Unleashed (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance) (89 page)

“Oh yeah? Jimmy here’s got a cousin in America, don’t you, Jimmy?”

“North Carolina,” he says, and he flashes a grin. “I fink.”

“So who’s this pretty girl, then?” the man smoking says, and he looks me up and down. He grins at me, flashes a set of teeth. “She your bird?”

I can feel my heartbeat starting to quicken. I’m a little afraid, and adrenaline is starting to course through my body.

I want to get my phone from my bag, but realize I don’t know the emergency number here, anyway.

God, that is so stupid of me!

“You need a light too, Jimmy?” Chance asks, and his voice is icy.

“Yeah, I’ll take one.”

Chance sparks a flame, and cups it with his hand while Jimmy leans in with his cigarette.

“That’s a nice lighter,” he says, and he puts out his hand. “Give it here, yeah?”

Chance flicks the lighter shut, and holds it in between two fingers. “Don’t think so.”

“Come on, mate, I just want to have a look.”

“Maybe next time,” Chance says.

That’s when the atmosphere changes noticeably. I can hear everybody breathing.

Chance steps forward, right in between me and the two guys. A car trundles by, the headlights wiping over us for a moment.

“I want to see your lighter.”

“I really don’t care,” Chance growls.

The only thing I can think of is:
fucking boys!

“You should, ’cause it’s two of us and only one of you, and you got yourself a girl here.” He winks at me, and I wrinkle my nose. I look around, but there is nobody else on the street, and all the shops have shut.

“Will you just leave us alone?” I say, tugging at Chance’s hand. “Come on, let’s go. Let’s not do this.”

I feel his hand close around mine, and he gives it a squeeze before he pushes me a step back.

“What do you say?” Chance says. “How about you two walk away?”

“How about you let us see that lighter?”

I groan, and say, “What is wrong with you two, it’s just a lighter!”

Jimmy’s face creases with irritation, and he says, “Oh, just put a sock in it, you fucking bitch.”

Chance moves, lightning fast, and I don’t even see it, I just hear it, a loud thump followed by a cry of pain. Jimmy hits the floor, clutching at his jaw, and Chance storms at the other one, angry strides and fists cocked.

He’s light on his feet, dances around, ducks a punch and then throws his fist into the guy’s gut, doubling him over, winded and gasping.

It’s over in seconds. Chance grabs Jimmy by the hair, hoists his head up off the ground, and I see tears in his eyes and anguish on his face.

“Say sorry,” Chance snarls in his ear.

“Faurk orff.”

I watch as Chance slaps him hard, eliciting a high-pitched cry of pain.

“Say sorry!”

Jimmy wilts, hand at the side of his face. “Sahwry! Sahwry!”

“Your jaw’s broken, by the way. That’s why you can’t talk properly. You’re going to be eating through a fucking tube for months. Hope it was worth it,
bitch.
”

Chance grabs me by the arm and yanks me down the street, and we start walking fast.

“You broke his jaw?”

“Yeah,” he says, turning angry eyes on me.

“Hey, don’t take it out on me.”

He looks like he’s going to retort, fire something nasty back, but he doesn’t. Instead, he just rubs his knuckles once – they’re bruised – and then wraps an arm around me and pulls me with him as he walks quickly.

“We need to get back onto a busy street.”

“Why?”

“No doubt those shits have friends and phones.”