“Who’s this? The Law?” Ladies Man was joking.

“Yeah,” Luke answered.

Ladies Man’s eyes cut to me and the forced joviality faded from his face. I could tell he didn’t know what to make of me.

I kept quiet.

“She on the payroll now or what? I heard she took down Warren last night,” Ladies Man asked.

“We’re not here to talk about Law,” Luke said.

Ladies Man’s attention returned to Luke. “Hey man, I don’t know what this is all about. When I got the message, I was f**kin’ stunned. Seems a lot of trouble over nothin’.”

For some reason Luke said, “Stop,” and I didn’t think he was telling him to stop talking.

Ladies Man kept on smiling his good ole boy smile. “What?”

“Stop,” Luke repeated.

“I know you’re a man of few words but what? Is this the message? Give me a clue.” He turned to me. “Law? Do you know? How many syllables? Sounds like?”

Over the past few days Luke and I had shared a lot or at least I guessed in the World of Luke it was a lot. So I felt pretty safe in thinking that Luke would not take to this guy being a smartass very well.

I wasn’t wrong.

Luke lifted up in a squat, leaned across the table and, I kid you not, grabbed on to Ladies Man’s collar and pulled him clean out of his seat. He put his other hand on him then twisted.

I reared back and just barely was missed when Ladies Man’s body went flying by me and into the booth behind us.

Oh… my… God.

I got the keen sensation that Luke had been holding back in our training sessions.

Like.

A lot.

Luke slid out of our booth and stalked to the other one.

I followed.

By the time I made it to him Luke had Ladies Man by the collar. He’d pulled him out of that thankfully empty booth and whirled, slamming him against a wall.

There was music playing in the bar but the hum of conversation died as everyone watched Luke.

Luke yanked Ladies Man forward and then slammed him against the wall again. I could hear the crack of Ladies Man’s skull against the wall.

Yikes.

Luke held him pressed there, his legs dangling beneath him a foot off the floor, his hands wrapped around Luke’s wrist and forearm. Just like in the movies, Luke held him aloft one-handed. I didn’t even know people could do that in real life.

It was a sight to see. It gave me a belly flutter and a heart flutter and I was jealous as all hell.

Luke wasn’t just kickass. He was kickass.

“Stop,” Luke repeated the same word.

Ladies Man wasn’t feeling like being a smartass anymore. He looked scared shitless.

“Got me?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Got you. Tell Marcus, nothin’ to worry about. I’m out,” Ladies Man rasped because Luke’s hand was wrapped around his throat.

Luke dropped him.

Ladies Man’s legs buckled a bit when he landed but he pulled himself together and his hands went to his neck.

Luke turned his head to me. I got the message loud and clear and we both walked out.

We were buckled in and on and the road before I found my voice. “That wasn’t fair. You hogged all the head crackin’.”

Luke was silent but I could tell he was amused.

“Next time I get to throw the guy across the booth,” I announced.

“Not tonight. We’re done.”

“Done?”

“Done.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“But we’ve only been out…” I looked at the dashboard clock, “an hour and a half.”

“Nothin’ more on tonight’s agenda, babe.”

Well, that was disappointing.

“You should come on a ride-along on one of my nights out. It lasts longer and is a lot more fun.” I told him.

“I’ll take you up on that.”

Whoops.

I’d said it to be snotty. I didn’t expect he’d agree. This meant another conversation with Vance.

Shit.

Luke again walked me to my door, took my keys, pushed in ahead of me and turned off my alarm. This time he didn’t head to the kitchen. I thought it best not to offer him a beer.

Then I asked what had been praying on my mind for the last twenty minutes. “Do you guys work for Marcus Sloan?”

“We’re on retainer,” Luke answered.

I closed my eyes. This was not good.

“Babe.”

I opened my eyes again. “He’s a drug dealer. He runs guns. He sells flesh,” I whispered.

“He’s also Daisy’s husband,” Luke responded.

I felt like he’d punched me in the gut.

Daisy’s husband? Daisy was married to a drug dealer? A flesh peddler? A gun runner?

“What?” My voice was so low even I wondered if I’d made any noise.

Super Dude Luke’s superpowers included super-hearing. “He isn’t a good guy but he’s a good ally.”

I didn’t speak, couldn’t speak. I was trying to process. I was also trying to breathe. Both I was finding difficult.

“Daisy’s clean,” Luke told me.

“Does she know what he does?”

“I’m guessin’, yeah.”

“Then she can’t be clean.”

“She’s clean.”

“I think you and I may have different definitions of the word ‘clean’.”

All of a sudden he advanced. Even knowing I was a head crackin’ mamma jamma I retreated. I was vulnerable. I liked Daisy. I liked her a lot. I wanted to be her friend but more, I wanted her to be mine. I’d suffered a blow from which I didn’t know if I could recover.

Somehow Luke got me up against a wall and he came in close. This wasn’t predatory-I’m-going-to-kiss-you close, this was pay-attention-to-me close.

“People do what people do to get by or get ahead or leave shit lives behind. But there are lots of things that define them. How they act, the way they treat people they care about. Daisy lives well off dirty money. The minute she entered Indy’s life Lee investigated her and she’s had more bumps than most, enough for her to deserve to live well. She’s a good person and she isn’t involved in Marcus’s business. He’s got legitimate shit running alongside his other concerns. Both sides are lucrative. He used to work for whatever he got out of it. Now he works for her. There’s beauty in that and it isn’t for you to judge.”

“But –”

“Jules, it isn’t for you to judge.”