Page 6 of Redemption

Victoria slipped her purse open, extracting a ten-dollar bill and tossing it on to the bar. “Thanks again. I better get back to work, now that I think about it.”

The bartender gave a flat smile, showing no recognition that they’d ever spoken. Again, Victoria’s instincts roared to life. She remembered how the woman picked up the phone when she walked in, and how her guilt seemed pronounced, even as she ignored their couples’-product-forged acquaintanceship.

“Where do you work?” the man to her right side asked.

His tone wasn’t flirtatious or conversational; it was downright interrogational.

“Home product direct sales.” She closed her wallet and slipped the purse over her shoulder.

“You work for yourself.” The other man came up too close behind her.

They shouldn’t be able to tell that she had a weapon tucked at the small of her back, but if one of them felt her and knew what they were looking for, they’d identify it as a gun. Awkwardly, she hopped off the barstool. “I’ve got a man, boys. He don’t take kindly to me smiling where I shouldn’t.”

“It was a simple question.” The first man’s accent was heavier as the directness came on strong, and the rest of patrons quieted down.

She looked around the bar. No one turned or spoke.

“Don’t worry about them.”

Victoria raised her chin. “I’m not worried.”

“Do you know who we are?” the first man asked.

She knew he wasn’t her jumper. “It doesn’t matter to me who or what you are. I didn’t come here for you.”

“But you did come here for Yuri Maysak.”

Victoria remained still, waiting to see where this conversation would go. Who was their attorney? Most clubs and gangs had a firm on retainer. But these guys were so new to the scene that she didn’t know if they had roots deep enough. “What do you want?”

They said nothing, but cold radiated from the man next to her. Bounty hunters sometimes worked in packs, other times alone. She would do takedowns with someone, depending on the mark and their threat level. But strictly on recon work? She wasn’t too worried. Same with PI work. Stakeout. Asking around. Lookie-loos. Nothing more than gathering intel. These guys though… They screamed that a sinister showdown loomed.

“Nice chatting.” She made it two steps before a hand clamped on her shoulder.Asshole.

Her elbow slammed back and elicited a solid oomph as the other man came forward. Two against one—not what she wanted. She swung the flat palm of her right hand up, hitting the man under his chin. His teeth snapped together as she popped her knee into his nuts.

As that one doubled over, the second man wrapped his arms around her chest.

“No!” she cried out. Victoria used him as leverage, kicking both her boots forward and smashing the heels into the face of the other man as he rebounded, holding his crotch, growling.

“Bitch.” The man’s arms tightened, and he bit her ear.

“Oh—ow!” Pulling from his vise grip made the pain worse, and she curled her legs to her chest then slammed her boots to the ground, desperately trying to hit the man’s feet. Success on one foot, and he lost his bite on her ear, shouting and spitting.

He threw her onto the ground, and her ribs cried out in pain when she crashed into a table and chair. Up onto her hands and knees, Victoria broke for the door, pushing off the dirty floor. A hand caught her foot, dragging her back. She kicked, stabbing the air with her free leg.

“Let me go!” Damn it. “Let me go! Now!”

A bar of onlookers, and no one did a thing.

“What are you going to do?” she shouted, still kicking from the floor. “Scare me away? You don’t want him picked up? That’s what this is about?” She kicked harder, jamming the heel of her boot onto the man’s fingers.

The other man came close to the one holding her on the floor by her ankle. The bartender came forward. Victoria stilled, watching her with an eerie feeling that shit was about to get a whole lot worse.

“She came here about my Yuri?” the bartender asked coolly.

HerYuri didn’t bode well.

The one with her ankle nodded. “You did good to call. We knew they were making a move.”

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