Page 9 of Scarred Souls

Buzz leaned forward, letting his dark gaze roam my scars. “What happened to your face?”

I flinched at his words, then instantly regretted showing any sign of vulnerability, especially while all eyes were on me. Even the watcher at the door redirected his attention to see what all the fuss was about.

“Someone chargrilled her bad.” Shades snickered. “They do some fucked-up shit to their whores down here.”

Big Nose scratched his cheek while staring at me curiously. “One side is sexy as fuck. The other looks like a Freddy Krueger nightmare.”

Enough.

These fools had no intention of leaving, and I was sick of listening to their bullshit.

I stalked closer to the bar, maintaining my steely focus on Buzz since he seemed to be the leader of the group. With no local law enforcement in Playa de la Palmera, we took protection into our own hands, and there was only one way to confront trouble in Javi’s when words no longer worked.

Slowly, I inched my hand toward the concealed revolver under the counter. Once I had it in my grip, I kept it hidden but aimed at the buzz-cut asshole directly in front of me.

I delivered him a death stare packed with every ounce of disgust I harbored for bullies like them. “You’re not welcome in this restaurant, and you’re not welcome in this village. Get. Out.”

One wrong move from these pencil dicks and I wouldn’t hesitate to unleash the revolver. I’d handled weapons since I was a child, and this wouldn’t be the first time I used one to defend myself.

Seemingly unaware of the threat I posed, Buzz leaned back in his barstool with a sinister grin as though considering how he ought to discipline me.

“You should probably do as she says,” came a deep voice from the other side of the room.

Grim.

All four gang members turned to face him like they’d forgotten he was there.

“Oh yeah. Why is that?” asked Buzz.

Grim lit a cigarette and finally swapped his attention from the TV to us. “Several reasons, all of which should be obvious, but you’re clearly too much of a dumbass to see them.”

The wannabes bristled.

Grim casually blew smoke into the air. “Firstly, because you’re guests in this restaurant, and the staff is under no obligation to serve you if they don’t want to. Secondly, because the woman asked you to leave. Politely, until all three of you started being assholes. And thirdly, because she’s about to blow your dick off with whatever weapon she has hidden behind the bar.”

A wide-eyed Buzz turned toward me slowly.

I shrugged and cocked the revolver. “He’s right.”

“Not sure about you”—Grim took another lazy drag—“but I don’t like the idea of lying on a restaurant floor two hundred kilometers from the nearest hospital while I’m bleeding out from the place where my cock used to be.”

Buzz swallowed deeply, and his eyes lowered to the bar as if he could see through the wooden countertop to the revolver in my grip.

Shades jumped up from his barstool and puffed his chest out like a silverback gorilla. “Why don’t you mind your own business, you son of a bitch?”

A wicked smile spread over Grim’s face, and despite the fact that he was a surly prick who’d pissed me off earlier, it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. And the violence that grin promised caused a very inappropriate tingling sensation to stir between my thighs.

Hey, God. It’s me. Just letting you know that you made me all wrong.

“You know”—Grim butted out his cigarette in the ashtray while downing the last of his beer—“I was really hoping one of you would say that.”

Quicker than I thought possible, Grim snatched something shiny from his hip. In the blink of an eye, he hurled it toward Shades. It struck with a meaty thud, leaving the handle of a large blade protruding from the man’s shoulder.

Shades shrieked and stumbled back. His disbelieving eyes locked on to the red shadow spreading around the embedded knife.

The two punks before me launched from their seats, but Grim was already on his way. Those dark eyes, which had seemed cold and harsh only moments ago, suddenly looked alive.

The uninjured wannabes reached for their weapons.

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