“Can’t wait to see you, too, cuz,” I grumble.
“Fuck,” Lil squeals and the line goes dead.
Marco immediately makes a call to someone named Ford.
“What the hell, Boss? You burned rubber out of Gordie’s and disappeared. I was just about to have Parker track your ass down.”
“Meet us behind the theater. Someone fucked with my girls.” Marco’s voice has gone hard. Lethal.
“What?” Tires squeal through the phone. “Are they okay, Marco?” The guy sounds like he genuinely gives a shit.
“Lil said Ariana needs stitches, but they’re alright.” Ford letsout a relieved sigh, and Marco unclenches one hand from the steering wheel before doing the same to the other.
“God damned bull-headed stubbornly independent?—”
Marco cuts Ford off. “Yeah, yeah, they’re all those things and more. Call Sully, I want him there, too.”
“You got it, Boss.”
A few minutes later, we pull up behind a movie theater. A man is curled up in a ball on the ground, bleeding as my cousin Lil kicks him. I can’t hear what she’s yelling at him, but it’s clear she’s unleashing a verbal beating to go along with the physical one. She’s taller than I expected, kind of willowy, and has a pissed-off, blonde Amazon thing going on. It’s an improvement from the whiny, spoiled brat I remember from when we were kids.
Standing a few feet away is another girl, pointing a gun at the guy on the ground, but she glances up as Marco stops the car. She looks like a tiny warrior goddess or an avenging angel. My jaw clenches, my breath catching in my throat when her eyes meet mine.
Her body makes my mouth water—curvy hips, a soft stomach, thick thighs, and tits just shy of being too big for her petite frame. Midnight black hair hangs in wild waves past her shoulders, with bits of pink peeking out. She’s bleeding from her bottom lip and her forehead, but her hand is steady as she holds the gun. I jump out of the car, my body moving on instinct. I bypass Lil and the man she’s berating, going straight to Ariana like I’m being pulled to her by a magnet. The top of her head doesn’t even reach my shoulders, and I use one finger under her chin to gently tilt her head up so I can get a better look at her injuries in the shitty lighting. I don’t realize I’m about to let loose something that sounds like a growl until it’s out of my mouth. The anger in her storm-cloud gray eyes morphs into amusement.
She breaks our eye contact to look at Marco, and I almost check to make sure I’m not the one being kicked in the gut.
Fuck. I’m fucked. It’s like in movies when the guy sees the girl for the first time, and everything goes all slow motion, and he has hearts in his eyes, and the audience is all ‘awe cute, but that shit never happens in real life,’ except it’s happening to me.
The way Marco fell tits over toes for Mia instantly is the stuff of legends. Mom’s bitched about it my whole life. I never believed it. I’m not sure I believed in love at all. But if this is how Marco felt when he saw Mia for the first time, I get it. It’s not only physical. I can feel my soul, my heart, connecting with hers. This girl means something to me.
And someone fucking hurt her.
Someone who is about to pay for that shit. Well, more than he already is, what with being shot and then kicked repeatedly.
Marco’s voice is more gentle than I remember ever hearing it when he says, “Ariana, we’re here now, sweetheart. You can put your gun away.”
More black SUVs pull up, and guys in suits get out, but they keep their distance.
“I haven’t decided if I want to shoot him again or not yet. He’s not bleeding enough.” Ariana’s voice makes my blood heat and my heart race. I fight back a grin at the spirit and spitfire in this girl. I haven’t felt like grinning much in years, but less than a minute in her presence has me going giddy.
“He will, Ari,” Marco growls. He turns toward my cousin. “Lil, you can stop kicking him.”
“No thanks.”
Marco shakes his head with a shrug and looks back at Ariana. “Tell us what happened.”
She sags a little and lowers the gun before flipping on the safety and stowing it in her purse.
“I walked outside, and he grabbed my ass. I would have shoved his nose into his goddamned brain, but he surprised me and smacked me into the wall pretty fucking hard. He said some shit Ibet he wishes he hadn’t now, and I don’t want to repeat, then pushed me up against the wall.” I’m pretty sure I growl again, and her eyes flick my way for a heartbeat before she continues. “Lil yelled and distracted him, so I was able to knee him in the balls, smash his nose, and grab my gun. I shot him in the leg so he couldn’t get away. Then I shot him again and kicked him once or twice.” She shrugs. Marco looks at her, then down at the man on the ground, then back to her.
“Just once or twice, huh?”
She rolls her eyes. “Okay, maybe more. I didn’t count. You know me better than that. But these aren’t exactly great for kicking shitheads,” she waves her hands down to her glittery, blood-splattered shoes, “so Lil took over for a while, and that’s when you showed up.” Talking has made her lip start to bleed more. She prods the split with her tongue and cringes in pain. I fight the urge to take her gun and end the guy right here and now. I’ve never killed anyone before, but I’ve never felt anything like this before. Wanting to protect the other kids at school was one thing, but this was a whole new level.
“Why the back door?” Marco asks.
The girls look at each other for a second, and I swear they have a silent discussion before Lil answers with a sigh. “Don’t tell Mom, okay? The movie was terrible. Seriously, so horrible. Mom would love it.” Marco wrinkles his nose slightly. “Exactly. We needed a cigarette to get the sour fucking taste of it out of our mouths. Don’t look at me like that,” she points a finger at a frowning Marco, “it’s not like we’re the only ones who steal a secret smoke around here from time to time.” She wags her eyebrows a couple of times.
