Cautiously, I curled my arms around her.
She sobbed, and I did my best to hide her face in my chest, holding the back of her head in the splay of my hand, like with the action I could protect her from the evils that haunted these streets.
With my other hand, I dug in my pocket and pulled out my phone so I could call for help.
Her hands fisted in my shirt. “He was going to…” She trailed off, no doubt unable to form the words because the girl couldn’t tolerate the thought.
Neither could I, because a fresh bout of rage went sailing through my senses.
I held her a little tighter. “I know…I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I kept my eyes on the bastard on the ground while I impatiently waited for someone to pick up. Finally an operator answered.
“We need an ambulance and the police.” It came out harsh as I rattled off the intersecting street and told them to hurry. For once, I was grateful I was no stranger to this side of town.
Felt like an hour passed while I sat there holding her, my guts in knots, terrified by the way I felt desperate to erase her pain.
When sirens screamed in the distance and that anxiety ebbed a fraction, I knew at least this girl was safe.
That was right before I sensed the cocksucker stirring. But he didn’t groan.
He growled.
I was slammed with a rogue wave of that same protectiveness that threatened to drive me out of my mind. I surged to standing, taking the girl with me.
I set her on unsteady feet and shifted her behind me when he climbed to stand.
If he thought he was going to get to her, he was going to have to get through me first.
He looked like a demon, a web of blood streaking his face, eyes red in the darkness, evil radiating from his stance. He raked the back of his hand over the sneer plastered to his mouth. “Bitch…I warned you.”
A terrified cry, barely audible, rasped into my back. Fingers curled into my shirt.
“I’ve got you. Trust me,” I said so quietly I could only hope she heard.
Sirens grew closer, and I began to edge us back and to the side when the bastard took a step forward.
“Would think twice about that, asshole,” I warned, voice going deathly low.
He laughed.
Dread shivered through my entire being when I saw him reach into the back of his pants. A flash of metal struck in the haze of night.
The prick had a gun.
The girl whimpered. No doubt she’d seen it, too.
My mind was frantic, fumbling for the best way to get out of this, calculating the best move to keep her safe.
“Yeah?” he challenged. “Would say the same to you.”
At least the asshole had that on me. It had been fucking stupid coming down here unprepared. But it wasn’t like I’d ever imagined where I’d land once I climbed off that plane tonight.
I never would have thought I’d end up staring down the barrel of a gun.
“Go… Run.” It was the quietest plea uttered from the girl in her attempt to protect me. Stark terror ricocheted from her to me and back again. Her panicked, strained breaths glided through the thin material of my shirt, heat at my spine and chills across my skin.
Fuel for the adrenaline.
I didn’t know if this moment was chance or fate or fluke. It didn’t matter. No way would I leave this girl behind.
My hands went up, palms out.
Figured my best bet was to placate the fucker.
Buy some time.
“No need for any of that.”
I took another cautious step back, edging her toward the street, my hands pushed out in front of us like they could somehow act as a shield. I prayed the whole time I was making the right choice and not inciting a madman.
My attention dipped to his gun and back to the hostile arrogance blazing from his eyes. “I’d think that would be a bad idea, now wouldn’t you, considering the cops are about five seconds out?”
Seemed like it was just then he realized the sirens blaring down the road were meant for him, the whirl of reds and blues cutting into the night like a dizzying Tilt-A-Whirl.
He hesitated, rocking forward then back.
A cruiser skidded to a stop at the head of the alleyway.
Asshole turned his gaze to the girl, who was peering out from behind me, like maybe she’d been contemplating stepping out in front, like I’d ever let her take that fall.
He smirked at her. “Until next time.”
Then he turned and ran. Two seconds later, the piece of shit was swallowed by the darkness at the opposite end of the alleyway.
My muscles bunched and ticked, my insides heavy with the need to chase him down. To take him out. Ensure that there would never be a next time.
But an officer was yelling freeze, and the only thing I could do was grip the girl’s hands, which were suddenly clinging to the front of my shirt as she again started to sob into my back, the overflow of anxiety and fear pouring out in a rush of tears. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She kept saying it, again and again, like any of this could be her fault.
“Shh. He’s gone. He’s gone,” I told her.
Slowly, I twisted around, hands in the air, voice gruff as I spoke to the approaching officer. “I was the one who made the call.”
My eyes fell toward the girl I could feel staring up at my face.
Seemed like every emotion I’d ever felt was lodged like a jagged rock in my throat when I looked down at the tormented eyes blinking up at me. Eyes so intense. Too dark to be blue. Too distinct to be anything else.
Standing there, I felt staggered.
Maybe it was the confrontation.
Facing down death and willing to accept it if it meant saving a stranger from a fate I couldn’t begin to fathom.
My fists ached with the foreign feeling left behind by my rage.
I didn’t exactly have the reputation of a fighter. Call me a pussy or a pacifist. Truth was, I wasn’t either of those things. I’d just always been clear about what I was living for.
For the last seven years, all my efforts had been carefully doled out on the two things that were important to me, because I couldn’t afford to put that energy anywhere else.
Standing there, I knew this would cost me.
Everything important in our lives did. Nothing was free and every action came with a consequence.
No. I’d never been known as a fighter.
But looking down at this girl looking up at me?
I knew I’d never regret fighting for her.
Chapter Five
Alexis
“What were you thinking?” Chelsey’s entire face pinched with worry when she looked over at me. She was pacing the tiny curtained-off area where they had me in the emergency room.
She seemed so much like our mother right then, the corners of her blue eyes creased with worry, lines of maturity accentuating the soft curve of her face.