“Stuff it,” the second man said. “You know where she lives. You won’t catch anythin’ from her.”
Candace continued to struggle, certain now of who had sent these men after her.
“Well, I’m gonna cuff the bitch anyway,” the first man said. “We ain’t gonna be able to hang onto ’er iffen we don’t!”
Candace tried to twist away, but she felt the cold steel snap shut around one wrist as her arms were yanked brutally hard behind her back. It felt like he was pulling her arms out of their sockets, and she knew she’d never be free, if he got the other handcuff on her.
She screamed.
“Shut up, bitch!” the second man said, jamming his gloved hand over her mouth.
Candace was crying now, struggling futilely as the second cuff snapped around her other wrist. She just managed to turn her head to the side and let out another blood-curdling scream.
“The hell with this!” one of them said, and he slammed his fist into her belly, knocking the wind completely out of her.
She went down, whimpering, and only managed a squeak when they yanked her up painfully by the arms.
The rest was all a blur, but she thought she heard a roar, and suddenly one of the men flew away from her. He screamed and landed with a sickening thud against the far side of the alley. The second man pushed her away from him and must have drawn a gun, because a shot rang out, but a third, huge shadow tackled the man before he could get off another shot, and he screamed as he went down. Candace scrambled away, using her legs to clumsily put some distance between herself and the dark moving shadows. Forced to stop when she came up against the wall, she squinted into the dim light, trying to see what was going on. Daylight was just beginning to lighten the scene on this heavily overcast morning, but she could see enough to know the first two men who had attacked her were down, and there was another, bigger, darker shadow standing over them. She heard a low growl then the shadow seemed to change in form. What she might have sworn was something like a bear was suddenly a man. When he turned, he towered over her, and she shrank back in terror.
“I’m not gonna hurt you,” a soft, very deep voice said, as the shadow moved toward her.
She stared at him, though she still couldn’t see him clearly in the dawning light.
“Come on, now, darlin’,” he said, holding out his big hand. “I’ve gotta get you out’a here, before somebody else comes along or these thugs wake up.”
Either scenario made her willing, but she looked at that big, gloved hand and swallowed hard.
“I…I can’t,” she said. “Th…they put ha…handcuffs on m…me.”
He cursed, sounding furious, but when he turned back to the nearest man on the ground, she was unexpectedly certain his fury was not directed at her.
He searched the man’s pockets and finally found what he wanted. In another minute, he was leaning over her and unlocking the handcuffs. When they were free, he threw them toward the back of the alley with an angry snap of his wrist.
“Let’s go.”
She tried to stand—what else could she do?—but she staggered, and it took his firm grip on her shoulders to pull her to her feet.
“Easy, now.” he said, his voice a smooth Tennessee drawl. She shuddered once, hard, and he seemed to really look at her for the first time.
“Shoot, you don’t even have a coat on.”
He shed his own and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was huge, big enough on her that even as he closed it at the front, she managed to slip her arms into the sleeves. They came down to her knees, and he rolled them up for her, one at a time. Inside the coat was warm and toasty. It smelled good, too, clean with a scent of something she didn’t recognize but identified as pleasant.
“That’ll have to do for now,” he said.
“Thank you.”
She looked up to meet his eyes, and even in the early morning light, she saw his were a deep, golden color, unlike any she had ever seen before. They warmed noticeably when he smiled, though, and she felt her first flicker of hope.
“You’re surely welcome,” he said, “but we gotta get goin’.”
He pulled a stocking cap out of the coat’s pocket and pulled it down over her head until her ears were protected from the cold, then took her arm in his.
Candace glanced back at the men on the ground. She thought she saw something shiny and black on the nearest man’s face.
“Don’t look, darlin’,” he said, turning her toward the front of the alley. “That’s nothin’ they didn’t deserve and more for what they were doin’ to you.”
She gripped his arm firmly, trying to pull him around to face her.
“Did they hurt you?” she asked.
He looked surprised. “No. Don’t worry about me.”
“But I heard a shot!”