No, I wasn’t. But, since you are offering, if you get your hands off of me, I will go with you, just to get out of here.”
She waited for him to ask why she was avoiding the cops, but he didn’t. Instead, he let her go and told her to move faster. He was the bossy sort, the type that demanded things of people and expected to get what he wanted. She had met his type too many times before to count. She wasn’t trying to stay there and deal with all of that, but the sirens were close.
“Where are we going?”
“To my car.”
“Where are you parked?”
He said that he was another couple of blocks away and that made her happy. She asked him why he had parked so far away, but he just shrugged, saying that he had heard her and wanted to make sure that she was okay.
“You came all this way, because you heard me scream?”
He agreed, and Vivica didn’t know what to say to that. It made her feel a bit better, because if he didn’t know what she looked like before, then he was just helping to help. He wasn’t likely trying to help her to get into her pants, like Thom had done.
“Thank you. I don’t even know your name.”
“It’s Shane.”
“I’m Vivica. It’s nice to meet you, even if it was under horrible circumstances.”
