“Don’t be an idiot. I waited until you pulled out of the lot.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Well, I don’t have anything for you right now,” she said and started for her car.
He lunged, grabbing her and dragging her into an alley beside the store.
He backed her into the wall, giving her nowhere to go. The overwhelming stench of alcohol and body odor hit her hard.
“Let’s start over.” He grabbed her arm so hard she knew she’d have bruises. “We agreed you’d get me money.”
“We didn’t agree on when,” she gritted out.
He shook her hard. His fingers bit into her skin, his frail appearance belying his strength. “Where’s the cash?”
“There isn’t any. Go ask the guy in the shop if you don’t believe me.”
He snatched her purse from her shoulder, nearly wrenching her arm from its socket. Opening it, he began tossing her things onto the ground in a mad search for cash. When he came to her wallet, he shoved her bag at her, and she held it tightly while he looked through her wallet. Good luck, she thought. If she had twenty dollars in there, it was a lot.
He pocketed the small amount of money he found and threw her wallet to the ground. “Where is it? In your pockets?”
“I said didn’t sell anything,” she said coldly.
“Bitch.” He slapped her hard across the face, her head smacking the wall with the force of the hit.
She saw stars, the pain overwhelming and intense.
“Why are you here? What were you planning to sell?” he asked at the same time his gaze focused on her chest. “This is it, right?” He put his hands on her beloved necklace. “Your boyfriend buy this for you?”
She closed her eyes, unable to stand being this close to him and unable to believe she’d ever considered selling something so precious to her.
That’s when her fight instinct kicked in, and she kneed him in the groin hard. She didn’t have enough leverage to take him down, but the element of surprise along with the initial pain had him rearing back in shock.
“You stupid bitch.”
She expected him to slap her again and braced, ready to duck, but he grabbed for the necklace instead and yanked hard, breaking the chain.
He held up his prize. “This oughta net me a nice sum. Don’t think I’m done with you either.” He turned and headed out of the alley and back onto the street.
“Oh hell no,” she muttered, having had enough. Not just for today but for a lifetime.
She started after him and slammed into him with the full force of her body, taking him down. He rolled, flipping over, and she ended up on top of him, her hands around his throat, and she began to squeeze…
Her mother’s face flashed in front of her eyes, and she tightened her grip. “I hate you,” she screamed at him as his body bucked and he clawed at her in an attempt to dislodge her.
“Riley!”
She heard her name at the same time sirens sounded. Hands gripped her by the shoulders, pulling her off him, but she was too hysterical to focus on who’d come to her rescue or what had happened to the man who’d never been a real father.
* * *
Ian pulled up to the pawnshop just after Alex. It took mere seconds for him to process the scene. Riley’s hands around a man’s throat, Alex pulling at her shoulders. Her father began to rise, coughing and sputtering but clearly intending to run. Ian slammed the man back to the ground just as a police car screeched to a halt, and the cop approached the scene.
“She attacked me,” her father sputtered at the uniformed cop.
The coward, Ian thought.
“Shut the hell up.” Ian shoved his foot on her father’s chest so he couldn’t move until a cop showed up and took over.
The officer pulled the older man to his feet. Before he could ask questions, a middle-aged man walked out of the pawnshop and headed for the cop.