Page 58 of Jump on Three

She jostled against me. “Fuck. Did I mention I don’t like the dark?”

“You didn’t. I understand, though. I am not a particularly big fan either.”

I felt her moving from foot to foot, her heels clacking lightly on the dirty cement.

“Um…Ev?”

“Yes?”

“You sure that door is locked?”

“I—” Well…I wasn’t sure. It would make sense if it was. Who left a door like that unlocked? Then again, who walked down a dark alley in Los Angeles? “I don’t know for sure.”

“Thought so. I’m gonna check.”

She moved toward the door, and I went with her. Now that we were in this together, I was unwilling to separate and infinitely grateful she’d insisted on coming.

The small light fixture perched over the door hummed and illuminated the immediate area. Bella’s arm appeared in the light while the rest of her stayed hidden. She wrapped her hand around the metal knob, twisting, twisting…and there was no resistance. It was unlocked.

She cracked it open, brightness spilling out, and stuck her head in the light so she could peek inside.

“It’s a hallway,” she whispered. “Well lit. I see a couple closed doors. I bet they’re storage and—oh shit. Someone’s coming. We gotta get out of here.”

Too late to run back to the street without getting caught, Bella let the door close and yanked me deeper into the alley. We pressed our backs to the wall, clutching each other’s hands for dear life. My knees were trembling. My breath was caught in my throat. It was good I couldn’t really breathe, though. My panting would have given us away.

I did not want us to be given away, not when a man was tossed through the door and hit the hard ground with a painful smack. The door swung all the way open, and a tall, Black man in a suit strolled through.

“You get off on that?” the suited man asked casually. “Does it get your dick hard to put your hands on girls without their consent?”

The door stayed open, keeping the shadows at bay, giving Bella and me a view of what was happening. The man was raised to his knees, but he didn’t stay there long.

“Does this make your dick hard?”

The suit’s leg swung in a perfect arc from the ground to between the man’s legs in one smooth motion. The gasping cry he emitted lodged in my chest. He fell sideways, covering his crotch with both hands and curling into a ball.

The light was disrupted by the appearance of two other men. The one in front was just as tall as the suit, but he was white and dressed in jeans and a button-down.

“You started without me?”

That voice. The accent. Bella’s grip on my hand tightened to the point of pain. She must have heard it too.

Then he stepped outside and turned his face just right, erasing all doubt. Ivan Sokolov was in the alley with us, where a man was writhing in pain.

The suit shrugged. “He pissed me off, but he’s got a lot of excess asshole left.” He motioned toward the man, who was once again trying to climb to his feet. “Have at him.”

“I can take care of him.”

The third man leaned against the doorjamb. Though it wasn’t much of a lean. He took up almost the entire frame, from floor to ceiling and side to side. I recognized his bald head and deeply-lined frown immediately. Cue Ball was even more intimidating than he had been the other night, and that was saying a lot since I’d been certain he was going to squash me at any moment.

“I’ve got this, Jay.” Ivan shifted and grabbed the man’s hair so suddenly I couldn’t stop a gasp from escaping. Fortunately for me and Bella, but not for the man, Ivan did not hear me since his fist had connected with the hard flesh of the man’s jaw.

With vicious force, Ivan yanked his head back and bent down to hiss in his face.

“Did you think you could come to Lyot and make fools of us? Do we look like fools to you?”

“No, no, I messed up. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” The man scrambled to hold on to Ivan’s arm. “Just…I won’t come back.”

Ivan shook the man by his hair. “You say that, but how can I trust you?” He jerked his chin toward the suit. “Whatchu think, Marco? Can we trust this asshole?”