Topaz only responded with a jerky nod as she stood. They worked in silence for several minutes and were preparing to head back to the parking lot when a long whistle pierced the air. The couple turned in the direction of the sound and noticed three young men standing several feet away. Their grinning faces appeared more menacing than friendly. Topaz could feel her skin turn to gooseflesh beneath her jacket. She desperately wanted to look back at Alex, but she dared not move.
“Yo’ wallet, nigga,” one of the thugs ordered.
“Screw da wallet, send dat bitch,” the second thug decided.
“Oh, she comin’, no doubt,” the final accomplice announced. “No way dat fine piece walkin’ ’way,” he added, cupping his crotch against the zipper of his ridiculously baggy denims.
Topaz was seconds away from breaking into a run, but she never had a chance to act on her own. Alex caught her arm and jerked her behind him in the span of a split second.
The menacing threesome was on guard and visibly shaken by the agility of the seven-foot giant. Alex didn’t appear at all ruffled.
“Oh, we got a hero nigga out here, fellas,” one of the hoodlums teased in an obvious effort to mask his unease.
“He ain’t gone be no hero long,” a second cohort decided, raising the hem of his oversized football jersey to flash the butt of a shiny handgun.
Topaz’s gasp mingled with the young men’s laughter. The threesome strolled forward, never extracting their weaponry as though its mere appearance would be enough to assure their success. At last, one of the grinning young men decided to lunge at Alex.
Topaz’s amber eyes grew increasingly wide as she witnessed the man defending himself. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. Alex used the three thugs like punching bags—sending each one to the ground in howls of pain. He administered relentless high-powered kicks and punches to their backs, heads, and abdomens. The hoodlums’ cries of pain only seemed to spur him on.
“This what y’all do?” he bellowed, circling the writhing threesome like a stalking cat. “This what y’all do!” he repeated, the tip of his black leather boot connecting with someone’s neck. “Y’all hide out in parks and wait to attack, huh?”
“Nah, man! Please! Plea—”
“What!” Alex thundered, kneeling down to the man who had spoken. “Please? Please what? Whip yo ass some more?”
“No, man, man—”
“Gladly,” Alex breathed, straddling the blustering man’s quivering form. His massive hands curved into terrorizing fists as he punished the man’s face with countless stinging blows. The man’s nose appeared bloody and distorted—obviously broken, his lips were busted and his eyes were swelling shut. Alex did not quell his attack. Faintly, he thought he could hear his name and finally realized that it was Topaz screaming for him to stop.
Topaz watched Alex cease his punches as though a switch had been shut off inside him. He stood, staring down at the men who were barely moving and in need of medical attention. Their agony seemed to feed his anger and he landed a sadistic kick to the midsection of the man lying closest to his foot.
Topaz clutched her stomach as though she could feel the blow. She jumped when Alex took her by the arm and led her away from the scene.
SEVEN
“Do you need to stop by your house?”
Confused by the question, Topaz turned to face Alex across the gear console.
“I don’t want you staying there tonight—not by yourself,” he said, without looking her way.
Topaz had no desire to argue with his reasoning. “I have everything I need at the condo. It’s downtown off Tryon.”
Alex nodded, offering no further conversation as he reached for his cell phone.”
“Yes, I’d like to speak with someone about filing charges against three men who tried to rob me.”
Topaz froze, her light eyes widening as she listened to him relay his version of the evening’s events.
“That’s right, mmm-hmm ...” Alex said in response to the lieutenant’s questions. “If you send out a unit now, you should find them in the park. They’ll need an ambulance ... that’s right, I said an ambulance. They underestimated me,” he explained simply, then clicked off the phone and tossed it aside.
Topaz had to remind herself to breathe. She couldn’t remember when she’d ever felt so uneasy.
“There was no need to put you in a position of having to see those jackasses again,” he said, as though sensing her confusion. In the next instant, he was selecting a CD and shortly, the hard mixing styles of DJ Clue rose from the speakers.
Topaz relaxed against the headrest and closed her eyes. Her thoughts reeled back to what had happened. Alex ... what he had done for her tonight—putting himself in the line of fire without a second’s consideration for his own well-being. She would never be able to repay him for his heroism. Still, for all his gallantry, she knew it would never overshadow the image of the man she’d seen this night. Alex had appeared to her like a man possessed and she could not deny that it unsettled her more than she ever thought possible.
With the exception of the driving rhythms of the music vibrating in the speakers, the ride had been silent. Soon, Alex was pulling his truck beneath the huge canopied entrance to the condo Topaz kept near downtown Charlotte. He left the SUV’s smooth powerful engine idling when he pulled to a stop before the double glass doors.
Topaz’s hand paused on the door handle when she realized his intention was to leave. “Aren’t you coming up?” she whispered, sure that he was, in light of what they’d just been through.
Alex kept his gaze averted while holding the steering wheel in a death grip. “You should be all right—there’s security and your neighbors,” he surmised, the muscle twitching in his jaw as he peered around her and past the glass doors.
Despite her newfound unease regarding this man and his abilities, Topaz knew she wasn’t quite ready to be alone. “Please, Alex,” she whispered, her stare beckoning in its intensity.
“Wait here while I go park the car,” he said after a few moments of silence. “Damn,” he muttered, when she eased out of the passenger side. Of course, his intentions were to drop her off and leave as quickly as possible. He had counted on her not asking him to stay, knowing he wouldn’t refuse her if she did. What had occurred earlier tonight—his freakish loss of control—should have proven he had no business in Topaz Emerson’s life. Yet, here he was and, against all the cries of advice from his better judgment, here he wanted to remain.
Topaz took Alex’s arm when he met her in the lobby. Inside the elevator, she retained her grip around his massive biceps. Alex didn’t mind, but kept his hands hidden in the deep pockets of his tailored charcoal trousers. He knew it was his only hope if he was to avoid touching her. He expelled a relieved sigh when the chrome doors opened on the fourteenth floor.
“Here we are,” Topaz announced, when they stepped into the condo’s small foyer.
“Nice,” Alex complimented, taking note of the living room’s cozy, artistic aura and colorful pastel murals. Black-and-white portraits, depicting events from the slave trade through the civil rights movement, decorated the walls, while incense burners and candles produced delicious, spicy aromas throughout the home.
