Violet yelped as red-hair yanked her away.Frank’s beefy arm slid around Rhys’s throat from behind, pulling him off-balance.“You gonna come with us to see Walter, or we gonna do this the hard way?”
“Fuck off.”Rhys drove his elbow backward into Frank’s side.Red-hair dragged Violet away.Her eyes, wide with fear, cut to him.Rhys threw his head back hard and nailed Frank in the nose.Frank howled and let go of him but not before Calvin rammed his fist into Rhys’s stomach.
He doubled over with a grunt, crouched down, then swept his leg across, toppling Calvin next.Rhys pulled his knife from his boot and straightened, ready for Gus.Gus came at him like a raging bull, tackling him to the ground.Rhys pulled his knife across the brute’s throat.Pushing Gus off of him with a horrible gurgle of blood, Rhys struggled to his feet.
Fuck, where was Violet?
Red-hair had her pressed up against the brick wall of the building.His hands gripped her hips as he crudely ground against her.Rhys stalked toward them, but Calvin had gotten to his feet, and he thrashed out, landing a blow to Rhys’s kidney.He fell to his knees, and Calvin kicked him in his side, sending him tumbling.Then the man crouched and managed to stab his knife right into Rhys’s thigh.“Fuck!”.
Behind him someone whimpered.Violet.The world fell silent as Rhys growled low and buried his knife into Calvin’s stomach.The man grunted and gripped the hilt, pulling the knife out as he tumbled backward into the dirt.The knife skittered across the ground.Rhys jumped to his feet and grabbed up the knife.When he swung around, Frank was in front of him, nose still pouring blood down his face.
“Stop.Enough.”He pressed a hand to Rhys’s chest.
Rhys growled low, his focus over Frank’s shoulder on Violet, trapped under the man with red hair.She’d turned her head to one side, tears streaming down her face.Rhys raised his knife, his breath heaving, prepared to kill Frank as well to get to her.
“Ronny, get off her, for fuck’s sake,” Frank yelled.“Do you have a death wish?”
Ronny immediately stepped back.
“Goddamn it, Seaton.Just stop.”Frank gave his chest a small shove.
“You tell Walter that he needs to leave me and mine the fuck alone.And he’d better sleep with one eye open from now on.”
Frank let out a long sigh.He nodded.“Come on, Ronny, you fucking twat.Look what you did.”
Rhys watched the two of them walk away out onto the street, disappearing to the left.Then he limped over to Violet.Her chest heaved, her breath coming out in panicked bursts.Rhys gently cupped her cheek.“Are you all right?Violet?”
She stared up at him and blinked several times as though clearing her mind.Then she gasped.“You’re covered in blood!”
“It’s not mine.”He rubbed his thumb across her cheek.“Did he hurt you?”
Violet shook her head.“No, just scared me.He was so close.I couldn’t breathe with him pressed against me.I-I couldn’t see what was happening with you.His breath was so rancid…” She glanced over his shoulder and gasped again.“Oh God!”Her hands moved over his chest and then to his face, wiping at the blood that was no doubt splattered there.“Are you hurt?”
“Just a little banged up.”
“God, who were they?”she asked.
“A local gang.One I used to run with when I was an adolescent.The leader doesn’t like me much.”
Her eyebrows raised so high they practically reached her hairline.“‘Doesn’t like you much’ seems an understatement.”
He touched her face again, brushing his knuckles down her cheek.“I’m so sorry that I put you in danger.”
She gripped his wrist.“This was not your fault.Those were very bad men.You don’t still deal with them?”
He shook his head.“No, it’s been years since I left, but the leader still wants to assert his dominance.He wants to intimidate me because I don’t need them anymore.And it kills him that I am successful without the gang.”
“We were just minding our own business when they attacked us.That is not your fault.”
He still seethed.“If they had hurt you…”
“I am all right.”Her lips curved into a wobbly smile.“Can we go now?”
Rhys stepped back with a wince.The knife in his thigh burned like a bitch.
“Rhys, you have a knife sticking out of your leg!”
“I know, sugar.”
