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"Will do, brother. Thank you."
Hanging up the phone, I turned to Catalina. "We gotta get back on the road. There's an Inn a few miles up. The storm's not letting up, and we need to get you warm."
I held my hand out, but she looked at it for a long pause. I sighed and crouched down before her. "Listen, I'm not here to hurt you. But you can't fight whoever's after you alone, least of all if they're cartels. I'm only trying to help you. Besides, if I don't at least try, Abigail will have my balls."
This made her smile softly and she nodded, quickly taking my hand. I led us to the door where a large man stood waiting for us, blocking our exit. He looked menacing enough, and I sure as hell wasn't amused.
"Where do you think you're taking that little girl?" he asked.
"That's none of your goddamn business," I replied, feeling Catalina draw closer and grip my arm tighter. Her touch reassured me that she knew I'd keep her safe.
"Well, we can't just let you drag that little girl out into that storm, now can we, fellas?" he said, addressing the other men in the room.
There was a murmur that went across the room, and I sighed, too damn tired for this shit. The old man sitting at the counter with the other man who had confronted me before simply tapped his shoulder and shook his head. The man eyed me but turned his back to the scene, realizing it was best for him to avoid what was about to go down.
"We don't want any trouble," I said, squeezing Catalina's hand and trying to move past him.
But the guy shoved his shoulder into my chest, stopping me. I froze, feeling an undeniable coldness settle over me.
"I suggest you move," I said, my voice low and threatening.
The guy gave me an arrogant smirk and looked around the room. He spread his arms wide and said, "I'm not stopping you," clearly blocking the door.
I placed Catalina's hand in the jacket pocket she was wearing and closed her fingers around the keys. She nodded at me, and I knew she understood. I stepped back, ready for anything these guys might throw at me. Catalina's eyes moved from me to the guy at the door, and she took a couple of steps back, anticipating what I was about to do.
"I don't want any trouble," I said to the man at the door. "Just let us go, and nobody gets hurt."
He smirked. "Look at you, and then look at me. I'll fucking crush you."
I met his gaze with my dark, dead eyes, the same eyes I'd given to many others before who I'd been forced to kill. "I warned you," I said, grabbing a nearby chair and flinging it at him.
He blocked it with his arm, and the guy next to him stood up and charged at me. I took a fighting stance and quickly had him in a headlock, slamming him into the wooden panel of the booth. His nose broke with a sickening crack, and the diner erupted in chaos.
Another guy jumped up, yelling, "What the fuck, man!"
He threw a punch at my jaw, but I shook it off and returned the blow with two hits to his face, followed by a kick to his jaw that knocked him out cold.
Catalina tried to get past the big man at the door, but he stopped her. "Where do you think you're going, sweetheart? I'm not done with your boyfriend yet, and we've got a long night ahead of us."
I roared and lunged at him, forcing him to drop Catalina to deal with me.
“Go!” I screamed at her as she ran out of the diner into the rain. She was safe for now, and with that I could focus on the fucker in front of me.
I landed three consecutive punches against the side of his ribs. He grunted with each blow, and I didn’t give him a chance to react. I continued my beating, one punch to his jaw, a kick to the back of his knee sending him down to the floor.
I grabbed his hair, yanking his head back to look at me. “I told you to let us go.”
I punched him in the nose, hearing the clean break followed by his wail.
I yanked his head back again. “You just couldn’t fucking listen.”
I gave him another hard punch and he fell back. Years of training and I knew exactly what strikes would kill him. But I didn’t want to kill anyone tonight, just break a few bones. I was deadly calm as I turned to the rest of the men in the room.
“Anyone else?”
The man lay groaning on the floor, blood streaming down his nose as he cursed at me. His companion remained unconscious. No one else in the diner moved, and the old man behind the counter looked up at me and nodded, acknowledging what I had done. He had seen me fight before and knew that I had only acted in self-defense. I returned the nod, silently thanking him for not interfering.
Walking out into the rain, I found Catalina waiting for me with the bike. She had ridden it up to the front of the diner, surprising me with her quick thinking. Seeing me approach, she slid back to allow me to take the driver's seat.
