As a modern man, relatively speaking, I’ve known many women who would have stood up and declared themselves the bitch he was looking for. However, I knew the instant he asked he could only be looking for one woman; Scarlett. Only she would be so willfully spiteful as to rattle the cage of a demon as powerful as Baalth.

“Why, you looking to get lucky?” It wasn’t like I felt the need to protect Scarlett, she could take care of herself-being an angel tended to help in that department-it just went against my nature to give in to bullies.

The blur of Marcus’s fist smashed into my forehead before I even saw it. There was a meaty thunk, which I heard rather than felt, as my head collided with the brick wall. A whirl of stars filled my vision as the pain caught up to me. I slid to the ground and dropped unceremoniously onto my ass. Immediately, I felt the knot growing in the center of my forehead, easily the size of a golf ball already. I imagined I looked like a retarded unicorn.

“Once more, where’s the bitch?”

I looked up at Marcus, or at least tried to; my eyes wouldn’t uncross. I rubbed them to quell their revolt and through the blur, I saw the bruiser pull his fist back again.

“All right, all right.” I chose the better part of valor. I may not like bullies, but I’m no martyr. You gotta choose your battles. This wasn’t one I was willing to take on. Besides, it’s not like I knew anything. “I don’t know where she is.”

It wasn’t like Scarlett and I were friends. Cousins? Yes, but friends was a stretch. In my book, she wasn’t a whole hell of a lot better than the big ape in front of me, but she served her purpose. Had I known where she was, I probably would have given her up. Not liking my answer, Marcus reared back to hit me again. Normally, I would have just shot him and saved us both the grief; me from having to take a beating and him from having to live with all that anger rattling around inside. I’d have been doing him a favor, Page 4 but I promised Abraham I’d play nice with Baalth. My shooting his goon would violate the old guy’s trust no matter how good it would feel. So, I tucked my chin and waited for the hammer to fall. Abraham would be so proud. Yay me.