The Dom Identity (Masters & Mercenaries Reloaded 2)

A hand gripped her elbow, and she was twisted around. She expected to see Michael, but it was a man she’d never met before.

And he had a knife in his free hand.

“Hey!” A woman yelled and then the man let go of Vanessa’s arm and turned on the newcomer.

Fear sliced through Vanessa and her first instinct was to run, but the woman from the café was kicking out and trying to fight the man with the knife. She was such a small thing, and the man was a hulking beast, and Vanessa couldn’t leave her.

She held her purse in both hands and reared back, bringing it down on the man’s neck.

He growled and fell forward, taking the pink-haired woman with him before hopping up and running past Vanessa.

What the hell had happened? Her hands were shaking as she moved to help the young woman up. Her yoga mat had been tossed to the side and she was lying on the ground, a hand over her side.

“Are you okay?” Vanessa reached out.

The woman frowned. “I think I might be stabbed. I’m not sure. I would think it would hurt more.”

Her savior pulled her hand away, and there was bright red blood there.

“Yep, definitely stabbed.” The young woman’s eyes flared.

Vanessa dropped to her knees, all thoughts of fleeing gone. If they took her picture, they took her picture. She pulled her cardigan off and placed it against the woman’s wound. “We have to keep pressure on it. Don’t move.”

With her free hand she called the ambulance and prayed the young woman survived.

Chapter Six

“Can I get you some water? Should you have water?” Vanessa frowned as she looked around the small room they’d put May in.

The woman with the pink hair managed to grin her way. “I think I can drink. That was what the surgery was all about—making sure I don’t leak. I was told that as stab wounds go, mine was the best kind.”

Her “surgery” had been minor, and she was expected to be able to go home that night. The knife had missed all vital organs and had been classified as a superficial wound.

It hadn’t felt superficial. At the time she’d worried this woman would bleed out and die right in front of her.

“She’s fine, Vanessa.” Michael sat in a chair across the room.

Her training Dom had been the best. He’d come running out, and he’d been the one to find her holding her cardigan over May’s body. The woman had identified herself as May and then promptly passed out. Michael had dealt with the ambulance and the police. He’d held Vanessa’s hand as she’d given her report and then he’d driven her here to the hospital because she’d wanted so much to make sure the woman who’d saved her was okay.

“Physically, I’m fine,” May said. “Mentally, I’m awesome. I like stared down that attacker and remembered all my self-defense moves. It was very empowering. And now I have a cool scar.”

“I have no idea what I would have done.” Vanessa had been over it a hundred times. She was pretty sure she would dream about it for the rest of her life. “I thought the guys with the cameras were the threat. You were so brave.”

May smiled, a lopsided expression that made the woman look more adorable. “No, I’m just a huge fan of Terror in Walton Woods. Couldn’t have it play out in real life. Suzy Silk died in the movies. Vanessa Hale wasn’t going out on my watch.”

Vanessa felt her skin flush. “I didn’t think anyone recognized me. You didn’t say anything.”

May shrugged. “You’re a person who was having coffee. You didn’t need some crazy fan interrupting. But when I realized the photogs were there, I tried to give you some cover.”

“What you did was probably save her life,” Michael said. “I would like to point out that I had asked her to wait for me. I was going to walk her back to her office. I would have dealt with the photographers and then no one would have gotten stabbed.”

Yeah, she felt guilty about that, too.

He had his phone out, glancing down. She couldn’t blame the man since she was the reason he’d missed his workday. She’d tried to explain that she was fine and he could leave, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

She kind of thought he was hanging around so he could give her a very long lecture on disobeying direct orders.

Or a spanking. He might want to spank her.

Why, oh why, did that thought not scare her the way it should?

“I didn’t want you to have to deal with the press,” she said quietly. “I thought…I thought I could sneak behind May and go down the alley and get away. I’m sorry.”

May’s brows rose. “For what? Girl, I would have run, too. That was weird. I mean, it wasn’t as weird as the asshole who stabbed me, but it was weird.”