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Marshall’s wide, white grin breaks across his face. “I’ve missed the sound of breaking people’s bones, but this will suffice.” He turns to the man. “Pencil Dick, I’m assuming that’s not your legal name. How shall we address the legal paperwork?”
The man turns to run but is immediately captured and held by Mattis. He has no idea that the defensive tackle has the reflexes of a jungle cat, and his target was easy prey. “Now, now,” Mattis begins. “There’s no need to leave.Real men, as you said, handle their business. Pussies run. Are you a pussy, Pencil Dick?”
The crowd begins to laugh, and sirens whirl in the distance.
Confident my teammates have my back, I turn to Livy. “I’m sorry. I have quite a talent for ruining a moment. Want me to get you home?”
“Sabine and I Ubered.”
I turn to look at the creeper before turning back to the woman who looks up at me with trusting pale brown eyes.
“Is that Sabine?” I hitch a thumb over my shoulder, worrying for the first time that I misjudged the situation very badly.
Livy shakes her head as a woman who wears Christmas tinsel on her head extends her hand. “I’m Sabine. I saw everything if you need a witness.”
I dip my chin, acknowledging her.
“Let me get the two of you home. Or I can get one of the guys to drive you if you’re ready now.”
“Don’t I need to stay for the police statement?”
“Depends. Do you want your name to be in the paper? And on Google? And the front page of the tabloids tomorrow?”
She shakes her head, dropping her eyes to the floor.
I take her chin between my thumb and forefinger and lift her eyes to mine. “The Livy I know goes toe-to-toe with me. She doesn’t hide.”
A small smile plays on her mouth as she bites her bottom lip.
Fuck me. It’s like the universal sign forlet’s smash. But I don’t think that’s what she’s saying.
“Your call, Pix. Do you want to roast that fucker for touching you? Or do you want me to keep you out of it and let them charge based on his punching me?”
“Pix?” Sabine asks, looking at Livy.
She looks at her friend and shrugs.
When she turns back to me, she lifts her right hand to my jaw, cupping the swelling heat there, “Let’s do this,” she says. “Then you need to ice that.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I turn and place a hand on her lower back, guiding her back to the group. She’s tiny, and my hands are huge. The one resting on her warm skin almost spans her entire lower back.
She stops short before we make it to the group and looks up. Her eyebrows pull together. “That’s not the first time you’ve called me Pix. Do I want to know?”
* * *
Livy
“You remind me of a pixie.” He shrugs as if it’s no big deal, but I’d swear there’s something earnest in his eyes.
“I say Hobbit size.”
He stares down at my feet for a beat too long. “Nah, your feet aren’t hairy enough. Oddly shaped, that’s true, almost like an ogre’s, but I still have to go withpixie.”
“Hairy enough?” I stare down before looking up into a full-on Layton Ranger grin. Mischief plays in his eyes.
Good Lord, the man is charming.
“You ready for this?” he says, not seeming worried in the slightest.
