Full Contact (Redemption #3)(64)
Ray glances over at me, but it is not Ray I see in his eyes, it’s the Predator. He loosens his grip on Doctor Death and lets him slide down the wall; then he lifts him and body slams him on the ground.
“Stop it.” But my words go unheeded as Doctor Death struggles on the floor. The four clients on the couch all have their cell phones out and are filming the action. Duncan is shouting into his phone for someone—hopefully not Torment—to come and break up the fight. And Christos has Rose by the arm and is trying to pull her to safety.
Luckily Doctor Death is not just a pretty face. He has moves of his own. With a quick twist, he breaks Ray’s hold and jumps to his feet.
“Come on, Predator.” He waggles his fingers toward himself. “Hit me. Show Sia who you really are. Show her just how much you’re going to hurt her in the end when you walk away.”
“Don’t you dare.” My voice cracks the silence. “You touch him again, Ray, and it will be the last thing you ever do. This is my place of business and you are totally out of line.”
The door opens and Rampage and Blade Saw step inside, their faces covered in sweat. Rampage takes in Ray and Doctor Death squared off in the client lounge and looks over at me. “Everything okay here? Need a hand?”
“No, but thank you for coming. We’re fine. Doctor Death was just leaving.”
Doctor Death straightens and does the alpha-male side-to-side neck crack before taking his gaze off Ray. His mouth opens, and I just know he intends to goad Ray again, so I step between them and usher Doctor Death toward the door. “Thanks for coming in. If you give me the drawing, I’ll make a stencil of it, just so we can be sure you get exactly what you want.”
Doctor Death hands me the drawing and smiles. “I know what I want. I just don’t want to see her get hurt.”
Rampage and Blade Saw follow Doctor Death out the door. Rampage thumps Doctor Death between the shoulder blades and asks him what the f*ck he was thinking, but before I can hear his answer, the door closes behind them. The clients return to their couch to compare videos of the fight. Duncan grabs the ringing phone, since Rose and Christos are nowhere to be seen. I gesture Ray over to my chair and then spin around to face him.
“What the heck was that? He’s a client. You can’t go around threatening to rip the balls off my clients.”
“Don’t like him.”
“You don’t like him? Oh. Well…that’s alright then. Pound away. Maybe you want to break his fingers too.” I can’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice as I fight for calm. “How about we get something straight? I don’t give a damn whether you like my clients or not. I have lots of clients I’m sure you won’t like. Some of them scare me. Some of them make lewd comments. Some of them cop a feel. Lots of them ask me out. It’s the nature of the business, and I can deal with them. I don’t need protecting, and I don’t want you to interfere with my work.”
Ray stiffens. “Which ones?”
“Which ones what?”
“Which ones scared you, made comments, touched you, and asked you out? I want a list.”
“Did you not hear anything I just said?” My brow creases with my fiercest frown. “Do not interfere.”
“Heard it. Processed it. Ignoring it. Now I’m gonna deal with it. After what you went through, you should be kept safe. I’m gonna make sure no one hurts you ever again, in any way.”
My blood chills. Oh God. This is like Charlie and James all over again. He’s going to want to wrap me up and hide me away. He’ll be afraid to touch me the way I want to be touched. He’s going to think I’ll break. “What I went through was over a long time ago. It doesn’t mean I need protecting now. It doesn’t mean I can’t handle men like Doctor Death. I don’t want you to treat me any different than you did before.”
Ray shrugs. “Can’t help it. This is who I am. Man sees someone touching what’s his, he’s gonna do something about it. Man thinks his woman is threatened, he’s not gonna hold back until she’s safe.”
“He hardly threatened me.”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
With a sigh, I sit on my artist’s chair. “Actually, the person I don’t know is you. If I did, I would have known how you would react and I wouldn’t have told you what happened to me. But you don’t talk much about yourself. You don’t let me in. I hardly know anything about you. We never…go out and do stuff together.” Like Doctor Death said.
Tension coils in the air between us, and my head starts to throb in time to the pounding bass of the Metallica song Duncan is streaming through the speakers.
Ray folds his arms across his chest. “What do you want to know?”
Really, there is only one thing I want to know. The question that has been burning into my brain since Doctor Death first talked about Ray. “Why does Doctor Death think you’re going to walk away? Why did he say you aren’t the man you appear to be?”
His eyes darken, and then he shrugs. “Don’t know.”
Defeated, I try an easier question. “What kind of work do you do as a PI?”
“Surveillance mostly. Spent the morning watching a building. Gotta get back out there in an hour. Came by to see if you were okay after what happened at the hospital. I would’ve come by yesterday, but I was on a job and had to keep radio silence. Sent a text.”