Page 6 of Underground Prince
“Damn it.” I kicked off my shoes, dodging a leg and nearly eating the floor as I sprinted to the door that Verily had gone into, narrowly missing an elbow to the face.
My hand was on the knob, but an arm came around my waist, lifting me sideways and slamming me to the ground. The body landed on top of mine, and I lost all ability to breathe. His back was on my face, and he writhed and battled as if someone had jumped on top of him and started a wrestling match.
Warm cotton reeking of cologne filled my mouth as I tried to scream. His elbow slammed into a tender part of my arm and my vision went white.
My throat was raw as I used every muscle my vocal cords possessed to let him know that he was on a person, that a hardwood floor wasn’t normally this squishy, but it wasn’t working. He was too busy fending off the man on top of him.
I needed air. I had to get this guy off my stomach before he crushed my ribs. Legs flailing, I threw what parts of my body I could into my punches and landed one against the spot where his jaw met his ear.
He yowled, rolling sideways. The man sparring with him paused, staring down as if surprised there’d been a cleaning lady under his opponent this whole time.
Gasping, sputtering and glaring, I stood up, wobbling on the balls of my feet. “You,” I said to the guy on the floor, but that was all I got out.
Someone grabbed my arm, throwing me behind him and backing into a corner, and I swear, I was not about to become someone else’s soft landing. I opened my mouth so I could add words to my incoming shove, but he turned his profile to me and spoke first. “You okay?”
“Let m—Theo?”
A brow rose, coupled with a curve of lips. “So you know who I am.”
“Oh, uh—”
No Scarlet, now was not the time to be bashful.
“Verily told me. Your first name,” I said. “And last. But I—” I cut myself off, wincing as Theo threw a forearm into a guy’s chest and chucked him into the wall. “I’m Scarlet. Rhodes.”
Theo’s free arm came behind him, his hand resting on my thigh as he both stabilized and protected me. Every part of me went cold, except that one spot where my blood cells clashed and collided under his palm.
“So here’s the deal,” he said to me, though his attention was on the scene in front of him. “I need you to find Verily and head out through that door.” He pointed to the right. “See it?”
I did, but it was currently through a mess of spastic limbs.
“Just hug this wall and you’ll be fine. Here.”
He shuffled me to the left, his hand pressing deeper into my leg.
“I need to end this before they decide to stop fighting and rob the place instead. I can’t do it worrying that you girls will get hurt.”
“Hey,” I said. “We’re not delicate flower petals. I throw punches with the best of them.”
“I know.” Theo flipped around. His chest nearly touched mine and his lips were one puff of air away as he said, “I saw what you did to Mike over there.”
Ah yes, Mike the Mass, who was currently in a fetal position on the floor. I smirked.
“Good job,” Theo said.
Against my will, I went limp. Just by a fraction, but it was enough to communicate to my brain that I was in lust. I was staring into the richest caramel eyes I’d ever seen. They weren’t bright with gold or overly dark, but a lush honey-brown rimmed with chocolate. I wanted to say something—anything—until the wall behind me disappeared and I fell through space.
“By the way,” Theo said, one hand steadying me around my waist and the other on the doorknob he’d just twisted. “You’re hired.”
He let go, leaving cool air where he’d once stood, and shut the door with a snap.
“Scar?”
Verily stood at another poker table, a beer can hovering in the air as she paused in its pouring.
All eleven men also stared.
“Hey,” I said, pushing strands of blonde hair out of my face and fixing my headpiece. “How’s it going?”