Page 68 of Tony

“Are you all right? Did he hurt you, baby? You gotta tell me,” he pleaded, not sure he would be able to contain himself if the answer were ‘yes’.

With her head pressed tightly against his chest, she could only mumble. He lifted her chin to peer into her eyes, seeing tear streaks down her cheeks.

“No. No, he was going to,” she panted. “Jennifer? Is she?—”

“She’s fine. Gabe’s got her,” he said, kissing her hair. His military training taught him to regulate his breathing but nothing was helping now. Heartbeat pounding, he could not seem to let her go.

The police arrived and took the statement of the young woman, still crying with Vinny’s arms around her. Sherrie made her way over to Jennifer throwing her arms around her. Now that the danger had passed what was left was anger and both women now shook with rage.

The woman they rescued made her way over before the police drove her home. Her tear stained face looked up at them as she gave her heartfelt thanks.

“I’m so ashamed. I did accept the drinks they were sending over, but never meant for any of this to happen.”

“No man should ever put his hands on you that you don’t agree to,” Jobe spoke up behind her, his eyes cold and dark.

Sherrie hugged her, but could not help but throw out some advice. “Stick with the buddy system, sweetie,” she said, winking at Jennifer. “It helps.”

The police detective made his way over to the two women. “So according to the young woman, you didn’t know her before and hadn’t noticed her at the bar?”

“No,” Sherrie admitted. “We were just coming out of the bathroom, when we saw him grab her.”

“I didn’t like the way he was kind of pulling her along. You could tell she didn’t want to go,” Jennifer added.

“Did you call for help or try to get the attention of anyone from the bar?” he asked.

Eyes flashing, Sherrie placed her hand on her hip and began tapping her foot. “There wasn’t a whole lot of time to think about what to do, you know? We just ran out here to see what we could do to help.”

“And when you got out here, you found not one but two men assaulting the woman. So you two did what?”

“We…um…” Sherrie’s eyes cut over to Tony standing with his men. Arms crossed over his chest. Legs apart. His stance was…foreboding. And his expression…oh dear.

Jennifer was staring at Gabe and Vinny as well. Their expressions were like Tony’s. Pissed. “We…well, I got my phone out and took his picture?—”

“You what?” exploded Gabe, uncrossing his massive arms and placing them on his hips.

“You know? For evidence?” Jennifer stuttered.

“What happened then?” the detective continued.

Sherrie took pity on Jennifer and jumped in to defend her. “The big one holding the woman told the weasel to go after Jennifer.”

“The weasel?”

“Yeah, he looked kind of like a weasel.”

At this point Tony felt as though his head was going to explode. Jobe was now grinning and Vinny was trying to hold on to his anger, although it seemed to be a losing battle. Gabe was still furious and the more the girls talked, the angrier he became.

The detective looked at his partner as he wrote her statement down. “Okay, so what did the weasel do?”

Jennifer continued, “He tried to grab me but I kicked him in the…um…down there,” she whispered. The detective’s pen hovered over his pad as his gaze lifted back to hers.

Vinny, unable to contain his laughter, slapped Gabe on the back. “Your woman just kicked a man in the nuts and you’re pissed.” Walking over to her, he leaned down, kissing the top of her head.

“Don’t encourage her,” Gabe bit out.

The detective wanting to finish the statements turned to Sherrie asking, “And what did you do during this?”

Avoiding Tony’s glare, she answered, “When Mr. Big went after Jennifer I jumped on his back.” Ignoring the growl emanating from him, she continued. “He couldn’t shake me off, so he kept running backward into the wall to try to jar me loose. I held on for two of them, but I was kind of scared that when he did it again, then I wouldn’t be able to hang on.” She smiled then, saying, “But then they showed up and finished them off.” She hoped her smile would lessen the fury on Tony’s face. It didn’t.

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