Fearful for her friend, Juda smacked the man as hard as she could with her fists. “Leave her alone! Leave her be!”
A backhanded slap across her cheek and temple knocked her onto the floor. Behind her, Juda heard the other patrons scrambling to get out of the man’s way. Someone cried out in fear.
Goen shoved Cora backwards. The woman stumbled but luckily fell against a nearby booth. Dark anger clouded the waitress’s face. “We don’t take kindly to people bullying—”
“Tell me where Cayn Stiner is!” Goen shouted, his face red with frustration.
“I am right here!” a voice called behind them.
Juda stared in shocked amazement to see the young man who’d accosted her yesterday, with the face that had beset her dreams, standing in the doorway.
Goen started toward him when the young man backed up. Goen paused. “Are you running from me again, Cayn?”
Juda gaped at the scenario. She couldn’t be sure, but it was as if Cayn was deliberately luring the man out of the diner. It wasn’t until he glanced at her, and their eyes met that she knew for certain that was exactly his intention.
But why?
A chuckle rumbled in Goen’s throat. “Nice try, but your little trick to escape me will not work this time.”
Before she could duck out of the way, the henchman accompanying him reached down, grabbed her, and hauled her to her feet. The man shook her like she was a recalcitrant child. Jude tried to wriggle out of the man’s grasp, but it was hopeless.
“Do not struggle, Juda,” the young man, Cayn, advised before giving the man holding her a threatening look. “If you hurt her again, I will destroy you.”
The guy laughed out loud. “You are beaten. Admit it.”
“Juda, when I tell you to, go,” Cayn told her.
“Go?” Goen gave him an incredulous look. “Go where? We have you both, and you have nowhere to go. Not without taking me with you.”
“You want me,” Cayn told him in a soft voice. “Let her be.”
“No. We will keep her and do with her as we wish once we are done with you.” He didn’t elaborate any further, but his intent was clear.
“Let her go,” Cayn repeated, speaking to the big man as if the guy had difficulty understanding. “I will give you to the count of three to release her.”
Goen crossed his arms over his chest. “Go ahead. Count. I am curious to see what you will do when you reach three.”
“One.” Cayn acted as if the man hadn’t spoken.
Goen glanced over his shoulder at his cohort. They both chuckled.
“Two.”
Someone screamed a split second before two pots of hot coffee came crashing down on top of the men’s heads. Glass splintered, sending shards and coffee flying outward, drenching Goen and his man with the scalding hot liquid.
Feeling the man release his grip on her, Jude threw her arms up to protect herself, when a warm hand grabbed her by the wrist. Cayn jerked her away from the two and hurried her out of the diner. But they weren’t in the clear yet.
Goen chased after them, roaring with anger and pain. Confused, Juda tried to keep running but Cayn stopped her in the middle of the street where they narrowly avoided being struck by a vehicle. Pushing her behind him, he stood there, facing down their oncoming attacker, when the cohort exited the diner, bowling over an elderly man about to enter. The two raced toward them, and Juda clutched the back of Cayn’s shirt.
“We must run!”
Calmly, he turned his head in her direction. “Hold.”
The two men were less than a dozen steps away when Cayn threw up his arms, holding his hands palms-out toward them. The air between them grew fuzzy and indistinct, like a small tornadic wind.
Goen and the other man tried to stop, but Cayn made a gesture that pushed the fuzziness toward them. The swirling cloud surrounded them, enveloped them. And when it suddenly dissipated, the two men were gone.
Juda caught her breath. “What…what happened to them? Where did they go?”
