Chapter 1 #2
As he turned onto Main Street, movement a couple blocks ahead made him lift his foot off the accelerator.
A woman stepped out of one of the stores and turned to lock the building.
Two men sprang from the side alley and rushed toward the woman. She swung the canvas bag she’d been carrying, hitting one of the men in the face.
He yelped, grabbed the bag and tried to yank it from her hands.
She held on. The bag tore, and something fell out. When she dove after the item, they grabbed her arms and dragged her back into the alley with what was left of the bag.
Xavier’s heart leaped in his chest and sent his pulse pounding hard through his veins. He slammed his foot onto the accelerator and raced toward the alley.
He pulled the steering wheel hard to the left, the back of his truck fishtailing on the pavement. When it straightened, he drove into the empty alley and emerged behind the store where the men were lifting the woman off her feet and shoving her toward the open side door of a van.
The woman planted her feet on the door frame, refusing to get in, the torn bag dangling from her elbow.
Xavier smashed his fist on the horn.
The men shot glares over their shoulders and shoved the woman harder.
Xavier shifted into park, flung open his door, leaped out and ran toward the two men.
Before they could slide the door closed on the van, Xavier reached them, plowing into the closest one like a linebacker taking out the quarterback.
He sent the man flying across the pavement and then spun toward the guy’s partner, who was struggling with the woman.
A high-heeled foot shot out of the van’s door toward the man’s face, the pointed stiletto making contact.
He cried out at the exact moment Xavier grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backward.
Blood ran from the injury into the guy’s eye. He swung a wild fist, missing Xavier entirely.
Xavier spun him around and yanked his arm up behind him, between his shoulder blades.
Footsteps behind him gave him just enough warning to shove his captive hard before he spun to face the other guy, but not enough to dodge the fist to his gut.
Xavier barely bent over, compartmentalized the pain in his belly, and plowed his right fist into the man’s cheek.
The attacker’s head whipped back. He staggered a few steps.
Not waiting for the guy to regain clarity, Xavier swung with a left upper cut to the man’s chin. He sat down hard on the pavement.
“Look out!” the woman cried out.
Xavier turned as the guy with the puncture wound to his forehead rocketed toward him.
At the last moment, Xavier stepped to one side, catching only a glancing blow from the man’s shoulder.
Having missed his target, the man’s momentum sent him into his rising partner. Both men went down in a tangle of arms and legs.
More worried about the woman than the men on the ground, Xavier reached out to help her out of the van onto her stiletto heels. He slipped an arm around her back, and using his body as a shield, hurried her toward his truck. “Get in and lock the doors.”
“But my—” she dug in her heels and tried to turn back.
Xavier’s arm tightened as he moved her forward. “It’s not worth your life. Go.” He gave her a firm nudge that sent her forward without him.
Once she was on her way toward the safety of his truck, he turned to face her attackers.
They’d made it to their feet and to the van.
The bigger man jumped into the driver’s seat. His partner dove into the sliding door and slammed it shut.
As he punched the accelerator, the driver shouted through his open window, “Fucking snitch! It ain’t over!”
Tires kicked up gravel as the van blasted down the back alley, turned, and disappeared.
Xavier looked for a license plate. The van didn’t have one. He committed the color and size to memory and hurried back to his truck.
The woman sat in the driver’s seat, her eyes wide in her shadowed face, her hair a dark tangle around her face.
As Xavier neared the driver’s door, the sound of the lock disengaging echoed off the buildings on either side of the truck.
Before he could reach for the doorhandle, the woman pushed the door open.
The interior light shined down on her.
He recognized her as Lissette Gautier, the woman he’d been warned about.
She sat tense in the seat, one hand on the steering wheel, her gaze shooting to the back of the building. “Are they gone?”
Xavier nodded. “They’re gone. Any idea who they were?”
Her lips pressed together, forming a tight line to match the frown forming a V over her nose. “Maybe.” When her gaze shifted to him, she swept it across his face and down to his bruised and bleeding hands. “You shouldn’t have interfered.”
He almost laughed, not expecting those words coming from her mouth when she’d just been manhandled and almost kidnapped. “Are you telling me I should’ve let them take you?”
She shook her head and started to get down. “No, but you don’t know what you’re getting into.” Her heel missed the running board, and she pitched forward.
Xavier caught her around the waist and crushed her to himself as he staggered backward.
When he was steady again, he lowered her to the ground, her body sliding down his.
The electric current it ignited made him all too aware of her silk top, held on her shoulders by spaghetti straps, the swell of her breasts and the floaty, colorful skirt rising up her legs.
Even after her feet touched the ground, he didn’t release her immediately but stared down into her dark eyes. The light from the truck’s interior reflected off the black irises, making them even more mysterious. Dangerous.
Her hands rested against his chest as her tongue swept across full, sexy lips. “You don’t know what you’ve done,” she whispered.
“What have I done?” he asked, tempted to taste those lips.
“Probably the worst thing for you and your career as one of the Bayou Brotherhood Protectors.”
He couldn’t resist brushing a strand of her ebony hair off her cheek, mesmerized by her eyes, her scent and the way her hands felt on him. “And what’s that?”
She drew in a breath, her breasts rising and falling. “For the second time in less than a week, you’ve rescued the most hated woman in Bayou Mambaloa.”
“Why would they hate you?” he asked.
She snorted softly. “Ask your boss. Better yet, ask his wife.”