29. Not So Normal
Chapter twenty-nine
Not So Normal
WRAITH
Ifinally get what my wife is suggesting and my dick reacts instantly. A split second later, so do my instincts.
There's sound of movement from the alley to our right. Shuffling feet, the movements furtive and low, indistinct voices.
Wearing hoodies and gang colors, three men emerge from the shadowed alleyway. Their attention on us and no one else, they move toward us with bravado and menace.
My muscles tense and my senses sharpen beyond their normal alertness as I slip into predator mode. This is going to go down one of two ways. They die now. Or they die later.
"Baby girl." My tone makes the flirty smile drop from her pretty lips. "Get behind me."
Without asking why, áine moves instantly just as one of the men rushes to close the distance.
"Wallets and phones," he barks.
A mugging?
Their fucking bad luck they chose the wrong marks.
"Get lost." I give them one chance to choose life.
"No, man. We ain't going nowhere." The second guy's eyes flick toward áine behind me. "Not until you give us what we want."
I shift so áine has the steps up to a building at her back and I'm between her and the men whose lives are about to end because of bad choices.
That's when I see two more men approaching from the direction of the coffee shop.
No hoodies, but same gang colors and swagger.
"Go up," I order.
The air shifts behind me letting me know áine listened and is heading up the steps to the wide stoop, putting her out of harm's way.
That's when the first guy reaches under the hem of his hoodie for the gun tucked in his waistband.
Amateur. That's a good way to get his dick shot off.
I’m moving before his fingers even clear the fabric.
Iced coffee is not an effective weapon. I drop it. One step closes the gap. I trap his wrist, twisting it outward until the bone pops and the gun clatters onto the concrete. Before he can even scream, I drive the hard edge of my forearm straight into the anterior of his neck.
It’s not a full, windpipe-crushing blow. I want him alive to talk later. The impact still hits with a wet, hollow thud.
Clutching his throat, he instantly drops to his hands and knees. His chest heaves violently and he makes a high-pitched, whistling sound with every desperate breath.
Incapacitated, but alive. For now.
The second guy lunges.
I pivot, slam the heel of my hand into his nose hard enough blood sprays across the sidewalk, then kick the side of his knee.
Pop.
Screaming, he crumples to the sidewalk.
People nearby start yelling and running. Some are probably recording this on their phones too. That's a level two cleanup.
Damn it.
One of the guys coming from the coffee shop is brandishing a knife now.
I make a gimme motion with my hand and dare him with my eyes to bring it.
This time all three of the men still standing rush me at once. It's an improvement on their battle strategy to this point, but it won't save them.
Knife guy comes low and fast while his buddy swings a pipe high at my head but the other one sidesteps.
Instead of backing off, I step directly into the knife's path, invading his space. I trap the knife wrist with my left hand, hook my right arm over his shoulder, and violently pivot his weight into the trajectory of the pipe.
Crack.
The iron pipe smashes squarely into Knife Guy’s collarbone. He drops like a stone, unconscious from the shock. I rip the pipe out of the third guy's grip before he can recover his balance.
The guy lets go too easily, but dives for the gun still on the sidewalk.
"Watch out, Kieran," áine yells. "He's going for the gun."
I love that my sweet wife is worried about me, but my eyes are already locked on the first idiot crawling toward the dropped piece.
Without looking away from the target, I heave the iron pipe like a javelin.
It catches him dead center between the shoulder blades with a hollow thud that ejects all the air from his lungs.
He skids face-first across the pavement, completely neutralized.
The guy whose knee I kicked earlier is still writhing on the pavement clutching his leg and the first idiot is on hands and knees choking around a crushed throat.
But there's still one left standing, and he's trying to get to áine.
Using a hand on the stone balustrade, he vaults over it to land on the steps behind me. I'm already turning and have an arm around his waist before he takes a single step up.
"No," I growl before tossing him away from the steps and áine.
He lands with a hard thump on his back on the sidewalk. It knocks the wind out of him and he flounders there, his eyes darting wildly around.
He's young. They all are. Early twenties maybe. His gaze flicks past me toward his incapacitated friends.
Something flickers in his gaze and I turn just in time to see pipe guy grab the gun and point it at áine.
Not me. The threat.
My woman.
An animalistic roar erupts out of me and I leap for the motherfucker trying to shoot my wife. His eyes widen in terror but he pulls the trigger on the gun.
It feels like someone got a hit in with a baseball bat and heat sears my upper arm. I stumble, but before he can get another shot off, I'm on him, my fingers wrapping around his wrist. I squeeze and twist.
There's a wet crunch but I don’t stop twisting until his screams are louder than my roars and his hand dangles uselessly from his destroyed wrist. Then I clock him, knocking him out with a single blow before turning back to the guy I left floundering on the sidewalk.
He's up on his feet, swaying, a knife in his hand. He takes a step in áine's direction, looks at me, then at his friends, turns and runs with an unsteady gait in the opposite direction.
I let him go.
áine's safety comes first.
Grabbing my phone, I call Dagda while storming over to the man with the broken knee. The only one still capable of talking.
"Call in backup." Thomas should be on his way to the apartment already to take over from Dagda, but I want my girls protected. "And I need a level two cleanup crew."
"You went to get coffee, boss, not start a war. What the fuck happened?"
"We were hit by a five man crew. They tried to make it seem like a mugging." But muggers don't go for the vulnerable woman when they have a chance to escape a lethal predator.
"Feckin' hell."
"My thoughts exactly."
I hang up without saying another word grab the guy still blubbering, yanking him up by the back of his neck. "Who hired you to take us out?"
"Nobody. Just wanted your wallet, man," he snivels.
Wrong answer. I jab the pain point at his brachial plexus.
He shouts and tries to twist out of my hold.
"Need some help with that boss?" Noah asks laconically, toothpick dangling from the side of his mouth.
Two other soldiers are with him. They're all in tank tops and basketball shorts.
I dig the keys to my SUV out of my pocket and toss them to Noah. "Take these assholes home."
By home, I mean the Bunker and Noah's smart enough to know that. "Copy that, boss."
Thomas jogs up. "Clean up crew's ETA is four minutes. McLaren's rerouting the cruiser called to the scene. I'm headed to your apartment."
"Go with him, boss. Get your wife off the street," Noah says. "We've got this." He indicates the soldiers with him.
If he trusts them to have his back, I trust his judgement. I train my men to assess danger, and Noah has his own finally honed instincts from his time on the streets.
Now that her safety is assured, I finally let myself turn fully toward áine.
Adrenaline pounding in my veins, I leap up the stairs two at a time, stopping only when my hands are on her shoulders. "You okay, baby girl?"
Pupils blown, mouth parted slightly, she nods slowly.
"What is it?" What's wrong?
Is she afraid of me now that she's seen me in Wraith mode? Does she think this is proof that marrying me put her and the girls at further risk?
But she'd have to realize it wasn't a mugging. That it was a hit. I doubt she does.
So what is the matter?
She steps right into my personal space. "You were…" Her voice trails off and she inhales deeply. "Magnificent," she breathes, both her hands pressing against my chest her fingers gripping my shirt.
My cock goes from zero to Mach 1 in a split second.
Watching me take down the threat to her turned my sweet wife on.
Fuck.
And I have to take her home to check on our girls.
Double fuck.