When Mr. Creepy left with one of his Neanderthals, Alyssa saw Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous look back and forth between the two girls and the rich guy, a torn expression on his face. Like he was trying to make a decision. Then his lips moved, like he was talking to himself. A moment later, she saw a man and woman on the far side of the club follow Mr. Creepy out the door. The pair moved with the same dangerous grace as Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous as they slipped through the crowd.
That’s when it hit her—Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous wasn’t there for the girls. He and his friends had been following Mr. Creepy. Not shocking, she supposed. If Mr. Creepy was making people disappear, he was probably doing other illegal crap as well.
But if Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous was there for Mr. Creepy, why hadn’t he gone with the rest of his team? Why was he ghosting down the back hallway, one-hundred-percent focused on the girls and the waitress herding them out of the building? Especially since it seemed like he didn’t have any other backup.
She didn’t have any backup, either. But who was keeping score?
Alyssa had to practically run to keep up as she heard the back door open and close. Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous might be big, but he was damn fast. A part of her realized her original plan to let the men grab the girls, then follow them was shot now. Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous was going to put himself right in the middle of everything and wreck any chance of tracking those Neanderthals anywhere.
But it wasn’t like she could stand by and let him do it on his own. The thought of him going up against those three men made her stomach twist up in a knot. Which was a little strange considering he was in the middle of mucking up her case.
Alyssa felt a tingle race up her spine as she quietly slipped out the back door. She had enough experience with weird to know when she saw it, and something weird was definitely about to go down.
She was already moving through the shadows when she saw Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous sling one of the Neanderthals through the air. The crunch as the man hit the brick wall was nearly deafening in the silence behind the club. Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous was big, no doubt about it, but so was the Neanderthal. No one should be able to toss someone around like that, no matter how strong they might be. And normal people didn’t growl, even in the middle of a fight.
Why did everything she got involved in have to turn out to be bizarre?
She put that thought from her mind when the guns came out. That’s when she realized Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous wasn’t carrying a weapon. Instead, he strode toward the other two Neanderthals like he planned to tear them apart with his bare hands.
Alyssa rolled her eyes. Another guy with more testosterone than brains.
She slipped from the shadows and around the back of the sedan, noticing that the twins were completely out of it now and slumped in the backseat in a boneless heap. That made things easier. At least they wouldn’t give away the element of surprise as she grabbed one of the men and flipped him over her hip. The moment he was on the ground, she pulled out the Sig Sauer holstered behind her back and thumped him in the temple with the butt of the weapon. Not hard enough to crack bone, but more than hard enough to put him out.
She spun around, bringing her gun up, knowing the other Neanderthal was probably already pulling the trigger on the big guy she felt a stupid need to protect.
Everything happened so fast. Which was crazy, since she’d been through enough training and real-life situations like this. But one second, the remaining Neanderthal had his weapon pointed straight at the big guy and the next, Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous…moved.
There was another growl, a flash of reflected light off some seriously intense eyes, then Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous knocked the man’s gun hand aside. After that, there were about a half dozen quick strikes she recognized as some kind of martial arts style. Part of her noted Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous barely moved his left arm, instead, doing all the damage with his right. It didn’t seem to matter as bones crunched and the gun went flying into the darkness.
Maybe he wasn’t a cop.
More like a soldier.
Or a trained killer.
Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous bounced the guy’s head off the side of the car door, then picked him up and tossed him into the same wall his buddy had crash tested. Yup. Brick was still tougher than human. Alyssa winced.
Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous spun around to look at her, his body taking on an aggressive stance. Alyssa instinctively brought her weapon up, only to have him grab it out of her hands before she even saw him move.
She rolled backward on the pavement, going for the backup piece holstered at her right ankle, dragging it out and jacking the slide back in one smooth motion. She brought it up straight and level, green night-sight dots aligning in the center of the man’s chest.
“I’d prefer if you didn’t shoot me,” he said in a deep voice.
Alyssa wasn’t sure what was more distracting, the way the words rumbled out of that muscular chest or the sinful British accent that made her think of some kind of decadent chocolate commercial.
“It would probably hurt,” he added.
She hesitated, making sure that none of the three Neanderthals were a threat before putting the weapon’s safety on and slipping it back in her ankle holster. She knew it was insane to approach a guy who clearly had danger written all over him without her weapon drawn, but her instincts were saying this was the way to go. Bottom line, she trusted her instincts more than her training.
“The thought of shooting you hadn’t entered my mind until you jerked my gun out of my hand,” she said. “Then I didn’t have a choice.”
“Sorry about that.” He held out his right hand, her Sig sitting casually in the middle of it. “I kind of did it without thinking. Bad habit of mine.”
Alyssa stepped closer, understanding a little something about acting without thinking. That was when she realized just how attractive he really was. Like Hollywood-movie-star attractive. And holy crap, he was even taller and more muscular than she’d thought. He wore his leather jacket unzipped, allowing her to make out some of his broad shoulders and all those pecs. Damn, they seemed to go on for days.
Maybe she should pat him down for weapons, starting with that chest. Purely for safety’s sake, of course. Okay…no…bad idea. She didn’t even know his name. Groping him would be rude.
So instead, she carefully reached out and took her gun from his hand, checking the magazine before putting it away. She hadn’t seen him messing with it, but then again, she’d seen how fast he could move. She backed away from him, not bothering to comment on the fact that he’d taken her weapon away from her. She didn’t like thinking about how easily he’d been able to do it. Then again, she hadn’t shot him, so as far as she was concerned, they were even.
