Not just because Break didn't want to hit her. That he was willing to sacrifice me for her. It wasn't that. We both knew that drill. We didn't raise our fucking hands to women.
No. It was the way he was looking at her. And also the way he was pointedly not looking at her.
She was more than a client.
And she was damn sure more than some random one night stand.
The second she opened her mouth and started hollerin'... yeah I got the appeal. Not that she wasn't great to look at to begin with. Tall and thin with that shoulder-length dark hair and big dark eyes, the perfect bone structure. I mean, I generally preferred my women thick, with some curves to sink my fingers into. But she was still a stunner. But, fuck me, when she started going pure rage monster at Lex?
Yeah, she had something going for her.
And she, whether either of them knew it or not, was just the kind of woman he needed in his life.
I mean after taking one of Breaker's fists to the jaw (which I had been on the receiving end of before and, let me tell ya', it hurt like a mother), she still managed to have the wits about her to hand me off a knife. That was what Break needed. A chick who could think on her feet, who took the hit, who did what needed to be done.
With nothing to do but sit around and think, I gave their sure-to-be budding romance some thought. Wondering if Break would keep her at a distance, if she would let him in. If she could take away the guilt and shame he would have felt after putting his hands on her.
Breaker was never the type of man to be seen with a woman on his arm. Sure him and me and sometimes Paine, we would go out, we would pick up women. But Break's were smoke by the next morning. In all the years I knew him, I was pretty sure I had never seen him with a woman in the daylight.
A part of me really wished I could have been around to watch him fumble through that first-time experience.
But, no, I was in a basement. And not the nice side. With the bar and the TV. No I was in the cold, damp, windowless side with a bathroom and a folding chair.
If there was one thing I learned I had taken for granted most of my life, it was beds. A nice, thick, firm mattress. Preferably with a nice, thick, sweet woman beside me on it.
But I digress.
I knew shit was going down from what Limp Dick Rick and the new kid Chris were sayin'. About some chump named Glenn who got himself whacked. Then about some asshole named Joshua who had traced the leak in Lex's security to Alex.
Yeah. Their little honeymoon period was coming to an end and fast.
I also knew it meant my time on earth was coming to a close.
Men like Limp Dick Rick and Chris might have been idiots, but they knew better than to talk shop in front of an outsider if they planned to let him live. There had never been any such plan for me.
I was trying to play it by ear. See where things led before I made a decision or not.
The choice was simple: fight my way out and possibly endanger the only person in the world who gave a fuck about me or take my death like a man and hope Breaker had his head in the game enough to get his chick and get away.
Problem was, there was no way to guess the way that night went.
Earlier, I had pissed off Limp Dick Rick (possibly simply because that was how I referred to him, but also possibly because I may or may not have told him that he was proof that evolution works in reverse. In my defense, I thought he was too stupid to understand the insult) but anyway... I pissed him off. He knocked me around a little bit. He took me up to Lex's study for reasons unknown to me until I was dragged back down to find that someone else was locked in the bathroom.
It was then that I started genuinely worrying.
It was one thing to know my life was almost over.
Whatever. That was the life I lived. Every time I picked up a new job, met a new client, pointed my gun, pulled the trigger... there was always a chance of me not making it back.
But the idea that it was someone else who might have to suffer because of me? Yeah that shit didn't sit right.
I tried, like Breaker, to keep my contacts to a minimum. To keep the possibility of collateral damage a small risk. That being said, I wasn't like Break. I made some friends. I visited some women more than a few times. There were people that someone could hurt to get to me.
I had a sinking feeling one of those people were in that bathroom.
Then fast forward to Break charging in. No Alex. No plans, it seemed, to produce Alex. Looking like he hadn't slept in days.
It didn't take much for me to guess she was gone.
And that it wasn't him who got her gone.
The second that kid went into the bathroom and dragged out a kicking, swinging, spittin' mad Alex... yeah, fuck. I don't think I have the words to describe the look that came over Break's face.
Just utter... devastation. Hopelessness.
Followed quickly by determination.
He was going to get her out no matter what.
And then that hacker Josh showed up and gave me the whole, gory picture of what had gone down since I got locked up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Breaker make his move. I pivoted, ramming hard into an unsuspecting Rick, deciding it was time I threw my weight around as well.
But almost as soon as it started, I was restrained by an even more pissed off Rick (worth it for the bloody nose he had), and Break was being pulled away. He at least got a fair bit of damage in first.