The Awakening

'Not to me. But I want details.'

After taking off her sunglasses, Gaby turned her face toward Luther. 'She might have been a hooker, but she was still a kid and the guy was forcing her.'

'And?'

'I stopped him.'

Luther sat the sport drink aside. 'With your knife?'

She nodded. 'I told him if he ever hurt her again, I'd castrate him.'

Small muscles flexed in Luther's face, taking him from fear to anger to rage and back again. 'Where did you stab him, Gaby?'

'In the shoulder. I threw my knife first, to stop him.' She felt compelled to honesty. 'I have very good aim.'

A big breath expanded Luther's already impressive chest.

'But then he tried to charge me, so I sort of pulled it out of him and put it to his balls and told him what would happen if he didn't change his ways.'

Luther twitched.

Gaby felt the need to rush through the rest of her explanation. 'He was making her do stuff to him, Luther. Really ugly stuff. She was crying and she was sort of beat up—'

'Where is she now?'

That his first thought would be concern for the girl warmed Gaby. More than ever, she saw the white aura surrounding him. 'I don't know. She ran off after I stopped the attack.'

Luther fell to his back. 'I don't fucking believe this.'

'I didn't tell the cops who I am and I don't think that guy will, either.'

'If he lived.'

'Well, yeah. But I think he will. I mean, sure, he was bleeding a lot and everything, but it was just a shoulder wound.'

'Unless you nicked something else.'

Did he have to sound so morbid? 'I guess.'

'I'll ask around about the incident. I can find out who was on call last night, see how the man fared after your unique sense of justice.'

Gaby didn't like the accusation in his tone. 'He deserved it, Luther.'

'From what you said, I'm sure he did. But you should have called the police, not taken it on yourself to deal with him.'

'By the time the cops got there, who knows what else he might have done to that poor girl?'

'Who knows what he might have done to you, Gaby, if your aim had faltered a little. Did you ever think of that?'

'No, because my aim doesn't falter.'

He muttered several steaming curses before saying, 'I can't believe you're bragging about this.'

He looked really put out, ready to shut down on her, but tough. She had questions and he most likely had answers. Mort sure as hell hadn't wanted to talk to her about it. 'I suppose now isn't a very good time to ask you stuff?'

To her surprise, he put an arm over his eyes and appeared to relax. He took two deep breaths and let out the last one in a long, slow exhalation. 'All right. What stuff?'

Well, that was better. Calmer anyway. 'The man had the woman on her knees and he kept pushing her face into his crotch.'

Luther froze again.

'It was like he was screwing her, but not where he should be.'

'Gaby,' Luther choked out. 'Shush.'

'I know there's a lot of deviant stuff out there and that men pay women to do a lot of weird things. But like I told you, I don't watch television, and whenever I hear music playing on the street, I don't really pay much attention to the words. I don't really know what's normal and what isn't. What that guy did didn't look normal, but I wanted to know—'

'Give me a minute here, okay?'

'Just tell me what he was doing and if it's acceptable or not. The girl sure didn't seem to think so. She hated it. Hell, he'd had to beat her up to make her do it.'

'I don't believe this.'

'The thing is, Mort was upset that she was hurt, but he didn't seem confused about what the jerk did or anything.'

In one swift movement, Luther was over her. Now he looked angry. 'Are you playing with me?'

Flat on her back? In the sun? In the middle of the community?

'No.' His blond hair, still damp from his exertions, went wavy in places. That seemed very at odds with such a rugged male. 'I never have time for playing. You should know that by now.'

'Don't start with the confusing talk, Gaby. I want a straight answer.' His hands gripped her shoulders. 'You honestly don't know what oral sex is?'

'Oral sex,' She supposed that sounded right for what she'd seen. It was definitely sex of some sort. 'You want plain speaking? Fine. I've seen the prostitutes jerk guys off. I've seen them bend over stuff and let Johns do them from the back, like a dog.'

Luther's eyes widened a little more with every word she spoke.

'I've even seen them—'

His hand smashed over her mouth. 'Jesus, woman.' Additional heat darkened his high cheekbones. 'Do you spend all your time watching hookers at work?'

He'd silenced her, so she shrugged. She'd have a tough time avoiding seeing it where she lived. Every time she stepped out of the apartment, the whores were there, sometimes doing their business in a parked car, sometimes in an alley.

Sometimes in plain sight, if that's what the John wanted.

Luther's hand shifted. His fingers touched her mouth. Lightly. Caressing. With one finger, he parted her lips.

'Gaby, I want to kiss you.'

Could have fooled her. 'You look more like you want to strangle me.'

'That too.' He continued touching her mouth. 'Do you think it'd be okay if I kissed you?'

She had to think about it. It wouldn't be smart, would in fact be idiotic—'Yeah.'

Luther bent down, hesitated, then came closer. He brushed his mouth over hers. He didn't do much, just hovered there, teasing her. His mouth barely touching hers.

Gaby felt his hot breath as it accelerated. She felt his building tension and her own anticipation.

Then she felt Luther's absence.

She opened her eyes and saw him sitting up beside her. She waited, and he looked down at her with accusation, need, and so much more. 'You are one dangerous little girl, Gabrielle Cody.'

Chapter Thirteen

'You just figured that out?'

He plucked a blade of grass, then another. Looking away, he said, 'I haven't figured out anything. Around you, nothing is clear.'

'I know.' She was an abnormality of the first order. How could a nice, normal cop like Luther Cross ever understand her, when she didn't entirely understand herself?

'So.' He tossed the blades of grass aside. 'Rather than splurge on a cheap radio, you watch the local streetwalkers for entertainment.' He looked at her. 'Or is it edification?'