Page 5 of Sinner's Secret

He'd thought that way once, and it had destroyed everything he held dear.

Ahead of all of them, the woman turned a corner and disappeared.

“You look like you need a ride,” Baz called out to the two Bozos in a loud enough voice that they couldn’t ignore him.

“Fuck off,” one asshole said over his shoulder.

The other didn’t bother to say anything, his attention on the corner the woman had turned.

“To a hospital,” Baz added, in an offhand tone. “With broken bones.”

Both men stopped, turned, and stared at him.

“And concussions.” He smiled his yeah, I said that shit smile.

“Go ahead,” the chatty asshole said to his partner. “You take care of her. I’ll take care of him.”

So, his gut had been right, this wasn’t just people passing in the night, this was two predators after prey. The quiet one rounded the corner and was gone from view.

“You’re fucked,” the other asshole said, walking toward him with an armed man’s swagger.

“Sorry dude, you’re not my type,” Baz replied.

The asshole reached for something at his back and Baz moved, darting forward to knock the gun out of the other man’s hand.

It went off just as he made contact.

The sound brought them both to a stop and they checked each other out.

No bullet holes in the asshole.

Baz looked at himself. “Fuck.” He pointed at the hole in the toe of his left boot. “These were only a few months old. Now look at them.”

The asshole’s wide eyes blinked, then he frowned. “Doesn’t that...hurt?”

An asshole and stupid.

“No.” Baz punched him in the face as hard as he could. The guy went down like a sack of bricks. “But I bet that did.”

A woman cried out somewhere out of sight. Baz rushed around the corner.

Asshole number two was trying to shove her into a car.

“The lady isn’t interested in your ride,” Baz told him, walking toward them like he wore body armor and held a gun.

The asshole stared at Baz like he couldn’t quite believe his eyes.

Baz got two steps closer before the guy let go of the waitress with one hand to reach for what was probably a weapon.

He probably didn’t expect the waitress to knee him in the balls or elbow him in the head.

Baz hadn’t expected it either but watching her smack the moron trying to kidnap her to the ground put a smile on his face. Her movements were precise, powerful, and could only be the product of years of practice.

Then she pulled out a big fucking handgun from somewhere and pointed it at the asshole’s head.

Whoa, where did that come from?

Baz parked his feet, held out his hands, palms forward, and cleared his throat. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

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