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“Bitch,” the man howled, and before she could even blink, he’d launched himself the six feet that separated them, knocking Pixie back hard into the long table to her rear. She struck her left hip on the surface, unable to stop her trajectory with her bad arm, and grunted in pain.
As she was evaluating her injury, Zablov advanced again, and her bruised hip was nothing compared with the blow she received when his fist struck out and connected with her cheek.
Her head snapped back, but instead of making her cower, it brought her ire up. When the evil man cranked back for a second blow, she managed to get a knee moving, to smash her aggressor right between the legs.
He howled, but even hunched over in pain, Pixie saw he was ready to come back at her once more. She braced, but he was suddenly hauled backward by Sergeant Kimbley.
Pixie dragged in air, thinking everything would be fine now, but watched in horror as the two men grappled and fell to the floor. The irate man landed on top, and with the strength of one possessed, he punched the sergeant in the head, then reached for the officer’s gun.
Pixie cried out and took a step toward them, not knowing what she was going to do, but she had to help in any way she could. She took another step, when—
—all hell broke loose.
Doug burst into the room, assessing the situation in one sweep. He dragged Mr. Zablov up off the Sergeant by the collar, shaking him like a rabid dog. When the man’s feet finally touched the ground, he spun and aimed a few sloppy punches at Doug’s head, but Doug ducked them easily. Zablov, however, proved more slippery than Doug expected, and even after Doug landed one good blow to the man’s chin, the guy skirtedbackward, dodging Doug’s next grab to stagger back and capture Pixie’s bad arm in a bruising hold, hauling her close.
Doug stopped dead, clenched his fists, and growled. “Let her go.”
“Or what?” Zablov taunted, squeezing her flesh uncomfortably. “You’ll shoot me? In a school, in front of my kid? I don’t think so. Now all of you fucking stand back and let me leave. I’ll let this bitch go once I’m outside.”
Why did Pixie doubt that? But…
She finally noticed that Talia and four officers stood just to Doug’s rear; the police with their guns drawn.
Doug spoke, low and dangerously. “I’ll say this one more time. Let her go.”
“Or what?” Zablov repeated, for some reason thinking he’d…what? Walk right out of here?
“Or I’ll put so much hurt on your ass,” Doug ground out, “that you’ll have to be carried from the building. In pieces.”
“Yeah? You and what—”
Pixie had heard enough. She knew Doug wouldn’t make a move as long as Zablov had a hold of her, so she did what she had to do. Slowly, she raised one pointy heel several inches off the floor, then thrust it down sharply on top of the man’s foot. As hard as she could.
Zablov screamed.
It was clearly all the distraction Doug needed.
Zablov’s grip loosened. Pixie skirted sideways, and Doug flew forward, his hands threading around the back of the man’s head to yank him forward before driving him, face first to the floor. Without waiting to see if the howling asshole could get up again, Doug dropped and had the man’s arms wrenched behind his back, while several of the officers came over with zip-ties to restrain him.
“Pixie!” Talia’s worried voice hit her ears, and brought her attention away from the floor. A split second later, her sister’s arms were wrapped around her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Pixie’s smile wobbled. “But, Jason.” She pointed a finger to the corner where the boy cowered. “He needs…”
Talia pulled back, looked at Pixie’s face with a dark scowl, but did as Pixie indicated. Tallie sucked in a large breath, plastered a fake-ass, but semi-convincing smile on her face, then lightened her voice, walking slowly toward Jason.
“Hi, kiddo,” she said cheerfully, as if some fucked-up shit hadn’t just gone down. “I’m Ms. Spires’ sister, Talia. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
She hadn’t, but Pixie wasn’t going to correct her because it looked like Jason might just believe her. His color, although bad, looked a little better now?
But wait. Pixie suddenly had questions twirling around in her spinning head.
“Why aren’t you two in uniform?” she sent to Talia, then turned back to Doug, having noted that he, too, was in civies. The man looked extremely handsome in a crisp, white button down.
Huh.Maybe she’d been hit harder than she thought. She was thinking inappropriately about her…friend, and it was a really dumb question to start with when there was another, far more important…
“What took you guys so long?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
