Page 76 of Dear John
“You know, I have feelings,” the man pointed out.
I turned, thrusting my hands on my hips. “Oh, sure. The man who wants to rape me in an alley doesn’t want me to be mean to him.”
“Hey, there’s no need to be nasty. You don’t know I was going to rape you.”
I scoffed at that. “Sure, you came into the alley and said you wanted some pussy, but it was totally innocent.” I turned back and looked for my kitten, but she was nowhere in sight. I tossed up my hands in irritation. “Great! And now you’ve scared away the kitten.”
I spun around when I smelled a familiar cologne that I inhaled many nights when Kavanaugh was away. I must havebeen downwind to smell it above all the garbage. I sighed, knowing the fun of the night was over, and I probably wouldn’t be getting my kitten.
“If you want to live, I would recommend walking away from the ladies,” Kavanaugh said congenially, though there was a definite threat in his voice.
Fox was leaning against the brick wall on the other side of the alley, chewing what I could only assume were Funyuns. “You okay, Babe?”
“Well, you know, in a smelly alley and everything. Could be better.”
The man looked at both of us and then both men. “You can have them. They’d drive me crazy anyway.”
He started to walk away, but Fox stepped in his path. “They’d drive you crazy? You don’t even know them.”
“Did you hear them?”
“We hear them every day,” Kavanaugh murmured.
“Yeah, bitches be crazy, right?” Fox grinned.
The man laughed uneasily, taking a step back. “Right.”
Fox’s smile suddenly dropped, along with his bag of Funyuns. “Are you saying my woman is a bitch?”
“What? I—no, I was…you said?—”
Kavanaugh moved in a flash, his hand wrapped around the back of the man’s neck. The man winced when he squeezed just a tad too tight. “I think he was saying they were crazy.”
Fox cocked his head at the man. “Is that it? You think they’re crazy?”
The man’s eyes widened comically and he spluttered for the right answer. “What—I—no! I would never…they’re clearly very nice, very sane women. I?—”
“You would never what?” Fox asked.
“Man, I can feel the crazy coming off him from here,” I whispered to Anna.
“Isn’t it sexy?” she sighed dreamily.
Apparently, I was seeing something entirely different. But then I looked at Kavanaugh, who had the same psychotic look in his eyes, and I finally got it.
“You would never hurt a lady? Because from where I’m standing, that’s exactly what it looked like you were about to do. Not that you could win.” Fox turned to Anna. “You want a shot at him?”
“And waste my good buzz on him? No thanks.”
“What about you, Isla?”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise as I pointed to myself. “You…you want me to kill him?”
Fox burst out laughing, throwing his head back comically. “Kill? No, this isn’t the place for that. But if you want to hurt him a little before we take him back to that office building?—”
“My soon-to-be boss’s office?” I shrieked. “I’ll never get the job if you murder someone there!”
“But they have the tarp,” Fox pointed out. “It really is perfect.”