One
Josie Ryan jerked awake. Yellow lights swam in her vision, and her hands slid across clammy vinyl as she groped for her phone.
Almost 2:00 a.m. No wonder she’d nodded off on the train carrying her home. Every business in the Chicago area wanted to launch new products and host grand openings as soon as April ushered in slightly warmer temperatures, and Josie had been sprinting from event to event for her marketing firm all month long, including this Friday-night bash to celebrate a downtown club opening. Good thing she’d woken up before she missed her River North stop. But what had pulled her out of sleep?
She checked her phone again as the L creaked around a curve, confirming what she already suspected: she hadn’t been woken up by a return text from her mother. Apparently praise from one of Chicago’s top lifestyle blogs for tonight’s event wasn’t enough to spur Pamela Ryan’s elegant fingers into motion, despite Josie’s cheerful “So excited by this write-up!” opening salvo.
She jammed her phone back into her purse, frustrated that she’d expected anything different. That’s when she heard the noise.
“Come on, baby. I’m just being friendly.”
She shifted in her seat to look for the source. Her mother’s lack of reply might have left her restless, but the man’s whiny tone was pushing her right toward the edge of twitchy. Then another voice reached her ears.
“IsaidI’m not interested.”
The quaver in the woman’s words prickled the skin on the back of Josie’s neck and spiked her adrenaline.
“You should be grateful.” Belligerent anger colored the man’s voice now. “Somebody like me thinks you’re worth talking to? You should be fuckin’ grateful.”
Josie was on her feet and in the aisle before she could think twice. A woman cowered against the window two rows back while a thin, hardmouthed man pressed against her with his arm across the back of the seat.
“Excuse me.” Josie adopted her bossiest tone. “Is he bothering you?”
The woman’s terrified eyes met Josie’s, and she nodded vigorously. The man didn’t drop his arm, but he did crane his neck to growl, “Fuck off.”
Josie flicked her gaze left, then right, confirming that she was alone on the train with the creep and his target. A mix of unease and outrage thrummed under her breastbone. The smart move here would be to mind her own business. Then again, she wasn’t known for choosing the smart move, especially when it came to bullies; too many people had minded their own business back when she’d been the target.
Time to do something stupid.
“Actually, I don’t think I can fuck off, as tempting as that offer is. See, that’s my friend. We went to school together.” Josie bent her lips into a ferocious smile and addressed the trembling woman. “I haven’t seen you in ages! Not since graduation, right?”
The woman was obviously half a decade younger than Josie’s twenty-six, but she nodded anyway. “R-right. Not since g-graduation.” Her wide eyes never left Josie’s face.
“That’s way too long.” Josie advanced a step with a ramrod spine but wobbly knees. “I’d love to catch up with you right now. How about you ditch that asshole and come sit next to me?”
“Who you calling an asshole?” The man exploded from his seat just as the train’s brakes started to screech. Josie hid her flinch and held her ground, knowing from experience that people like this guy fed on weakness. As the train lurched to a stop, the doors at the front and the back of the car hissed open. In a flash, the other woman slid across the bench and darted out the closest exit, a mouse escaping the cobra’s jaws.
The guy didn’t turn to watch her go; he had new prey now. “Somebody needs to teach your fancy ass some manners, you know that?” He eyed Josie with distaste, his hands curling into fists, and a whisper of panic slithered through her veins. He was wiry and not much taller than her own five foot four, but he lookedpissed.
Then she lifted her chin. Her redhead had been activated, so he ought to look scared.Poor motherfucker.
“My manners are fine, thanks.” She rocked back on her heels, looking him up and down with a sneer. “I’mnot the one pawing a woman on the train like some kind of escaped zoo animal. Couldn’t find any of your own species to mate with, huh?”
The guy surged forward until his putrid breath burned all the way to Josie’s sinuses. “What the fuck is your problem?”
“What the fuck isyours?” she shouted back. “How do you not understand that no means no, asshole?”
Her heartbeat throbbed in her ears. Next time she’d be smarter about how she let her temper out. Next time she’d try harder to de-escalate instead of rushing straight tofuck you, buddy, let’s gomode. But that was next time. She was here now, and she’d just have to take care of herself like she always did.
The man growled, and she loosened her stance so she was prepared to dodge if he grabbed for her, frantically trying to recall where they’d told her to gouge during that self-defense class she’d taken at the Y last year. Eyes, right? And groin?
Suddenly the man’s face paled, and he took three big steps back. “Look, I’m sorry, okay?” All his bravado drained away, and the whine returned to his voice. “Jesus, I was just chatting up a cute girl. No harm intended.”
He lifted his hands in surrender and backed toward the same exit Josie’s “friend” had taken at the earlier stop, and oh, watching a humiliated harasser scramble down the steps and jog away as soon as the car slowed feltgreat.
“Yeah, that’s right! You step right off and keep stepping!” she yelled at his retreating form through the closed train doors. “Andmind your fucking mannersnext time!”
She jabbed a finger in his direction with each word, smugly satisfied with her ability to handle herself and defend a victim of bullying no matter the personal risk. He’d recognized her inner predator, and he’d bowed before it. She was the biggest, baddest badass on this now-empty train. With a toss of her hair, she spun on her heel to return to her seat… and slammed into a solid wall of man.
