Page 127 of Bookworm

It was Mrs. Lee.

She stood there in the doorway, assessing the situation.

"Who's this?" she asked, walking further into the shop.

"Get the hell out of here, old lady," he said dismissively.

"Charlotte-Lottie-Lotte, you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said quickly, "but you should go, Mrs. Lee."

"Why?" she said, as if this was all normal. "This is my shop."

"I know, but—"

"You own this place?" the robber said. "What a dump."

Mrs. Lee scowled. "What did you say?"

"I said it's a dump. Your stupid employee doesn’t know when to shut her mouth, can't even work the cash register."

While his attention was elsewhere, I made a move to grab one of the containers. If I chucked it at him, at least it would give Mrs. Lee a running head start, time to get away. But the robber merely leveled his gun at me again.

"Ah ah, smartass. Don'teven—"

I never got to find out how he would've finished that sentence.

It all happened in blur of motion. One second, Mrs. Lee was totally still. The next, she exploded into action, knocking the guy's arm down and away with the heel of her palm andtaking his knee out with a kick. At the same time, Meech flew out of the bathroom and landed a kick to the guy's facethat sent him spinning. Mrs. Lee punched him in the groin, and that was all she wrote.The robber fell to the ground with a crash.

While the robber was groaning in pain, Mrs. Lee got on top of him, pulled a book out of her purse, and proceeded to smack him over the head with it.Multiple times.

"You—"

Smack.

"—don't—"

Smack.

"—point—"

Smack.

"—guns—"

Smack.

"—at people."

Smack, smack, smack.

"And my shop isn't a dump." She sniffed, straightening once more. "You're the dump."

I was wide-eyed, looking from Mrs. Lee to Meech to the guy on the floor.

"How did you…what just…wow," I said finally. "That was freaking amazing."

Meech shrugged as if she hadn't just kicked major butt. "Would've been here sooner if I didn't drinkall that dang bubble tea. I'm so sorry, Lottie."

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