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And I was looking forward to a fuckload more of them.
When we parted, both a little dazed but happy, so freaking happy that I could hardly believe it, Asher looked over at the man who had been the cause of so much drama. Javier was still breathing, his eyes glazed over but open as he sucked in rapid breaths.
“I guess I better call an ambulance, hey?” I said non-committedly, and Asher shrugged.
“Seems like the right move, although I doubt he’s learned his lesson.”
I was just reaching for my phone when the door to the shop opened again and a man I didn’t know stepped inside.
Holy shit.
This guy was the literal definition of dangerous, with his dark hair and gray eyes, he carried himself with an air of authority. I could tell just by looking at him that no one fucked with this man. He wore a suit with a black shirt unbuttoned enough that I could see the dark, scrolling lines of a tattoo that crawled up his chest.
He scanned the room and the second he laid eyes on Asher, standing there, still holding the gun that Javier had dropped, the guy reached under his jacket and withdrew his own gun, leveling it on Asher with a growl.
“Babe,” he called out over his shoulder. “Is this the guy I’m supposed to kill?”
Chapter forty-six
Asher
“Ricki!”Ishouted,raisingthe gun I was holding and pointing it at the stranger, who was, for some godforsaken reason, pointinghisgun atme. “Get behind me!”
Growing up on the farm, I’d been around guns my entire life. Rifles, shotguns, pistols, and even an old Colt New Service revolver that Gramps had fromhisgramps from way back in the First World War. I had been handling firearms since before I lost my first baby tooth.
But in all those years, I’d never actually pointed a gun at a living, breathing person until this very moment.
I didn’t love it.
I had no idea who this guy was, but considering all the shit we’d been through these last few weeks, I wasn’t taking any chances with Ricki’s safety. If that meant I had to point a weapon at a stranger, then so be it.
Given the right circumstances, I’d even pull the trigger.
If only Ricki’d just do what I asked her to for once in her goddamn life.
“Wait,” Ricki said, holding her hands in front of her while I tried to move myself between her and the new danger in the room.
Would this day never end?
“Who are you?” Ricki asked, stepping to the side, making me step with her. “You’re not who I was expecting.”
“You were expecting someone?” I asked incredulously. “Someone who was not the cops?”
“No fuckin’ cops,” the man grunted in disgust, keeping the gun pointed at me and looking over his shoulder toward the door with a frown.
“Well, I was going to call an ambulance,” Ricki went on amiably, gesturing to the hunched over form of Javier.
“Are you hurt?” came a new voice, and I watched as a woman entered the building, short with dark hair and golden eyes. She looked around at the busted-up shop as though it was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Babe, I told you to wait outside,” the man growled, frowning at the woman.
“And I told you it would be fine,” she replied with a smile, her eyes sparking with humor as she caught Ricki’s eye and winked. “Ricki, girl. You good? I’d have been here sooner, but I forgot how fucked traffic in this city is. I mean, seriously, it’s the middle of the night. Don’t these people sleep?”
I stood there, gun still pointed at a stranger, while I watched the woman make her way over to Ricki, embrace her like a sister, then hold her at arm’s length and inspect her closely.
“Me?” Ricki asked. “You’re the one with a bruised face. What the hell happened, Frankie?” Narrowing her eyes, Ricki glared at the man whose name I still didn’t know. “Did he do that to you?”
“The fuck I did,” the guy barked, lowering his gun and marching over to where the two women stood. Using his free hand, he wrapped the woman—Frankie, from the sound of it—tight against him, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of her face. “No one hits my woman and gets away with it.
