I burst out laughing as Shark groaned, seized my arm the best he could between all the bags, and pulled me away, hiding us down one of the side streets. I shot a friendly wave over my shoulder, followed by a quick “bye!” and then turned to Shark with a grin.
“You’re fucking incorrigible, did you know that?” He hissed at me.
“Ooh, what a fabulous word. I hope this outing hasn’t made you too discombobulated?”
“What the fuck is this? The big word Olympics? Don’t do that again. I’m fucking mortified.”
“Oh, don’t be so soft, it was only—”
“Excuse me?”
We both turned in the direction of the voices, and my eyes narrowed suspiciously when I saw the same two cuts from earlier.
“Are you here to join the survey?” I asked, noticing that Shark had stepped slightly in front of me.
“You seem really familiar,” one of them said, completely ignoring my question. “Are you Rachel?”
“No, I’m fucking Queen Elizabeth. This is my associate, Winston Churchill. How can we help, Einstein?”
“We were told you had a smart mouth. I know a better use for that pretty little thing,” the taller of the two said, practically licking his lips at me.
“Hey now,” Shark said, pushing me further behind him. “Show some fucking respect. She—”
He didn’t get to say anymore. Everything happened so fucking quickly. Before I could even process what they were planning, the taller of the two charged me, knocking me to the floor. I struggled beneath him, twisting my head to see the other guy bring a baseball bat from behind his back and smack Shark around his head.
I screamed, watching Shark fall to the floor and the main raise the bat above his head, raining blow after blow down on my friend.
Blood spat from Shark’s mouth, landing on my face as the man pinning me down ground himself into me, whispering fucked up things down my ear.
I froze, a million memories coming to mind. Alex, Ben, Callum, hell, even Dante himself. And then I heard Shark make a pained noise, his breath rattling as his ribs shattered under the bat.
And that’s the moment I saw red.
With a feral scream, I brought my head forward, collided with the man’s nose, making his grip on me loosen. I didn’t hesitate for a second. I grabbed his head on both sides and stuck my thumb in his eyes, pushing down with every last bit of strength I had.
He howled in pain and tried to shake me off, but I dug my nails into the back of his head, refusing to let go. I pushed my upper body up and pushed my thumbs into his eye sockets even harder. Blood and gore seeped from underneath my fingernails, pushing around the pads of my fingers, but I still didn’t relent. I kept on pushing, using the force of my push to move the man off me, allowing me to sit up further and further, until eventually I was above him.
I shoved my thumbs in even harder, ignoring the squelching noises of his eyeballs squeezing beneath me and then jumped to my feet, giving him one solid kick to the face before I rounded on the man attacking my friend.
He was still delivering blow after blow to Shark with the baseball bat, and Shark’s face was no longer recognisable.
I didn’t know what the fuck to do, or how I could defeat this guy, especially considering he had a weapon. But all I could think about was poor Jenna and Trex at home, none the wiser to what was happening. If I didn’t act soon, Trex would lose his daddy, and Jenna would lose the love of her life.
And then I thought that this could easily have been different. What if I had decided to bring Bee and Axel with me?
In a split second, a dozen different thoughts went through me, and I knew I had no choice.
I jumped on the man's back, wrapping my arms around his face to temporarily blind him. He stumbled slightly and tried to shake me off, and I dug my nails into his face as hard as I could, raking them down his skin, making clean slices. He threw himself backwards, slamming me against the wall, forcing the breath to leave my lungs in a painful wheeze.
I dug my fingers into his face tighter and then screamed as he twisted his head and clamped his teeth down into my arm.
Despite my best intentions, the pain had me loosening my grip, and he stepped away from the wall, letting me drop to the floor.
I took a brief second to pull in a gasp of air and then dived at Shark, grabbing the knife out of the inner pocket of his cut—they all had them, as per Dante’s orders. No member of the Devils were permitted to leave the compound without some form of protection.
Flicking the blade up, I spun round to face our attacker, only to meet the back of his hand as he swung, slapping me across my face. Blood spilled from my lips, and he was on me, grabbing fistfuls of my hair and slamming my head into the ground.
My teeth bit down on my tongue, and blood immediately filled my mouth. He lifted my head up again and slammed me back down once more. My vision blurred, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head.
