Page 82 of A Scandal in Homeroom
“It’s true. But it’s also true that I work with a net. Croft gives me all the leash I want, but if ever I had a need to tug back, he’d quickly reel me in. What you’re talking about is something else.”
“Are you worried about me?” I teased him by bumping my hip into his.
“Am I worried about you?” he said angrily. “You just got your face beat in by a guy in a ski mask. Doesn’t that scare you?”
“No. Because I’m not afraid of anything.”
My motto. My family-of-one crest. I was Irene Adler, and I was alone in this world, and I wasn’t afraid of anything.
“You foolish…”
“Locke Holmes?”
We both turned at the sound of the voice. We’d been talking, so we hadn’t been paying attention. A large man wearing a ski mask was standing a couple feet in front of us on the sidewalk. I glanced around, but it was after three in the morning. There was no one on the streets, no cars on the roads. This was Haddonfield and it wouldn’t wake up for at least another three hours.
I knew the voice. I sure as hell knew the ski mask.
“That’s him,” I whispered.
“I know,” Locke said, with a relative amount of calm. Locke was tall, but the man nearly doubled his weight. “Nice to see you again. Zach, was it? I must say again, for an amateur, you’ve got a mean shuffle.”
“Mr. Moriarty thinks you talk too much,” he said as he approached us. “Mr. Moriarty wants to officially un-invite you to the game. Mr. Moriarty wants to make sure you understand the message, so he sent me.”
“Well, you’re not a professional dealer. I know that. You do fairly well beating up young women. Let’s see how you handle me.”
The man actually laughed, and I was sort of in agreement with him.
“Look, we got the message,” I said, jumping in front of Locke. “He’s my boyfriend, okay? I wanted to show off the game. It’s no big deal. He won’t come around again.”
“I’m afraid that’s not going to be enough to satisfy Mr. Moriarty.”
I could feel Locke pulling on my dress from behind. I stumbled and he used that as leverage to move in front of me. Then he did something completely unexpected and moved like lightning toward the man in the ski mask.
It was like watching something out ofCobra Kai.Only like real and way better. Locke was hitting the guy with both his hands and his feet. Sharp jabs to the man’s face, his stomach. Then Locke was using the guy’s own momentum against him, so that he couldn’t land a punch. Locke got behind him, took out his knee then planted the guy’s face in the sidewalk. I could see blood pouring out from under his face as he lay prone. His nose had to have been broken, there was so much blood.
Then Locke leaned down over him. “You can tell Mr. Moriarty I have a message for him, too. Tell him I’m coming for him.”
Locke backed away from the guy, towards me and took my hand to pull me along. I had to dance around the blood still pooling on the sidewalk.
It took me a block to process what happened, another block to find my voice before I stopped.
“Wait a minute. You can fight?”
“Of course,” he said, as if it was a given. “I’ve studied several Asian forms of fighting as well as Krav Maga. I find all of it blends fairly well together to serve my purposes.”
It was like having this new curtain pulled back on Locke. Like the tall, pale, lanky, bored AP Chemistry student was somebody else entirely.
“So you candanceand fight?”
“Fence, too. My family believes in a well-rounded education.”
I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was act. Grabbing the collar of his pea coat, I pulled him towards me and kissed him. Kissed him like I’d never let myself kiss anyone before. With my whole self. Giving him everything, and finally, finally giving permission to myself to enjoy this, being the instigator. I felt it deep in my gut. I felt my stomach clench in a way that I instinctively knew was desire.
I desired. I was desired. And it was okay to kiss him first. It was okay because this was Locke, and he could dance and fight and make me want to throw him to the ground and… what was that word he used?
Yeah. Ravish him.
I pulled away with a laugh and when he tried to pull me back toward him, I stepped out of reach.
