Amelia
Amelia had been walking along the sidewalk, minding her own business, when the two men had approached her and asked her for a light. They were nondescript in every conceivable way. Both were white, with medium brown hair, and they were both of average height and build. One of them was ever so slightly taller than the other and had a tiny little scar dissecting his right eyebrow, but other than that, neither of them had any distinguishable features. In fact, she would have had trouble picking them out of a lineup—not, of course, that’d she would ever want to waste her time with police.
As soon as she told the men she didn’t smoke, they wasted no time in revealing their true purpose for approaching her—to grab her and drag her into an alley behind the main street. Were they insane?
She had almost rolled her eyes at their antics and had thought about knocking them out then going on her way, but she’d had a bad day and kicking their asses would help her feel a great deal better about it. The thought was almost enough to make her smile, but she didn’t want to warn them that something was up until they were safely out of sight.
She didn’t know if they planned to mug her or rape her, though it was probably both. Perhaps after a good ass kicking, they would think twice about attempting that sort of thing again. She could only hope. One thing was for certain—she was really going to enjoy this. And, well, if it happened to protect their future victims in process, so much the better.
There were, in her experience, few better ways to fix a lousy day than visiting some physical justice on someone who deserved it. And these guys definitely deserved it. And truly, it had been alousyday.
It had sucked from the moment she got up and remembered she was out of coffee so she couldn’t get her early morning caffeine fix. Then she’d gone into work to find out she’d been let go because she didn’t have all the necessary papers to work and the owner had got suddenly antsy about having an ‘illegal immigrant’ working at his restaurant.
Amelia had managed to survive for the past year by going from job to job and working for anyone who would employ her without papers, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that if she wanted to stay in the city, she’d have to find some way to buy fake documents. It was either that or go home with her tail between her legs, and that was out of the question. She would rather die than go crawling back to her bully of a father.
To make her awful day even worse, she’d just been on the date from hell—a blind date that one of her now ex-coworkers had set her up on. Her date had been about five inches shorter than her, which she might have overlooked if it wasn’t for the way he’d curled his upper lip when he first took in her height of five feet eleven inches tall. Conversation had been practically nonexistent throughout the meal even though she’d tried on multiple occasions to ask him questions about himself.
And finally, as if all that hadn’t been bad enough, he’d gone through the check with a fine-tooth comb to ensure he didn’t pay for anything he hadn’t personally consumed. He’d even argued about who was going to pay for the bottle of water that they’d shared. What a cheapskate! Plus, he hadn’t offered her a ride home. He just got in his car and made a hasty getaway, leaving her standing in the street alone. At night. Just what kind of scumbag did that?
That had been it, the last straw. Amelia was done with dating for the foreseeable future. It would be for the best anyway. It wasn’t as if anything worthwhile could actually come from dating a human man. It sucked, and while she didn’t want to be alone for the rest of her life, little could be done about it. Amelia had made her bed…
Worse, she’d spent the whole evening looking over her shoulder, convinced that someone was following her, but each time she turned around to check, there was no one suspicious anywhere in sight—no one who had bothered to spare her a second glance. So she was either paranoid, or her senses were becoming dulled, either of which was bad news.
It might have been one of her father’s men—her species were more than capable of being stealthy, despite their immense size. But how could they have found her so soon? She’d only been away from home for a year, and the world was immense. It didn’t make sense for them to have tracked her down.
And if her father’s men had found her? Well, that would just make a bad day worse.
This bit of stress relief was way overdue.
“This will go better for you if you don’t scream,” the taller of the two men said to her, drawing her attention from her thoughts and onto him…which was probably not where he wanted it to be. Or wouldn’t, when he realized thatshewasn’t the damsel in distress here.
He was holding a knife at her side as he dragged her from the street. The dumbass. One quick twist of his wrist would be enough to break the bone and make him drop the weapon. It would be as easy to her as breathing.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” she said in the best small, fearful voice that she could manage.
Both men chuckled and when the smaller of the two met her gaze, his eyes glinted with the promise of violence. The sadist was clearly getting off on the fear she was faking, and she wondered absently what it would take to makehimshake with genuine fear. Maybe she could make him pee himself. Now that would be a good start on turning today around.
When they were halfway along the alleyway, the men threw her up against a wall and for the first time, she allowed an excited smile to stretch across her lips. They turned to glance at one another right after seeing it.
“Bitch is crazy,” the taller man said.
“You got that right,” his friend replied.
“Who are you calling a bitch?” she demanded, hand on hip.
The taller man leaned in. “I call it as I see it.”
The time for pretense was over.
“You know that you picked on the wrong woman tonight, right?” she asked, looking at each of them in turn.
The man with the knife frowned, looking suddenly unsure of himself, but the shorter man scoffed.
“Yeah, why’s that—you a cop?” he asked with a roll of his eyes. “You stupid enough to think you could take us? Because I don’t see your backup.”
“Not a cop,” she said. “Not even close. I’m something else.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “And I don’t need backup.”
He took a couple of steps nearer then leaned in close enough for her to smell the pungent aroma of alcohol and cigarettes on his breath.
