Page 8 of Trusting the Team

COWBOY

Dari had agreed to meet the women at Ace's for their girls' night. Rocco was right, she was not old enough for drinks, but they figured she might be more comfortable in a more singles' atmosphere. Avery and she were at the juke box, a Sailor stepped up to Dari. “You look lithe.”

Avery stifled a laugh; Dari rolled her eyes. “How about you leave?”

“How about you Whistle me home?”

Dari squared up to him, “I’m asking one more time for you to leave me alone.” Avery went into alert mode. The Sailor reached out to touch her shoulder and Dari kicked out hard to his shin, driving him to the ground. She started to turn back toward the table the women were at and a second man grabbed her from behind. Dari grabbed his wrist stepped back and hip checked him over her shoulder. As the man's feet went into the air the bar came alive. More people stood,

Avery cussed as she ripped out her phone to get Cole. Avery had backed up when Dari dropped the first guy and was now against the wall, farthest from the rest of the group as Dari took down the second.

All the team's phones went off within seconds of each other. They had all the younger kids at Ace's and were waiting to gather their wives back up when they were done. “Get over here!” Rex, Gumby, and Phantom moved for the door.

The third came from the front and Dari had him in a wrist lock take down when a fourth got the jump on her grabbing her up by the throat and slamming her against a support beam. She drove her arms down, breaking his grip, when her feet touched the floor, she drove a knee into his groin. As the fourth man dropped to the floor, Sidney and Caite grabbed Dari and pulled her toward the door. Dari shoved them out the door as who she assumed was a bouncer, grabbed her arm. She spun, she had to look up, he was huge. “Wait," the man started. Dari looked up into emerald green eyes and jack knifed his shin as well.

As she stepped outside someone grabbed her from behind, she grabbed his wrist as he pulled up, she swung up with his momentum, pushed off the deck support beam, pushing him back into the building; dropped back over, pulling him over the top of her. He landed with a sharp exhale on his back with her on top of him. His grip should have loosened but it did not and as she lifted an elbow to drive into his face, he blocked her and said, “Dari, its Phantom.”

She scrambled to turn over in his grip, “Phantom.” He saw the pain they shared so long ago as the heat of the fight vanished. People were pushing out the door and saw Phantom on his back, with murmurs starting and the older SEALs amassing, Dari snapped to. She jumped up, dusting herself off.

“What the hell is going on?” Wolf broke through the crowd, looking at Rocco's teammates and all their women surrounding the commotion. Phantom stood up as Dari shrunk. “Did she just put you on your ass, Phantom?” Wolf started laughing.

“It wasn't his fault,” Dari started.

“You're not helping,” Phantom ground out.

Avery piped up, “She gave fair warning to the first guy to leave her alone. I was there.”

“The first guy?” Wolf took another look at the waif in front of him. He turned and headed into the bar to assess the damage. The customers followed him back in.

“Go, Ladies’ Night!” Zoey threw an arm up and everyone started laughing.

“Dari, what the fuck?” Phantom asked as Gumby met them at the bottom of the three stairs.

“Avery wasn't lying, he was an asshole. I warned him. The rest just kept coming at me after that. Caite and Sidney tried to pull me out.”

Wolf stuck his head out the door, “Guys" he motioned for them to come in. Motioning at Dari, “she can stay outside.” Rex and Dari passed each other as they swapped places. The women kept whooping and hollering as they patted Dari on the back and surrounded her.

“Maybe she should helpyou with combative training,” Wolf pulled them in to an office to look at the security cameras. Gumby overheard a group of sailors talking about the melee.

“Did you see that?”

“I can't believe a girl did that shit!”

“No fucking way she'd been able to do that to me.”

“She dropped Lowell.”

“She was amazing.” The awe in the last young man's voice made him pause and turn to get a glimpse.

When they were arranged in the office they watched as she walked through four guys on her way out of the bar. “One is still sitting out there. Where are the rest?” Phantom asked. All the guys went into motion.

“Our night is over.Everybody in Piper's vehicle,” Dari said.

“We're definitely doing this again!” Sidney was still amped from her buzz.

“You wait for the guys, I'm going to go,” Dari smiled. She had had fun. She walked to her Jeep. Her adrenaline high was wearing off.

“Hey, bitch,” Dari looked toward the voice, a body coming out of the shadows, a fist landing solidly across her cheek. She landed in the gravel, trying to collect her bearings. “Not so tough now,” he grabbed her braid, yanking her up on her feet, back handing her down to the gravel again.

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