“You’re about to be even sorrier,” Henry growled, lifting him up until he hovered on his tiptoes, grazing the road beneath him. “Make a hobby of stealing from pretty women, do you, kid?”
“N-no, sir. I… I…”
“Have a death wish?”
“I…”
“Consider me your genie, boy.”
“Henry, stop,” I panted, placing a hand on his tensed arm, only for him to turn his glare on me before he flinched at the contact. His dark eyes stared into mine, and despite the good looks I couldn’t get out of my brain, the danger in his gaze terrified me.
He looked ready to commit murder on me, too. An assassin of the night that shouldn’t have been present in the day.
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret,” I pleaded softly.
The boy continued to ramble as though we weren’t there, but Henry’s attention was locked on my face before his gaze slowly drifted down to my hand on his arm.
That point of contact suddenly burned, as though his acknowledgement of it somehow brought it to life. Clearing my throat, I peeled my hand away and took a step back, creating some distance.
“I-I mean no harm,” the boy said, but Henry ignored him, unable to look away from me.
“Did this little shit hurt you?” he asked, full of intensity.
“I… No. Nothing like that. He just… He stole from me. That’s it.”
“You sure?”
I nodded, swallowing down the desire to ask why he cared.
Henry studied my face a second longer before he gave me a single, curt nod and handed me my purse from the one that wasn’t holding the thief.
“Here,” he grunted. “Yours.”
“Thank you.” I took it from him. “Really. I don’t know what I’d have done if he’d gotten away with it.”
Another nod from Henry, then he turned back to the kid. “I think you owe the lady an apology, don’t you?”
The boy, with his jet-black hair and sad green eyes, looked at me, nodding. “I’m so sorry. I won’t do it again. I promise,” he said in a rush, clearly terrified of the man-giant who looked ready to squash him like a bug.
I’d been about to ask the boy how often he stole from tourists like me, but Henry had already turned him in his grip to march him straight past me back to the mini market, grumbling under his breath as he went, “Damn right, you won’t do it again. The police will make sure of that.”
I turned to follow them, realising we’d drawn quite a crowd outside the store now. A lady, who I assumed to be the owner of the mini market, stood on the pathway with her arms folded, shaking her head as if she wasn’t at all surprised to see the boy in Henry’s grip.
She threw her hands in the air and started shouting at him in Greek. Even though I didn’t understand a word she said, I understood enough to know that the kid probably feared hermore than he feared Henry, even though Henry looked ready to chew him up and spit him out without even breaking a sweat.
“Again, Peter? Really?” the woman cried in English. “Your mama will murder you this time.”
“Not if I do first.” Henry practically threw the boy at the woman. “I suggest you call the police if he can’t seem to stop himself from attacking innocent women, otherwise he might find himself all out of luck the next time it happens. Especially if he’s stupid enough to do it in front of me.”
The woman offered more assurances, then sent Peter into her shop with a slap to the back of his head before she ran inside the mini market, coming back out only moments later with the basket of shopping I’d dropped on the floor, holding it out to me.
“Please… take this. My apologies on behalf of Peter. I’ll make sure he’s dealt with.”
“Oh, no, no. Honestly, you don’t have to do that,” I said. “It’s not your fault he?—”
Henry cut me off, taking the basket from the woman as though he’d been put in charge of this entire situation. He mumbled a small grunt of thanks to her before he peeled one strap of my beach bag off my shoulder and began dropping the items from the basket inside my bag, leaving me to stare up at him with a slack jaw. His fingertips grazed my skin, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention, and I prayed for the goosebumps to stay away.
He plucked my purse out of my hand and dropped that into the bag, too, before he found the zip and pulled it closed with a sharp jolt, then placed the strap back over my shoulder, like the touch of his fingers against my skin didn’t affect him one bit.
