“Do you mind? I’m having a conversation with this lady.” I turned back to face her. “Do you need help, miss?”
She nodded shyly, and I reached forward to take her hand and lead her away, but I wasn’t fast enough. The guy viciously slammed into me, his heavyset shoulders ramming into my body like a bull.
“I said, fuck off,” he growled at me. “We’re just fine, aren’t we, babe?”
“Leave me alone, please,” the girl whimpered in response.
The guy had managed to shove me out of his way and was now grinning at me victoriously, but I wasn’t the kind of guy who took being pushed around lightly.
“Please step aside,” I said calmly. The guy’s brows shot up.
“Can you not take a hint?” he asked, anger flowing through his voice. “Get. The. Fuck. Away!”
I stood my ground and cracked my knuckles, readying myself for a fight, but instead of going after me, he grabbed the girl by her hair. She yelped in pain and I jumped forward to her rescue, but the jackass was already dragging her towards the back exit, almost losing me in the writhing crowd. I cut through the dancers and followed him with a steely resolve in my eyes, knowing what was going to happen next.
I’d have to fucking hurt him.
He may have been drunk, but no one treated girls like that in my club.
Loud music blared through the back door as I followed the guy outside. He knew I’d stalked after him, and he threw the girl aside as soon as we were out on the asphalt. I quickly made sure she was okay, and then I stared the guy down, slowly approaching him. All I could think of was what would have happened if the girl was Rory and I hadn’t been around to defend her or help her get home safely.
Fuck, I’d kill for her.
“I fucking told you to leave us alone,” the guy snarled. “What the fuck’s your problem?”
“Guys like you,” I replied, not taking my eyes off him for a second.
The atmosphere was like a flickering match in a gasoline-soaked room. Tensions were taut, stretched beyond their limit, and both of us were ready to fucking blow up. In a flash, the moron was on me, hitting, biting and growling like a goddamned rabid dog. He may have been broader, slightly taller and more vicious, but I was sober, smart and fast. With every punch he delivered, I got in two. Every kick was dodged, every bite earned him a punch to the jaw.
I landed an especially heavy blow on his nose, and he stumbled back, clutching it as blood poured from it. For a moment, there was a stunned silence as he realized what I’d done, and then he let out a shout of outrage, crashing towards me with a right hook. I saw it coming a mile away and dodged it, grinning as his hand went into the wall behind me with a satisfying crunch.#p#分页标题#e#
I knew I was winning, but I was enjoying beating up this jackass too much to stop just yet. It felt fucking good to show him that the way he’d behaved was no way to treat a woman, and I could barely hear the moaning of the girl on the ground as I kept going. Kick, punch, strike. I was on fire, and I wouldn’t stop until the guy was reduced to ash. He might have thought I’d be easily beaten due to the two inches of height he had on me, but I knew better. It was time he did too.
He might have started this fucking fight, but I was damn well going to end it.
Chapter Twelve
Rory
“Thanks for staying so late, Rory. You can head out now if you want.”
I looked up to see my boss, Gina, standing over my desk. She was the wife of a famous social media site creator, and for as long as I’d worked at her own software startup, she’d mentored me and taught me almost everything I knew about coding in JavaScript, a popular programming language.
“Okay,” I replied. “Thanks for showing me that website trick earlier.”
She winked. “No problem. You pick things up so fast…I’ll be surprised if you don’t steal my job from under me within the next couple of years.”
We both laughed, and I stood up and adjusted my skirt, smoothing it down. Usually I dressed casually for work, but in the last few weeks, I’d found myself wanting to dress in a nicer, more stylish way. I could afford it now that I didn’t have to pay rent anymore, and besides, it was good to look stylish and poised as often as possible, because I never knew who I was going to run into in this city.
You mean like Finn? a little voice inside me said in a smug tone.
Okay, so that might’ve been the real reason I was dressing nicely. I’d only run into Finn a couple of times since we’d had that conversation on the roof, and both times, I’d looked like crap with tangled bed-hair and sweats, so part of me was hoping that if I ran into him again, I’d look decent for once.