Page 25 of Her Devoted HERO

Reverend Langley was in his mid-sixties. If he tried to stop them, he would be pummeled.

Dex didn’t hesitate.

The man they were beating was as big as Hunter, but he was being held by two men, while the third was using him as a punching bag. As the guy brought back his fist to deliver another blow, Dex grabbed his arm, twisted him around and delivered a hit to his face. He fell to the floor like a sack of wet cement. Dex felt someone coming up behind him, and he looked over his shoulder as he jammed his elbow into the man’s gut. The man grunted but reached for Dex anyway.

In a flash, Dex had the man flipped onto his back, and staring at the ceiling. He heard sirens as he turned toward the third man, and saw who fighting with the victim. Any other day of the year, the huge Hispanic man would have wiped the floor with the scruffy blond guy, but he was seriously injured. He waded in, grabbing the blonde by the neck and flung him into the wall.

“Watch out!” It was Kenna’s voice. She was close. Too damned close.

Something metal hit Dex on his side. A chair. He saw a fourth guy holding a metal chair over his head. Easy enough to deflect, except for the fact that he saw Kenna was reaching for the fucking thing.

“Kenna, get back!”

The man turned and swung the chair as he went. Dex barely pulled it out of his arms in time to stop him from hitting her. As it was, he lost his balance and fell into her, and took her to the floor. Dex pulled him off Kenna by his arm and hair.

“Oww!” the man cried. Dex hit him in the mouth, shutting him up.

“Police! Everybody freeze!”

Dex dropped the man and knelt beside Kenna who was lifting herself up on her elbows.

“Are you all right?” She shook her head. He couldn’t tell if it was an answer, or she was trying to clear her head.

In the background, he heard Reverend Langley talking to the cops, but all his attention was focused on Kenna. He cupped her head gently in his hands and touched the back of her scalp with his fingertips. She winced. She’d gone down hard.

She struggled to get up.

“Stay down.”

“No, I need to get up.”

“No, you need to stay where you are until the EMTs can come and check you out. You hit your head pretty hard, and probably have a concussion.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “Are you out of your mind?”

That’s when it hit him. “Are you out of yours?” he asked fiercely. “I told you to stay in the jeep. What were you doing coming back in here? You could have been killed.”

She pushed at his hands. “Again. I reiterate. Are you out of your mind? There were no weapons. It was just a fight.”

He looked at the small woman who was struggling against him to get up. His mind went back to that moment when the man was aiming the chair at her.

“That chair could have hit you in the head and killed you!” he roared. “When I tell you to stay in the jeep, you stay in the fucking jeep.”

“Cool your jets big guy,” Kenna said as she once again tried to sit up. “I’m the mother of a teenage boy, I know how to take care of myself and break up a fight.”

A police officer crouched down beside them. “Is she all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“She needs to be checked out by an EMT,” Dex answered.

“We have medics on the way. They should be coming any second,” the cop answered.

“You’re making too big of a deal of this,” Kenna huffed.

The officer looked at Dex. “What happened?”

Dex gave him a quick version of the events.