“I’m well aware of why that’s a bad idea,” I replied, continuing to back away from them. “I’ll scream.”
They both chuckled at that. “No one here will help you, girl,” the second man told me.
I wasn’t a girl, but then again he looked to be in his fifties, so to him I guess I was. The guy lunged at me and I wasn’t quick enough to evade. He caught my left arm while Rhino came up on my right. Without thinking I slashed out with my switchblade, satisfied when it bit into flesh. His howl of pain was only a brief sound before it was replaced by a ringing.
He’d backhanded me so hard the second man was holding me on my feet. I would have hit the pavement hard if he didn’t have a grip on me.
Holy shit.
My eyes blurred and I couldn’t seem to get any of my limbs to cooperate. I sank down toward the ground, mostly dead weight as my legs refused to hold me.
“Bring her inside,” Rhino instructed.
No. Inside was a death sentence. Or something even worse.
With the last of my strength, I stabbed my blade into the guy’s thigh. As soon as he released me I was off like a shot, stumbling away as fast as I could. After a few moments the adrenaline hit and I managed to stop weaving, running faster. I made it out to a busier street and spotted a cop car sitting beneath a lonely street lamp.
Bee lining my way to the cruiser, I looked over my shoulder. Rhino had stopped at the intersection and watched me as I ran toward the police car. After a few moments he disappeared down the street.
I slowed to a stop and then bent over, hands on my knees as I gasped in breaths. I didn’t bother to knock on the window of the car. Making my way back to my bike, I was determined to get out of there before Rhino backtracked and found me again. I’d come up with a plan for that asshole later. One that gave me the upper hand.
My heart didn’t stop racing until I was on my bike and driving home. This wasn’t going to be the end of this, but I was probably going to take a few days off from playing detective. That had scared the shit out of me. What an unfortunate reality check. I needed to get my gun before I tried following these guys around again.
“What the fuck happened to you?”
Sighing, I looked over, then froze. I’d been hearing that same question all day from various co-workers. I just expected this had come from someone just coming on shift.
Warm fingers wrapped gently around my jaw and angled my face so Overdrive could examine it.
He was the last person I was expecting to see the next morning. “What are you doing here?” I asked, staring at him.
“No. My question first. What happened?” His dark eyes were nearly black with rage as he studied my shiner.
Rhino hadn’t even used his fist and a good portion of my face was bruised. My eye wasn’t able to open fully either. I’d considered calling in, but I hated doing that. Working kept me busy. Kept my mind off things.
“I tripped,” I told him, jerking my face out of his hold.
“Bullshit.”
Everyone I worked with had thought the same thing, but were too polite to say anything. Not Overdrive. I’d known him for all of an hour and he was calling me out.
Huffing as he grabbed my arm and dragged me into a quieter corner of the hallway, I tugged away from him as soon as he stopped. “Keep your hands to yourself,” I muttered. It wasn’t that I didn’t like his touch. In fact, I liked it too much. My skin was still tingling from where his warm fingers had wrapped around my arm.
“What. Happened?”
He was pissed, and I didn’t even know why. He didn’t even know me. “Why do you care?” I narrowed my eyes. “What are you doing here anyway?”
He was holding a large tin container in his other hand and at my question he thrust it at me. He watched silently as I opened it.
There were dozens of cookies in there. Sugar cookies, chocolate chip, peanut butter, ginger snaps, and probably more that I couldn’t see, or smell. “What’s this?”
“Camila’s way of saying thank you for helping her. She made them for you and your partner. I already dropped the others off to the nurses and doctor from yesterday.” His lips quirked upward. “She likes to cook. And bake,” he added.
“That’s so sweet of her,” I said, “but she’s supposed to be resting.”
“That’s what I told her.” I met his gaze. “Don’t worry, I helped her with most of it. Though that means those cookies might be delicious or they might poison you. No way to tell. You going to tell me about that?”
“No,” I replied, my lips lifting upward at his admission. “I don’t even know you.”
