Page 92 of Daniil
“You still feeling uneasy?”Marcus asks me.
“Not as much.”I look around at the throngs of people enjoying a beautiful summer day.Normally, I’m completely at ease out in public, but today I’m with my son, and it feels…different.I can’t explain it.So far, I haven’t been recognized, with a Las Vegas Sidewinders baseball cap on my head and my sunglasses on, but even if I was, locals are usually pretty respectful.
Tourists can be annoying but they’re also the least likely to recognize me.
There’s a guy with long hair, a leather jacket, and face tattoos in my peripheral vision that gives me pause.It’s not his look so much as his demeanor.Mean.Like he’s on the attack.And a petite woman tugging on his arm, trying to either calm or distract him.
“Marcus, come get these!”Harlow yells to him.
Before I can stop him, Marcus jogs over to where the ladies are juggling food and drinks for the four of us.
The long-haired man lets out a growl, shoving the woman away from him.She stumbles, falling to one knee and he yells something to her…in Georgian.Georgia is a neighboring country and most members of theBojovnik Bratspeak Georgian.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up but Marcus is too far away for me to call to him without others being able to hear what I’m going to say.And I definitely don’t want to cause any kind of panic.
Things are escalating, though, and I’m not going to be able to stay out of it much longer.Any type of abuse of a woman pisses me off, and when I see the long-haired guy backhand her, my blood starts to boil.
God dammit.
I need Marcus to handle this before I do something stupid.
I let out a low, sharp whistle and Marcus looks around, honing in on something as he scans our surroundings.As I knew he would, he’s immediately aware of the situation with the long-haired guy and the girl, and he slowly puts the drinks he’s holding on the ground before walking in that direction.
“Court!”I get her attention and she seems to recognize the seriousness of my tone because she rushes back to me.
“What—” She cuts off as Marcus and the guy with the long-hair exchange words.The woman starts to back away and then, as if out of nowhere, more men appear.In leather jackets.With face tattoos.
“Fuck,” I breathe.There’s six or seven of them and Marcus is good—one of the best—but he won’t stand a chance if they’re armed.
“Dan?”Courtney closes a hand tight around the handle of the stroller.
“Stay with the baby,” I growl, yanking out my phone and thrusting it at her.“Call Dax.Tell him to hurry.”Then I jog over to where Marcus is trying to de-escalate the situation.
They’re talking Georgian and Russian, but luckily, there’s enough Russian in the Georgian language for me to get the gist of the conversation.
“What’s going on?”I demand quietly in Georgian, hoping to catch them off-guard.I don’t speak fluently but I’ve been learning since we’ve been dealing with theBrat.
“Elitist pig,” one of them mutters.“Mind your own business.”
They know who I am.
This was a deliberate distraction.
I immediately swivel my head to where Courtney and Harlow are standing, Courtney talking heatedly into the phone.So far, no one is bothering them, which is good.If this is about me, I’m armed and can take care of myself.It would be better if Dax arrived, though.
“You should walk away before someone gets hurt,” I say steadily.
The guy who backhanded his girl smirks at me.“The only one getting hurt today is you.”
Marcus and I exchange glances.
We can handle this but it’s going to make a scene and cause a big ruckus, something we strive not to do.But there’s no help for that now.
“You want to dance?”Long-hair number one pulls a knife out of his pocket, swinging it in my direction.
I’d love to just pull out my gun, shoot them all, and be done with this, but that’s frowned upon.We can’t let the people of Limaj think we just randomly shoot people.Especially when no one’s been hurt.Yet.
“What do you want?”I ask quietly.
