Page 5 of Devil Within

For a brief moment, she looked at the girl, who was still on the ground, holding her cheek. Staring at Shiloh like she was an alien that came down to abduct her.

She held out my hand. “Come on. I’ll call you a cab.”

But the asshole boyfriend straightened upright and stomped over, knocking her hand away. “Don’t touch her.”

“I could say the same to you, dick breath.”

This time he pushed against her shoulders, and since he was about twice as strong as her, she went flying, crashing hard onto the concrete ground. As he reached for his girlfriend, a red haze misted over her eyes. She didn’t see a stranger. Instead, it was her own ex-boyfriend beating her black and blue. The assault on her body left behind nightmares. Not again. Never. Shiloh propelled herself up and charged the man, bending over so her head could ram into his stomach. He let out a whoosh of breath before stumbling back.

“You cunt!” he roared. “Can’t keep your fucking nose out of my business. You’re going to regret interfering in this, slut.”

“I bet you can’t even get it up unless you hit a woman, limp dick motherfucker.”

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy fucking you up.”

Her breath came in hard pants as she stared at him. Hating him. Daring him to make a move. A second later, he obliged, coming straight at her with his fist balling. She had a brief moment of thinking, Oh, hell, before she closed her eyes against the pain she knew that fist was going to impart.

Then, a crunch of knuckles on flesh. She heard the break of a bone and a gurgled cry as someone thumped to the ground. Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw the asshole knocked out cold, blood pouring from his obviously broken nose. Slowly, she turned around to see her savior.

The biker.

His fist was still tightly clenched, but he wasn’t staring at the man he’d just punched. His gaze was fixed on her, and the air between them became charged. Why did this man affect her like this? Every nerve ending in her body jumped to life, and she didn’t like that at all. His aura was intense. Power and strength carved in every facet of his being.

He was the type of man that made women lose their heads and do really stupid stuff, like the inability to think rationally or talk in complete sentences.

The girl on the ground gave a little whimpering sound, and it broke Shiloh’s enraptured moment of gawking at her handsome savior. The abused girl stared at her still-out-cold bastard of a boyfriend.

“Listen,” she said, even knowing this was going to fall on deaf ears. “I know what you’re going to do. You’ll go home with him and say you’re sorry over and over again for something you didn’t do. And he’s gonna beat you and punish you because a girl stood up to him. And he won’t stop until he either puts you in the hospital or puts you in the grave. So, you got one chance to walk away, right here, right now. Don’t be that woman who always goes back because you think no one is ever gonna love you or understand you like he does.”

She held out her hand, and just when she thought she’d gotten through, the girl halted from reaching Shiloh’s lifeline, and her eyes darted to the still motionless body.

“Ah, hell,” Shiloh muttered and turned her back on the situation.

What did she expect? The woman to have an ah-ha moment? Shiloh walked away, down the alley, leaving the whole scene behind. Why did she even bother? She might have gotten hit herself for trying to help some idiot who would probably end up being a punching bag again. Right then, she couldn’t go back into the bar and act like nothing had happened. She needed a moment to shake off the effects of the adrenaline rush.

A second later, Sexy Biker fell in step with her. “Why’d you do that?”

“Do what? Almost get punched?”

“Yes. Why, for fuck’s sake, would you get involved? You knew she wouldn’t leave him.”

Shiloh stopped and turned to face him. A nearby streetlight shone down on him, masking his face with shadows. His eyes were bathed in shadows, but she sure felt their burn.

“Yeah,” she finally answered. “But everyone deserves the offer to be saved at least once, don’t they?”

A funny look came over his face, one she couldn’t interpret. As her adrenaline rush began to crash and burn, her hands shook so she clasped them together in an effort to calm them. Then he reached out and covered her hands with his, and suddenly she forgot all about the reason why she was in a smelly alley. The biggest surprise was that she didn’t pull away. His touch didn’t trigger a panic attack. Once again, the world faded away, as corny as that sounded. It was just him and her with no thoughts of the past, present, or future. Electricity danced over her skin, and heat surged through her. She hoped like hell he couldn’t see the blush dusting over her cheeks.

“Let me go,” she finally managed to rasp out even though her mouth was bone dry.

“What’s your name?” he asked

She hesitated for a moment. “Why do you want to know?”

“Isn’t asking the polite thing to do?”

“We’ll probably never see each other again.”

“That would be a damn shame.”