Page 57 of Lorenzo

Half a mile away, I hear a man’s voice, high and hysterical. The voice comes from an alley between a bodega and a shuttered laundromat.

He’s holding a woman against the alley wall, screaming nonsense at a woman with auburn hair.

Emily.

I jump off my bike.

The alley is dark.

The man’s back is to me. He has Emily pinned against the brick with both hands on her shoulders, thick fingers digging in.

There’s a knife in his right hand, blade catching the light from the street.

I get my hand in his collar and yank him back hard. The knife clatters to the pavement.

He spins around faster than I expected for such a massive guy.

The junkie comes at me with both hands open, going for my face.

I drive my fist into his face and the steel toe of my shoe into his groin.

He grunts in pain and crumples on the sidewalk.

I shoot a look over at Emily.

She’s still standing against the brick wall. Her dress is torn at the shoulder. She gives me a nod that she’s okay.

Just when I’m about to walk her to my motorcycle, the man rises.

My hand reaches into my holster as he breaks away and runs shrieking into the darkness.

I take aim.

No one can harm my Emily like that.

Before I can fire, he lets forth a different kind of scream...

A thud similar to when a body falls from a great height.

Where the fuck did that crazy junkie go?

I rush to where he stood seconds ago. From the looks of it, he ran into an open manhole, crashing through the flimsy warning barricade before it.

I shine the light from my phone down into the dark. The beam finds the crazy at the bottom, his neck wrenched hard to the left against the concrete.

I return to Emily still against the brick.

“It’s okay,” I tell her. “We’re going home.”

CHAPTER 25

LORENZO

Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask Emily once we’re back in the apartment.

I dab hydrogen peroxide on her blistered shoulder skin revealed by her torn dress.

“Yes. But I think it’s time to take you up on that glass of scotch you always seem to be offering.”