I desperately wanted to listen in on their conversation, but there was simply no way. I made my way to the ladies’ room and fixed my hair, fussing around in there as long as I could, but how much time can you spend in a dive bar ladies’ room biding your time? Not much. It’s disgusting. After I’d waited for what seemed like plenty of time, I walked out into the narrow hallway, and ran head-on into the guy that had tried to put his hands on me earlier.

“Excuse me,” I said curtly, as he blocked me from heading back out to the bar.

“Oh I don’t think so, honey. I’m not done talking to you,” he replied with a nefarious smirk. He didn’t look at all concerned this time, and that wasn’t good. We were in public, but this wasn’t the kind of place that would notice much if he attacked me right there in the hallway.

“I think we’ve talked plenty,” I stated, my heart racing. I didn’t have my gun, so I couldn’t even threaten him, and he now had the upper hand.

“You almost broke my hand, you little bitch.” He quickly reached his hands up before I could stop him, wrapping them around my throat. Outweighing me by at least fifty pounds, I struggled as he shoved me against the wall, squeezing hard enough that I couldn’t make a sound. It happened so fast, I fought to remember my training and how to get out of a situation like that, as I was running out of air fast.

“Get your hands off my woman!” I heard the booming voice before I realized that Davidson was standing before us, a gun to the man’s head. As his hands loosened their grip from my neck, I became more alert and shrugged my shoulders up, ducking down to get out of his clutches. A maneuver I should have done immediately, but was so shocked and surprised, I’d forgotten. I quickly shimmied over to Davidson, taking a moment under his cover to rub my neck and get my head on straight. “Are you ok?” he whispered to me, still pressing the barrel of his gun against the man’s temple.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Go back to the table. I’ll be right there,” he demanded, not looking at me.

Afraid of what he was going to do, I declined. “No.”

“Go. Back. To. The. Table. Sit with Robbie. I will be right there.” He growled this time. Even though I was scared that he’d do something an agent shouldn’t do to the man, whatever it was, he probably deserved it too. The slippery slope of law enforcement was alive and well.

I backed away, watching as neither of them moved, and went back to sit with Robbie, who immediately asked me what happened.

“Girl, what happened to your neck? Where’s Dave?” He stood up, leaning over me.

“A man attacked me outside the ladies’ room. He told me to come and sit with you,” I whispered. My throat hurt a little, and I wanted to see how bad it looked. It couldn’t be that terrible; it all happened so fast.

“What? Where is he?”

I pointed toward the ladies’ room.

“Frankie! Stay with her! I’ll be back.” Suddenly, a young hispanic guy with a very full mustache came and sat next to me, as Robbie took off in the direction of Davidson.

“Are you ok?” he asked me. I watched him wave to a waitress, who brought over a glass of water, as if he’d signed it to her.

“Yeah, I’m ok. I just got taken by surprise,” I replied, sipping the water, which cooled my throat and relieved some of the pain instantly. My heart rate had started to normalize, and I worried what was happening in the hallway.

Standing up to go check it out for myself, Frankie grabbed my forearm. “Stay.”

“But I want to…”

“No,” he interrupted me. “You stay. It’s getting handled. Sit down.” He wasn’t asking, but he wasn’t demanding either. He was just telling me how it needed to be. Slowly, I slinked back down into my chair and waited quietly. I didn’t hear a thing - there was no noticeable disturbance of any kind - but when Davidson rounded the corner, I could see there was blood on his shirt, sending my heart rate through the roof again. What did he do?

“Babe, you ok?” He stormed directly toward me.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I still whispered.

“Let me see.” He gently raised his hands to my neck, softly touching as he examined what must have been bruising. “That motherfucker,” he mumbled quietly.

“It’s ok,” I assured him.

“It’s not ok at all.” He cupped my face in his large hands carefully, and met my eyes. He had a steely blue gaze that looked tired, and angry. “We’re getting out of here.” He dropped his hands from my face, and took one of my hands in his. “Robbie!” he yelled out.

“Yeah, man.” Robbie popped up from nowhere.

“We’re out. Thanks for your help.” Davidson gave him a bro shake and a fist bump.

“No worries, man. I got your back. Hit you up tomorrow.” Turning to me, Robbie said kindly, “Hope you feel better real quick, Portia. We took care of that guy. He won’t be messing with anyone anytime soon.” He grinned as if that should please me. The woman who was assaulted in me was thrilled, but the FBI agent in me wanted to know what they did to him.

“Thank you,” I said quietly and nodded. Davidson was already dragging me away, and I could barely keep up as he pulled me behind him roughly.

There were taxis waiting outside, and as he hailed one, I surveyed his demeanor in an attempt to find something to say. We got into the taxi, and I opened my mouth to start asking questions, but before I began, he put his hand up.

“Just wait until we get home, ok? There’s been a development and I need to think. Then, we’ll talk and figure out what to do next, please?” He had a tone of desperation in his voice, so I nodded silently and stared out the window, thinking myself as we made our way back to his apartment.

Whatever Robbie wanted to talk about had to be a game changer of some kind in his case. This entire day, the entire situation had moved so quickly, and I was reeling. I’d been an agent for a long time, but the whirlwind of everything that had happened in just a single day was overwhelming and exhausting.

When we reached the apartment, he let go of my hand finally, and we made our way inside silently. As he tossed his keys on a small side table by the door, he let out an audible sigh and walked to the couch, where he waved me over.

Carefully, I sat next to him and curled my legs up under myself. I wanted to put on leggings and a hoodie; I was still wearing that stupid outfit. Slowly, he turned to me, and placed a hand on my neck. “Let me see what he did,” he said softly.

Letting him examine the marks I still hadn’t seen myself, I said quietly, “I’m fine.”

He ran his hand through his hair, and then took mine in his own. “I’m sure you are. You’re tough. But I shouldn’t have put you in a position for that to happen. I am so unbelievably sorry, Portia. I fucked up. I’ve been working alone for so long, I didn’t think that something could happen to you on a simple trip to the restroom. I’m so sorry.”

Tenderly, I touched his face with my free hand, gently caressing his soft stubble. “It’s not your fault, Davidson. Honestly, it’s not. And I’m ok. I didn’t even get a chance to thank you.” I smiled, getting him to meet my eyes.

The corners of his lips turned up, returning his own small smile. “You’re something else, Portia. I nearly get you attacked, after practically forcing you undercover with me, and you’re thanking me.”

“What can I say? I’m a pretty cool chick,” I grinned, getting him to chuckle.

“You are indeed.” He stood up and stretched. “Would you like something more comfortable to wear? I have some pajama bottoms that you can swim in, and maybe a t-shirt? There’s new information, and we should talk about what our next move is, because I think we’re on our own. The deal goes down tomorrow.”

My jaw dropped. In one day, I’d accidentally been thrown into a major drug running operation undercover, been attacked, started to get some kind of feels for the guy that was my partner for all intents and purposes. And now, it was all going down the next day. What. The. Fuck.