He’d much prefer to be home with a good show on and a pizza than out here, with the loud music and drunken idiots.
Unfortunately, home wasn’t an option right then. Instead, he’d been forced to go out in order to pick up a delinquent minor who thought heading to a place like this was a good idea.
Trent rolled his shoulder as he tried to ease the tension that held all his muscles rigid. He pictured little Kat, the fifteen-year-old daughter of one of his clients. The girl, like all teens, thought she knew everything. What she thought most of all was that she was dearly in love with an idiot, predatory twenty-five-year-old, the same one who had wanted her to meet him at this club.
Her mother had called Trent in a panic, and Trent, being the nice guy he was, had agreed to go get her. Her uncle was just outside, ready to bring her back after Trent had found her.
It seemed her uncle, while being a caring and loving father figure, might not fare well against the sorts of people who frequented this place.
Which was fine with Trent. He didn’t mind playing the scary one or convincing people to do as he said, because he looked like the type of person who’d slit someone’s throat without blinking.
Sure enough, in the corner, Trent spotted the girl. She wasn’t smiling, her eyes large and wary, as though she’d realized what a huge mistake this had been.
Poor girl. People ought to learn things from others instead of having to live through the lessons themselves.
Trent had lived through his fair share of them, so he knew what the fuck he was talking about.
He walked over, and the relief on her face when she spotted him about made up for ruining his night. Hell, at least she thought of him as a good thing.
“I’m so sorry,” she started to say before her asshole ‘boyfriend’ held his hand up to her face to silence her.
“Quiet, Kat. Who is this asshole?” The man who was way too old to have anything to do with a fifteen-year-old eyed Trent as if he might be willing to take him on.
That was when Trent saw it, the way he could always spot it. The man was an alpha. Kat was a beta as far as they knew—she hadn’t had a heat, but she was still young enough that she could—but the man? Alpha through and through. He was the worst sort, too, the kind who thought that because of his designation he should be given shit, that he deserved whatever he wanted, no matter what anyone else said.
“Her mom asked me to get her home,” Trent responded, not giving the man an inch of space. He sure as hell didn’t cower to twenty-five-year-old self-important pricks.
“Yeah, well, she isn’t ready to go home. When we’re done with her, we’ll send her on back.” The man cast a suggestive look Kat’s way then laughed with his buddies, as if that were the funniest thing he’d ever heard anyone say.
Well, guess I’m not walking out of here without bloodying something on this asshole.Kat letting out the saddest little whimper and curling her shoulders in solidified it.
It reminded him of when he’d met Kat’s mother, of how the woman had stepped into his gym, her shoulders curling in just the same way, a shaking little thing who was terrified of the world.
Kat had played in the gym while Trent had trained her mother, when they’d spent week after week, then month after month working on self-defense. Now, at fifteen, Kat had started lessons as well.
Still, he hated to see that same fear.
“Look, asshole,” Trent said. Even using something passive-aggressive like ‘buddy’ didn’t seem right. Nope, he wanted no question about exactly what he thought of the fucker. “Kat’s coming home, now.”
“And if I say no?” The man grinned wide, his entitled bullshit spread out across his face.
“Well, then I’m thinking I’ll make it so that pretty face isn’t too pretty anymore. Then? I’ll make sure the police know you’re picking up fifteen-year-olds, because last I checked, that’s statutory rape.”
He snickered, setting a hand on the back of Kat’s neck and pulling her in close to him. “She wouldn’t turn me in, would you, sweetheart?”
Kat pressed against his chest, but it didn’t budge him. “I want to go home,” she said in a voice that lacked the strength it should have had.
“Don’t be like that. We haven’t even started having fun. Bet you I can get you moaning in no time.” The man leaned in to kiss her.
Trent drew his hand into a fist, ready to nail the fucker and teach him in no uncertain terms what ‘no’ meant.
Instead, Kat moved. She did it so quickly, as though by muscle memory. She stomped down on the man’s foot, which made him step backward and loosen his grip. Next, she brought her knee up into his groin, rewarded with his howl, and finally set her hand on the back of his head to yank him down into her rising knee.
The crunch of his nose might have been the best thing Trent had heard in a long damn time, though thewail the fucker let out when she’d gotten his goods had been up there.
Still, before anyone got any stupid ideas, Trent put his hand out. Kat grasped it so he could pull her to his side, then pressed her behind him.
“That fucking bitch,” spat the man as he stood, blood pouring down his face. He took a step forward, as though he planned to do something, but one look at Trent seemed to make him reconsider.
