Free Deathwatch by Dana Marton Page B

Murph took leave of his little brother and drove home at last.
    Snow began to fall, swirling in the wind, but not heavy enough yet to snarl traffic. People around here were used to driving in worse. Murph cut through town without any trouble, turned down his street. And saw Kate surrounded by dark shadows at the mouth of the alley.
    A switch flipped inside him, and he went into fight mode instantly, his senses sharpening. He didn’t think, just reacted. He pulled the car up, tires screeching even as Kate dropped the bags she’d been carrying and went for her purse.
    The gun , he thought, and burst from the car. His weapons were in the bag in the trunk. No time.  
    One of the boys had a knife out already.
    He ran. “Stop!” And jumped between them, his back to her, risking getting shot as he faced her attackers.
    They shrank back, eyes jittery—from drugs?—but didn’t scatter. The one in the front, the biggest one, glanced back at his buddies. He was the leader of the alley cat gang. The kid didn’t want to lose face. He looked familiar. Eduardo something.
    Murph knew his father, had picked him up before for shoving bottles under his shirt at the liquor store, and on other stupid offenses on half a dozen occasions.
    Murph nodded toward the kid’s knife. “ You need to put that away. Now.”  
    Instead, Eduardo charged at him, screaming obscenities.
    And just as Murph managed to grab his arm without letting the little turd nick him, the rest of the dimwits joined in, pulling their own weapons, a couple of nasty looking blades designed to give them the street cred they craved.
    Murph knocked Eduardo back into his buddies. He didn’t want to kill them. Okay, he did, when he’d first spotted them attacking Kate, but he didn’t want to put that kind of trauma on her. He was a cop and a soldier, he’d better be able to subdue three snot-nosed kids without lethal violence.
    He put on his scary face. “Scram!”
    But the idiots were still thinking about it.
    Then suddenly, Kate screamed like a ninja and rushed forward, around him, with her gun aimed.
    Smarter than Murph had given them credit for, the kids ran into the black alley and disappeared. For a moment, he was tempted to run after them, if only to get away from the ungodly sound she was making.
    Instead, he reached for her gun. He didn’t want her to accidentally squeeze the trigger and hit one of those boys who might still be loitering in the shadows of the alley. Killing another person wasn’t the easiest thing to live with, regardless of the circumstances.
    He took the weapon from her stiff fingers and flicked on the safety. “You scared them off.”
    Her hands began shaking.
    “ That’s good,” he told her. “You usually don’t start shaking until the fight is over. That’s something.”  
    While she stared at him pale-faced, he pulled his phone, called the station, caught Harper on the other end and told him what happened, which way the kids were heading, what they wore and what information he had on Eduardo. Then, after he hung up, he refocused on Kate.
    “ I could have shot you.” Her face paled another shade. “I had my finger on the trigger and you jumped in front of me.”  
    “ That was stupid,” he acknowledged. And, okay, he wasn’t stupid, so why had he done it?  
    Because he wanted to protect her not only from the kids, but from doing something she’d regret later.
    He bent to grab her bags then began walking toward his car that waited with the motor still going and the driver’s side door hanging open. “Come on. Get in.”
    She did, sliding into the passenger seat next to him a few seconds later. She stared straight ahead, toward the alley as if worried that her attackers might come back.  
    “ Where’s your car?”  
    “ At the shop.”  
    “ What’s wrong with it?”  
    “ Heater.”  
    “ Why didn’t you call me?”  
    She glanced at him. “ You're not my keeper. We barely know each other.” She wrapped