Page 30 of Judging Duke

Long arms wound around my waist, and I tried again, unsuccessfully, to extricate myself. He was a strong one.

“Come on,” he said, a little more forcefully this time. “Let me buy you a drink. We could take it somewhere quiet.”

He took hold of my wrist, tighter than I liked, and for a moment, I panicked. The memory of that evening at my aunt’s house filling my mind. I tensed, waiting, knowing what would follow.

Not this time. Not now.

“Let. Go.” I spun in his arms and glared at him, not wanting to cause a scene but ready to fight my way out of the situation if needed.

After years spent defending myself on the streets, I was no stranger to confrontation. Fighting dirty came naturally.

“Don’t fucking lead me on, then tell me you’re not interested. I don’t like that,” he said through gritted teeth. His nostrils flared as he gripped my other wrist. “Fucking prick tease.”

Panic set in as someone stepped up behind me. What the fuck? Was he part of a tag team?

It turned to some kind of relief when I recognised the voice.

“He said ‘let go’. Are you fucking deaf?” Simon’s deep voice vibrated against me, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Who the fuck are you? I was here first,” the other guy said.

First? Were we in school? No fucker called dibs on me.

“I’m no one’s property. You can both fuck off.”

I wrenched my arms from the stranger’s grasp, picked up my drinks from the bar and walked away, leaving them to stare each other down.

I made my way to the other side of the bar and sat down next to Ziggy and Marc. Beau had joined them with Kwan. Since moving back to Liverpool, we’d tried to make it a regular thing. I’d missed having good friends with me. Moving from place to place, I’d stayed nowhere long enough to forge lasting friendships.

These guys knew my past. Ziggy and I had lived a life before we even knew the others. Our previous profession formed a lasting bond, one I wanted to hold on to.

“What was all that about?” Marc asked, gesturing towards them.

“One guy thought I was easy prey. I don’t want to talk about the other one.”

“Hmmm, seems to me he wants to talk to you.”

I turned and looked up into Simon’s deep-blue eyes. A softer look had replaced the usual disgust I saw in them.

I stood and sighed heavily. Couldn’t I just have one quiet night out with my friends?

Not that they were always quiet. Ziggy almost always saw to that.

“What do you want, Simon?” I asked, exasperated by the intrusion.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked, his jaw and fists clenched.

“No,” I said, feeling incredibly flustered by this turn of events. “But I could have taken care of it myself. I didn’t need you to step in.”

This was definitely a different Simon than any I’d seen before. Gone was the aggressive arsehole, a concerned man taking his place.

He swayed a little and put his hand up to steady himself. Something wasn’t right.

“Are you okay?”

Now it was my turn to be concerned. He nodded and hurried away, mumbling about hate, Robbie and a few other words I couldn’t understand.

What on earth was wrong with him?

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