Page 170 of The Locker Room
by the sodium lights, which turned the January fog into a surreal pink,
and it was hard to see much beyond that electric wool blanket. But he
could hear just fine.
“No, asshole. I told you we were through. I got my shit out of the
apartment this morning, and you"re not getting another chance to hurt
me, you hear?”
146 Amy Lane
Xander blinked. He knew that voice. He stood and started moving
to the corner of the building where the women"s locker rooms emerged,
trying to figure out which of the dancers was currently soundingvery
pissed off, and not a little bit distressed.
“Look, Mandy—if you"ll just listen, I swear, I"ll never touch you
like that again!”
“You"re goddamned right you won"t…fuck.Let go, Derek—Jesus,
ouch!” Xander heard the sounds of a scuffle, plus a lot of “Goddammit,
stop it, bitch, I"m just tryin" to tell you something, you fucking moron!”
as he hauled his lame ass around that corner.
He was unsurprised to see Mandy (thank you, asshole ex-
boyfriend, for the name, he would have forgotten it!) struggling with a
squat, powerful man with an ethnic potluck of features—slightly dark
skin, blue eyes, high cheekbones, square jaw—that Xander could
actually see the attraction. The guy must have been awfully pretty before
he opened his mouth up and talked.
And right now, he had Mandy"s arm behind her, and was yanking
on it brutally every time she screamed (which was often—go Mandy!)
and Xander didn"t do a lot of thinking in the next couple of seconds.
Neither of them had heard Xander come up behind them, so the guy
didn"t even turn around as Xander swung up his crutch and brought it
down with controlled force on the back of Derek"s head.
He crumpled to the ground like a used pair of jeans, and Mandy
