While “Kev” was behind her, Gap-too

While “Kev” was behind her, Gap-tooth was blocking her escape. Other than anyone who might be visiting the insurance agency beneath her apartment, there wasn’t much foot traffic going by.
“If you’ll excuse me,” she said impatiently.
Gravel crunched behind her and her lungs seized. Fuck.
“Looks about sixteen to me,” Kev said.
Gap-tooth’s gap was slowly displayed in a lascivious reptilian grin. “She sure does.”
His hand lifted and without thought, Scout reacted. Something tired and outraged snapped inside her. Her fist connected with his nose, and he folded like a cheap metal chair. Her knee slammed into his face, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground. Goddamn men!
The other man shouted and grabbed hold of her arms.
A scream high enough to curdle blood ripped from her lungs. “Don’t touch me! Fire! Fire!”
He shoved her against the brick wall, her hair catching on the rough, porous surface, and she shoved her knee into his crotch. He grunted and she nearly vomited when spit came out of his mouth. “You fucking cunt!”
His grip tightened and she clocked him right in the ear. He howled and grabbed his head, stepping back. She kicked him in the nuts as hard as she could, and he dropped to writhe beside his partner in crime.
“Hey! What’s going on?”
She turned and a man in a suit was blocking the exit of the alley. She’d kick his ass too!
Her chest heaved as she panted, adrenaline pumping wildly through her veins. Fists clenched in front of her chest, she pivoted, waiting for one of the men to rise. They both were on the ground moaning as she huffed and shook.
“I need a police officer at twenty-three South Knights Boulevard,” suit man said into some fancy cell phone.
Instinctively, at the mention of the cops, Scout’s gut urged her to run. Having grown up under the circumstances she had, the law didn’t usually take kindly to her type, but she’d done nothing wrong and she wasn’t that type anymore. She had papers and a home. She’d merely defended herself. It took everything she had not to run and hide.
She grabbed her bag off the ground and quickly left the alley.
“The cops are coming. You can’t leave.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong!” she snapped at Suit Man.
“You have no business being in this alley,” he snapped back, like an adult chastising a small child.
“I live here!”
He drew back. “Are you Evelyn?”
Finally, some clarity. She assumed his suit meant he worked in an office. Knowing her name meant he likely worked in the insurance office below her apartment. “Yes. I moved in yesterday. These two assholes were doing some business I inadvertently interrupted, and they wouldn’t let me leave.”
He paled. “Holy crap. Are you okay? Do you need to sit down? Ellen!”
A rotund woman in a purple suit came out the door to the office. “What? I’m on the phone, Elliot.”
He scowled at her. “This is Evelyn, the new tenant upstairs. She was just attacked. Take her inside and give her some water and a place to sit until the cops get here. I don’t want these two vagrants getting away.”
The woman’s mouth popped open like a trout. “Oh, dear! Come along, sweetie. Are you hurt? Do you need anything? Imagine, such a small girl like yourself being accosted. What’s happening to this world? I tell you . . .”
She continued to prattle on as she shuffled Scout into the small insurance office and shoved her into a seat. Scout gazed at the ceiling longingly. Home was so close. All she wanted to do was get there. From one of those blue coolers, the woman poured a glass of water and wrapped Scout’s fingers around the little plastic cup.
Lights flashed outside and she turned as a uniformed officer stepped out of his car. Through the glass, Scout could see Elliot talking to the policeman. Moments later the men were being pressed over the hood of the squad car and cuffed. Another police car arrived on the scene, no doubt after the officer discovered whatever was in the little baggie the gap-toothed man had been purchasing.
The insurance woman—Scout couldn’t remember her name—paced by the window, chattering like a small bird trapped in the large body of a woman. Scout had the distinct impression Elliot was her husband.
The door opened and the officer stepped in. He scanned the room, and when his gaze landed on her she drew back and shrunk in her chair. Cops had never been nice to her. Even as a child, she’d been taught not to trust them because, if caught, they had the power to take her from her mom.
“Evelyn?”
She nodded.
“I’m Officer Ludlow. How are you doing?” His voice and soft expression claimed sympathy, but Scout wasn’t falling for it.
She shrugged. “Okay.”
He grinned. He had very white teeth that were slightly crooked, but still made a nice smile. “You did quite a number on those guys out there. Did you take self-defense?”
Yes. The course was called Life and Basic Survival 101. Scout shook her head, and his expression sobered.
“I know you’re pretty shook up. I just need a statement from you, and then you can go.”
She didn’t like being put into this position. Authority made her nervous. She wanted Lucian, which was odd, being that he held more authority than anyone in Folsom. Or perhaps that was why.
“Hon, do you think you could tell me what happened?”
She wasn’t his honey, and the endearment did nothing to open her up. Her voice seemed lodged somewhere deep in the pit of her belly, and her trembling had morphed into a full-body tremor as her adrenaline ebbed.
Scout faced the woman in the office . . . Ellen, she thought. For some reason she was able to speak to the woman. Clearing her throat, she said, “Could you get someone on the phone for me?”
Ellen rushed to her desk. “Sure, sweetie.” Her chair creaked as she sat and her manicured fingers grasped the receiver. “What’s the number?”
“Um . . . I’m not sure. It’s . . .” He would be at work. Patras Industries. But her request wouldn’t budge past her lips.
You can do this! You do not need him!
Fear had her trembling. If she called him, he’d come. He’d handle everything and get her out of this mess as quickly as possible. Lucian would know exactly how to proceed. But she didn’t want to keep running to him whenever she needed help.
Eying the cop, she felt the same anxious tremors she’d always suffered when faced with an authority figure. You’re not a child anymore! They can’t take you away from your mom. She thought about Pearl, alone and afraid in rehab. She was doing her part, and this was Scout’s.
Swallowing back her request, she glanced at Ellen. “Never mind.”
“Are you sure, dear?”
No, but she nodded anyway. When the phone returned to the receiver, Scout faced the officer. “What do you need to know?”
“Why don’t you start with what you were doing in the alley?”
“I live upstairs.”
“There’s a small efficiency above our office,” Ellen confirmed. “The landlord notified us yesterday that Evelyn was the new tenant.”
The officer jotted down some notes in a little tablet and faced Scout again. Could you explain what happened from the time you arrived?”
She was fighting with everything she had not to fall apart. Her thoughts were jumbled and her hands wouldn’t quit shaking. Swallowing, she kept her focus on the man’s badge and explained what had taken place. She told him they’d been making a drug deal, how they tried to corner her, how they grabbed her, and how she just reacted.
“You did a fine job of defending yourself.”
She blinked at the admiration, but his praise meant nothing. What was she supposed to do? Let them attack her without fighting back?
Once he took down her information, he thanked her and left. She sat for a few moments just staring at the empty space where the squad car had been.
“Would you like me to walk you to your door, Evelyn?”
Reminded of her surroundings, she blinked up at the man in the suit. What was his name? “No, thank you. I should go.”
As she stood, her legs wobbled. She scooped up her belongings and thanked the insurance couple again. Her eyes combed every shadow as she made her way down the alley and quickly unlocked her door. Once she made it inside, she locked everything up tight.
Too stunned to cry, she climbed the stairs, stripped off her clothes and drew a bath. She did it, and she did it on her own.