Asa
The only two things I hated more than Dalton Saylor were men who beat women and rapists. And this stupid motherfucker was both.
He threw a sloppy right cross at me that he telegraphed loud and clear with his shoulders. I saw it coming from a mile away and just wrapped my left arm around his and twisted it up into my armpit, hooking my arm around it as I let loose three quick jabs with my right fist into his jaw and the side of his head. His head whipped back and forth, his eyes wide in surprise. They went even wider in surprise, when I brought my arm up, using the leverage to snap his humerus.
The rapist fuck-face screamed like a little girl, so loud and high I was surprised he didn't shatter the windows of the van. His knees buckled and I let him drop to the gravel-covered parking lot. “My arm!” he screamed. “My fucking arm!”
“What the fuck?” his buddy mumbled, clamoring up from his spot in the passenger seat.
Before he could even climb from the seat I'd laid into him. His head rebounded back off the headrest, my fist splattering his nose. His eyes shut again and he was out like a light.
In the maelstrom Lauren had taken off, lit out like a jackrabbit across the parking lot, heading for the stolen Camry. I was after her in a flash, my arms pumping, my legs launching me across the blacktop like a freight train. Lauren had long legs, and was keeping a good lead on me but I was still closing it with each stride.
Adrenaline flooded my veins. I was so close. Just a little bit farther and I'd have her. Then we'd be headed back to the Fortress and I could get work on bringing down Dalton Saylor. She slammed into the side of the stolen car, pure anger on her face as she looked back at me. She turned back to the driver door, slamming her elbow into the window, trying to shatter it.
I tackled her to the concrete before she could get going again. I wrapped her in a bear hug, twisting her body around so it was on top of mine as we slammed against the parking lot together. I took the brunt of the impact, but I didn't get care. Gravel dug into my arm, into my shoulders and back, but I barely felt it. All I knew was that her warm, kicking, yelling, biting body was in my arms again, and she was going to stay there till I got through her daddy's front gates.
“Let me go!” she screamed, slamming her head back into mine.
I twisted my face away, and her head cracked into my forehead.
Enraged at the sudden pain to the back of her head, she yelled for help as she continued the fight to break free.
I struggled to my feet, dragged with me till we were both standing. I picked her up around the waist, leaving her legs flailing and kicking in the air, and started to carry her back to the car. I had cuffs in my back pocket, but I knew trying to get to them now would just cause more problems. I needed her at the car before I tried something like that.
“Help!” she screamed. “Help me!”
No one came, though. We were in a podunk parking lot in the middle of the desert. Nobody gave a shit about anyone out here. After what seemed like ages, I managed to get her back to the Camaro. I dropped her to her feet and promptly grabbed her arm and twisted it up behind her back as I slammed her as gently as I could into the steel Detroit body like I was auditioning for a 70s cop show. I grabbed the cuffs from my back pocket.
She oofed in surprise, the wind knocked from her. All she could do was groan in muted pain as I slapped the restraints on first one wrist, then grabbed the other and finished the job.
She struggled again, but I grabbed hold of her hair and yanked hard, producing a stunned yelp. “Listen,” I growled as I threw the passenger side door open, “I saved you from getting raped just now. Least you could do is show me some goddamn gratitude.”
“I don't want to go back to that madman,” she replied through clenched teeth. “You don't understand, Asa. I can't go home to him.”
“Doesn't matter if you think you can or can't,” I growled as I shoved her into the passenger seat and bent down to strap her in with the seat belt. “Because you don't get a fucking choice in the matter. Got it?”
She growled at me in frustration as she tried to struggle against her cuffs. I straightened up, dusted some of the dust and gravel from my clothes. Lauren's eyes locked with mine in a death stare as she looked up at me from the passenger seat. “I'm going to get away, Asa. I promise you I'll get away,” she promised. “Just like I have with all the other assholes he sent after me.”
A flash of Richie passed through my mind. My best friend who had ended up sacrificing everything to try and take her home to her daddy. He hadn't deserved what he got, and I don't think she even knew what had happened to him when he got there empty handed. I wondered briefly if she cared.
Right now, I didn't need to talk to her. Instead, I needed to get back on the road. We had more than twenty hours on the road still to go, and the night wasn't getting any younger. I just looked at her, my face transformed into a grimace. She flinched back as I slammed the door shut. I went around to the driver side and got in, started up the car.
“Please, Asa,” she nearly whispered as I went to pull out of the parking lot, “you can't take me back to him. I'll do anything.”
I just laughed. “I got business with your old man, Lauren, which means I need you. So, either you can ride up here with me in your cuffs, or you can ride in the trunk with your cuffs.”
She groaned and sat back in the seat, twisted her arms and shoulders to try and get a little more comfortable. She turned and stared out the window as we pulled out of the parking lot, watched as the men in the minivan started to move and tend to their wounds.
“Thanks,” she whispered after the grocery store was just a memory in my rear-view mirror. “For, you know, saving me.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You're welcome. Figured you didn't deserve to get hurt like that.”
She just chuckled and went to looking out the window again. “Irony, much?”
I just shook my head and turned on the radio, trying to find something to keep the silence at bay. We needed to find a place to sleep for the night, and the nearest motels were out of the question after the stunt she pulled tonight. Meant we'd be lucky to find a place in less than a few hours.
We had a long drive ahead of us.