Page 11 of Rough

“Listen, mister.” Her lips pursed. The muscles in her jaw flared and her eyes went from those of an innocent nurse practitioner to that of a mad woman.

It looked like I’d hit a nerve.

She cocked her hip. “I let you slide the first time you called me a bitch, back at the wreck. I felt like I owed it to you. But if you call me a bitch again, I’ll drop your big ass where you stand.”

“You couldn’t fight your way out of a wet paper bag, bitch. I dare you to--”

An ear-piercing shriek stopped me mid-sentence. Her foot shot forward with lightning-fast speed and slammed into my shin. I stumbled a few steps backward as the pain shot through me like an electric shock. While I struggled to figure out what the fuck had happened, she let out another screech and kicked me right in the kneecap.

Half doubled over in pain, I realized she wasn’t a typical girl. It was obvious, and painfully so, that she knew how to fight.

She barked out another high-pitched warning, but her feet were too fast for me to react. The heel of her foot bashed into the inside of my left knee. My eyes shot wide. I reached for my knee, which was damaged from an old football injury, and started planning my verbal escape from her fast-footed torture.

That’s when her knee slammed into my nuts.

Bent over, and about to barf, I looked at her in sheer shock. Standing a few feet in front of me in some crazed karate stance, she returned an intense glare.

“Jesus…fuck…stop.” I leaned against the house and fought to catch my breath. “God damn, you little spider monkey. What the fuck’s wrong with you?”

She lowered her hands slightly and gave me a look. “You jerk. I told you not to call me that.” She shook her head. “Now I’m screwed. I really, really wanted this job. You’re screwed, too. Good luck getting that money now, dummy.”

I’m sure she thought otherwise, but she’d gained my respect the old-school way. There were only a couple of guys who could even claim to have got a good punch in on me, but that was when I was in my teens.

For a girl to do what she had done?

I may not have liked her, but I owed her respect.

She earned it.

“Just hold on.” I coughed and struggled to stand upright. My nuts were in my throat and my knee was throbbing. I glanced over my shoulder, made sure the door was closed, and then looked at her.

She irritated the fuck out of me for a bunch of reasons, the main one being that she’d taken the one thing from me that I loved wholeheartedly.

My bike.

But.

There was no doubt she had all the qualities to make sure my father didn’t run over her with his shitty attitude and demanding personality. Finding another nurse with her drive and spirit would be close to impossible.

“You can have the job under one condition,” I said.

“Oh my god. Really?”

“Yeah, really,” I said with a slight note of sarcasm. “But you can’t tell him what just happened.”

“I won’t say a word,” she said. “Not one.”

I extended my hand.

She grinned and shook it.

“His name’s Bradley,” I said.

“And yours?”

“Pee Bee.”

She picked up her purse. “Just like on your vest.”