they won’t bother you again.”
The child took in Gaby with experienced scrutiny, noting her lack of bulk and no doubt finding her inadequate for the job.
She shook her head with sad acceptance. “You refuse to listen.”
Gaby touched the girl’s cheek, surprising herself with the affectionate gesture, given that affection of any kind seldom had a place in her life of deleterious persuasions.
It was Luther’s influence, and she wasn’t at all sure she liked it. “When I’m through here, maybe you’ll trust me just a little.”
“I wish you to be careful, please.” She looked beyond Gaby to the men. “They have terrible friends. You cannot imagine how scary.”
Gaby winked. “They don’t have anyone who is scarier than me, I promise you.”
The girl’s voice went faint. “But . . . there are some who . . . ” She trailed off.
“What?”
After an audible swallow, she looked down at her feet. “Nothing. I have said too much already.”
“No problem.” She hoped the girl would share her fears later, after Gaby reassured her of her abilities. “I’ll probably have to split after I dispatch these goons. But I would like to talk to you some more. Do you come here pretty often?”
“Yes. My sister likes to play here.”
“Good.” Gaby couldn’t preset a date to meet again, just in case the girl shared that info with the cops who were sure to get wind of this. But Gaby wanted to see her again, to know that she was safe and in good care.
Children in general had such pure hearts that Gaby always felt an exceptional urge toward protecting them. Gaby sensed that this girl had already suffered far too much.
“I will see you again, then?”
With a nod, Gaby said, “Count on it. Now scram before you
The boy looked up and saw her first.
Gaby stared at the youth. “Go home, kid.”
Alarm widened the boy’s eyes, and he strained away, but didn’t get far with the tight hold one man had on him. The bullies didn’t like her intrusion, which suited Gaby just fine. Even as the dogs spit and growled and strained against the leashes, she kept walking.
When the men focused their entire attention on Gaby, the boy jerked free and ran hell-bent into the playground area. He disappeared amid the other kids who were all now gawking.
Gaby locked eyes with one foul individual. He looked clean-cut enough, with close-cropped hair, a pricey diamond in his ear, and immaculate clothes. But a murky, sick aura hung like a wet blanket around him and his cohorts. They were malevolent, unconscionable men, but apparently not sick enough to warrant a call to duty.
Again she glanced up at the sky. “I think I should start picking.”
One of the men laughed. “Baby girl, who you talkin’ to?”
God’s lack of response didn’t matter. Looking at the three of them sickened Gaby, and at the same time, it sent her antagonism surging to the surface.
She gave her icy rage free rein. “Hey, bitches.”
That got their attention.
“It takes a real pathetic bully to push around little kids. And you three look about as pathetic as anything I’ve ever seen.”
One man, taking the role as leader, smiled at her. “You play a dangerous game, sweetness. My dogs are hungry for fresh meat.”
Gaby didn’t even bother looking at the vicious animals. “I’m not playing, asshole. And a word of warning—if you let the dogs loose, they won’t make it, and that’d be a shame, because I have nothing against animals.”
Antagonism brought one of the guys forward. “Bitch, are you stupid or insane? Cuz if we turn even one dog loose, you’re fuckin’ hamburger.”
Gaby stayed a mere inch beyond the reach of the dogs’ snapping jaws. “So on top of being a wimp, you’re a coward who needs animals to protect you. What a laugh.” But Gaby didn’t laugh; she didn’t even smile.
Most times, she wasn’t sure she knew how.
Dark eyes flared, and a strong jaw locked. “J.J.,” the man said in an ominous but commanding whisper, “maybe you ought to show her how we deal with stupid bitches who don’t know the right way to use their pretty mouths.”
Showing large white teeth, J.J. stepped around the dogs with a swaying walk and a shitload of attitude.
Exhilaration sizzled along Gaby’s nerve endings. She let him get close enough to take a swing, which she ducked without effort.
Having a strong propensity toward violence, Gaby relished the attack.
She
Hoping the girl had left the scene, Gaby came back up with a punch to the guy’s balls. Then she planted another, just for good measure. Given the unnatural force of her fisted strikes, he’d be lucky if he ever pissed again, much less fathered children.
And that, too, she figured to be a public service.
He doubled in on himself and would have fallen forward in a pain-induced stupor if Gaby hadn’t planted a solid kick to his face, sending him backward.
She saw a tooth go flying, sprayed by blood and spittle. His jaw hung loose, clearly dislocated. One eye bulged grotesquely from the socket.
Well. She’d done adequate damage with that one. Old J.J. went down and he wasn’t going to get back up anytime soon.
Smelling the blood and seeing the violence, the dogs jerked at their restraints with berserk fever. They concerned Gaby because if they got loose, they could be a threat to the children who remained nearby, held in place by gruesome curiosity.
It broke Gaby’s heart to hurt an animal, any animal, but these beasts had been raised for barbarous aggression. They were a threat to the children, to anyone who got within their reach, and she couldn’t have that.
Looking up at the remaining two men with incandescent fury burning in her eyes, she grated, “You’ll fucking well pay for what you’re about to make me do.”
Jaw slack and face livid, the head honcho stood there staring at J.J.’s bloodied, unconscious form.
He regained his focus with a burst of indignation and theatrical antics. His face contorted as he stormed forward.
“Fucking whore!” he shouted. “Now you done it. You fucking well deserve what you get.” And with a toss of the leashes, he let loose the dogs.
Gaby had her knife out before the first dog reached her. The animal didn’t get a chance to get his teeth into her flesh before she cut his throat in a wide arc that opened to reveal muscle and sinew. The wound smiled wide, gushing blood and limiting the dog to mere gurgles before he stumbled, crumpled, and fell to his side.
Leaping in the air, fangs bared, the second dog tried for her throat. A kick to the muscular head staggered him, giving Gaby enough time to sink her knife into the thick chest. She planted the blade hard enough to lift the dog off the ground, and as he descended again, she twisted the knife, ripping through the canine heart.
With no more than a faint yelp, the poor creature fell back, twitched, and went still.
Gaby’s chest ached and her heart squeezed tight with the awfulness of what she’d just done, what she’d been forced to do.
Sadness suffocated her, making it near impossible to swallow around the clogging anguish and remorse.
Even now, in death and sticky with blood, the dogs were beautiful animals—and they’d never had a chance, thanks to the inhumanity of men.
Tears burned her eyes.
“Whore! Fucking cunt!” Strutting toward her, the leader drew out a gun and took aim. “You’ll pay for that, bitch. I’ll bury you!”
