Page 57 of Highballs & Hexes

“No.”

The stranger’s vibe was menacing, and there was little doubt he was seeking trouble.

“Fi, go back into Lucky’s,” Patrick ordered.

“No, Pat?—”

A scream choked off her refusal, and he spun to help her.

Too late.

Another man had her by the hair with a knife to her throat.

“Take it easy, man,” Patrick said with a calmness he didn’t feel. “Whatever you want, I’ll give it to ya, but you’ll be letting her go first.”

“She’s what we want.” The second assailants’ eyes were small and cruel, as if he thrived on causing his victims’ pain.

Patrick was familiar with his sort. Hadn’t he dealt with Loman O’Connor and the bastard’s sadistic brothers?

“If you’re thinking to harm her, you won’t survive the night,” he warned, infusing steel in his tone.

“You’re owed for the trouble you caused, and she’ll serve right enough,” the brute behind him said.

“And I intend to pay, but she’s innocent, like whoever it was I wronged.”

Fi’s eyes flared wide, and it was the only warning he received about the oncoming attack. Sidestepping, he pivoted and gripped the man’s wrist, giving it a vicious twist until the knife in his grasp clattered to the cobblestones.

With a sweeping kick, he sent the blade into the darkness right before ruthlessly breaking the man’s forearm and sending a fist into his temple to take him down.

“Your companion’s in for a long nap, and you’re next, ya fuck,” Patrick growled.

The tip of the beady-eyed assailant’s weapon was pressed to Fi’s throat, close to the carotid artery. If the man decided to stick her, she’d bleed out before Patrick could dispatch him and get to her.

But he’d die trying.

His intent to kill was plain to see, and the thug’s expression turned uneasy.

The knife he was holding against Fi’s unblemished skin lowered a few inches. “Don’t know who you wronged, but we were paid by the lady to?—”

A shot rang out.

With a gurgle, the man dropped to the ground to stare sightlessly at the clear night sky.

“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, ya do,” a female remarked from the shadows.

“Rose.”

Jaysus!The hits kept coming.

“I’d thought you dead by Loman’s hand,” Patrick said as casually as he could manage.

More’s the pity that she wasn’t. All his searching had turned up naught, and he’d gone off the assumption she didn’t make it off the island or that she was too clever to ever show her face around here again. But of course it tracked that she’d be the one to hire assassins to make his life a continued misery.

“Sure, and I thought the same of you,” she replied without expression as she did a visual sweep of Fionola’s person. Smirking, she lifted a dark brow, and Patrick never wanted to smack the smugness from her beautiful face as much as he did at that moment. But he wasn’t Loman, and he didn’t hurt women.

But you did, his conscience taunted.You locked them up and threw away the key, all for the sake of your peace of mind.

Yeah, his choice wasn’t one at all. He had restitution to pay, and he expected it started now if Karma had her way.

---