Page 4 of Stone Deep
The guy put up his hand. “Look, Brit, I don’t know where the hell Damon is. I haven’t seen him since Perris died. I’ve got nothing to do with this.”
She pressed her second hand against the gun in an attempt to make it look as if she was serious about shooting the guy, but I’d glimpsed a tremble in her gun arm. She was using the second hand for support. “You’re lying, youasshole. Just tell me where the hell he is, and I won’t shoot you in the face.” She stepped closer, and the guy’s eyes bulged.
The other patrons had all ducked behind chairs and tables and corners to watch from a safe distance. The jukebox was between songs and you could just about hear everyone’s heartbeats in the dead quiet of the room. Cleveland and I watched from our table as if we were watching a movie.
She pushed the gun even closer to his face.
“You crazy fucking bitch, get that thing away from me. You’re not going to shoot me.”
“Try me.” I heard the gun cock.
The guy’s face went white. I’d been busy watching the girl with the gun and hadn’t noticed that one of his buddies was diving from his chair. He outweighed the girl by a good hundred pounds, but he still tackled her like they were on a football field. The gun flew out of her hand. She moaned in pain as her body slammed against the floor. The tackler landed directly on top of her. He pushed to his feet, and the guy she’d had the gun pointed at flew out of his seat and grabbed the back of her sweatshirt.
I was out of my chair and across the room before my head had even told me to move.
She screamed and pummeled his arm as it tightened around her waist. As he lifted his hand to hit her, my fist plowed into his face. He dropped the girl and fell back hard. The tackler came at me. I kicked my leg out, hitting him squarely in the knee. As the third friend tried to get up from the table, I jammed the table edge into his chest.
I’d rendered all three off balance, but I knew it would be short-lived. I swung around, took hold of the girl’s handand dragged her through the bar.
“Let me go,” she cried and yanked her hand free. She flew back in the direction of the three guys, who were just recovering and now looked far more pissed at me than the girl.
I lunged forward and wrapped my arm around her waist. “Come on, Annie Oakley, we’ve got to get you out of here.” She struggled in my arms as I slung her over my shoulder. From the corner of my eye I could see Cleveland lifting his hands in question as I carried her out the door.
She pounded my back soundly as I carried her into the dark parking lot. “Put me down. I’m not going back in there. I promise.”
I lowered her feet to the ground. She ran toward the three motorcycles parked next to each other in front of the bar. “Assholes!” she screamed as she shoved the first bike. It tipped over, and, in a classic domino effect, the others followed.
The door to the bar flew open. I raced to her and, once again, grabbed her hand. “All right, hot-tempered Tinkerbell, you’ve made your point, and I’m not in the mood to take on three guys at once. I came with a friend. Where’s your car? Please tell me you didn’t fucking walk here with that loaded gun.”
Loud footsteps pounded the asphalt behind us. She glanced back. “Shit, they look really pissed.”
“Yep. Putting a gun in a man’s face will do that.”
“This way.” Now she was pulling me. Her Subaru was sitting at the far end of the lot. Our three friends had already righted their bikes, and they were firing up themotors. We reached her car.
“Is this a five speed with some kick?” I asked about her car.
“Yep.”
“Cool. Give me the keys.”
She paused.
“Hurry up.”
She tossed me the keys, and we climbed inside. I threw it into first and left behind some rubber as we took off toward the highway.
She looked back. “They’re following.”
“Thought they might.” As I drove up the onramp, an eighteen wheeler was rumbling along in the slow lane. I pressed my foot on the pedal and nodded with approval. “Nice. Never driven one of these. Hold on.” I raced ahead and slipped in front of the truck just as the yield lane ended. I glanced up in the rearview mirror. The three headlights disappeared behind the truck. I zigzagged around the cars until it seemed we’d lost our triple-eyed tail.
The girl faced the front, leaned back and crossed her arms. “I could have driven.”
“I know. I’ve just always wanted to drive one of these. Too bad it’s not raining. I could try out a few of my drifting moves.” I smiled at her.
She didn’t smile in return. She blinked her big, fawn eyes at me. One small, very bitable ear had no elfin point but there was a long row of tiny gold hoops running down it.
“Some people would consider thanking me for savingthem from three big bullies.”
