But my training pushes that weak shit down.
My love for Kelly, my need to protect her and my daughter, my need to do the right thing… All of it swells inside of me until I’m burning with it.
My skin buzzes with anticipation of the violence.
Lennie starts to pace up and down as I stare at him.
Suddenly he spins and stalks over to the waitress.
She’s been sitting off to the side, too scared to move since they grabbed her. She looks about fifteen, with braces, terrified out of her goddamn mind. I imagine my little gnat at that age… I think about the possible daughters I’m going to have with Kelly.
“Don’t touch her,” I snarl.
Lennie giggles. “Sorry, this one’s mine.”
“If you touch her, you’ve given me no choice.”
He spins on me, letting out another deranged laugh.
He moves well for such a big man, the way he spins and prances over to me. It’s silly jester shit, but it tells me certain things too. He’s athletic. He might have some training in fighting.
I need to make sure to take him out quick.
“Listen to yourself.” He stops short of me, gesticulating with the blade. “You think you’re so tough. But you’re not doing anything, are you? You have no right to get involved. This is between me and Angie,” he spits.
“I broke up with you,” Angela yells from behind me. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Because Lennie doesn’t get abandoned, okay? Lennie doesn’t get put in his place. Lennie doesn’t get beaten and treated like trash every goddamn day of his goddamn life and Lennie’s going to take the fucking slut—”
He lunges toward the teenage girl.
Two of his men step forward, forming a wall of solid muscle between me and the girl and Lennie. They glare at me, their fists clenched, and then the other two join them. Behind them, Lennie grabs the waitress and drags her to where I can see them both.
His hand squeezes onto her arm, but it doesn’t look like he’s hurting her.
Yet.
“Here’s the deal. Angie comes with me. If not, I take out my frustration on this innocent waitress. There, Angie? Happy? Is that easy enough for you?”
“Stop it, just stop it,” Angela cries. “You’re disgusting.”
I look into the faces of Lennie’s goons. “I’m going to give you one chance. You leave now and I settle things with your friend here on my own. Or you stay and you accept whatever happens next.”
The one with the piss-colored tattoo spits. “I’ve seen you on TV. Normally I feel bad about fucking someone up four-on-one, but with you, champ? I think we can make an exception.”
“See how tough you are without all that fancy-pants MMA shit to save you.” One of the older ones – a spider tattoo spreading over his hand – reaches into his jacket pocket and flips out a switchblade. “This is a street fight.”
Lennie begins to lead the girl back behind the wall of bodies his goons make.
What they’re planning to do is fucking monstrous.
I can’t let it happen.
But five on one is terrible odds.
I ran once when this same uncertainty touched me, tapping into my flight response and sending me soaring.
I sigh darkly, nodding. “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kelly
The three of us stand behind Kaleb, too full of fear to sit. Natalie and Mom have glanced at me several times throughout the exchange, their eyes brimming with questions, and all I can think is how freaking angry I am we didn’t meet someplace else.
This isn’t how I wanted them to find out.
Now some innocent waitress is going to get hurt, or my man is going to get hurt protecting her, protecting us.
“Warn us?” one of Lennie’s men snarls. “We’re the ones who should’ve warned you—”
He roars when Kaleb springs into action.
I have to remind myself this isn’t a dream, I’m in reality, this is really happening. He moves so fast, blurring across the room and punching the man with the knife across the side of the face.
“Tsk tsk,” he breathes calmly, slamming the man twice in the stomach.
The man coughs and drops the knife.
Kaleb springs forward, trying to catch it, but he has to dodge away when the three other men leap at him.
Kaleb takes a fighting stance, bobbing, hands raised as he faces the three of them down… oh, fuck, and the fourth has recovered, even if he’s wheezing a little.
Lennie stands with the waitress off to the side, watching with a wry smirk on his face.
“A little show before the fun, eh, ladies?”
It’s clear the lunatic hasn’t thought this through.
Somebody must’ve called the cops by now. We’re basically in a glass box, with all the lights on a stone’s throw from the sidewalks. But then I’ve read stories about far worse happening in even more public places.
We could be unlucky.