Free In Safe Hands (The Safe House Series Book 1) by Leslie North Page A

cigarette.
    Guy didn’t belong here anymore than they did.
    Damian’s gut edged on a razor-sharp notion of distrust. For a moment, his belief in the woman he was protecting wavered. He crossed the street behind a cluster of delivery trucks and crouched behind a pallet stacked with lumber, close enough to eavesdrop. Alexa appeared too absorbed with the stranger to notice.
    "Sasha, listen to me…"
    "You betray your family?" The man spoke in a thick Russian accent, and the bruised-colored flesh around his eyes looked as if it had been stretched and remolded after a hundred fistfights. Though Alexa was taller, the man more than doubled her size in corded muscle and angry ink.
    Alexa stood her ground.
    "I'm not betraying anyone.” Her voice was pure venom. “This is between my father and me—"
    " Loh . Naïve girl. Your father is a father to us all!" Sasha spit at her. "He will hear what his daughter is doing while she makes plans to take down his empire."
    “You’re one to talk, aren’t you?” Hands on her hips, stance wide, Alexa showed no indication of backing down. “I’m sure he would likewise be interested to know the arms deals you’ve been making with Boryskov while he’s stuck behind bars.”
    Sasha's face sank into an ugly scowl. "You are coming with me, devka."
    "I'm not going anywhere with you." Alexa took a step back.
    The Russian seized her arm.
    Damian launched from his spot and cleared the distance to Alexa in less than three strides. By the time he reached her, she had spun her body to clear her wrist from Sasha’s grasp and dropped the guy to the dirt with one carefully-aimed knee and an elbow strike to the fleshy part of his neck.
    She glanced up at Damian. Her expression sagged in relief as if she hadn’t just done a complete Muay Thai breakdown on a Russian mobster.
    Damian’s body stalled into inactivity, his brain slow to click the badass piece into Alexa’s confounding jigsaw puzzle.
    “What?” she said, her tone mildly defensive. “You think my dad only read me fairytales?”
    No immediate response surfaced for Damian. The guy at his feet groaned. Damian crouched to pin the bastard to the pavement, easily besting him, exerting enough pressure on the guy’s wrist to turn his hand bone-white from loss of circulation. The Russian’s guttural curses threatened to empty his intestines onto the highway.
    "Friend of yours?" he inquired over his shoulder to Alexa.
    Damian wrestled the guy’s wrist another twenty degrees, exposing the crossbones of a faded Volkov gang tattoo.
    The choirboy grunted in pain, but complied with the brutal handling.
    “Hardly.” Alexa's icy eyes narrowed. "Not a friend to me, nor to anyone in my family."
    "That's too bad." Damian gave the stranger's wrist a sharp jerk. Internal bones crunched, heralding a clean break.
    Sasha howled in agony.
    Passersby crossing the street shot alarmed looks over their shoulders.
    “Check him for weapons,” said Damian.
    Alexa knelt beside him and fished her hands through the guy’s pockets and every place a holster would ride the body. “None.”
    “Here’s what’s going to happen, Drago . We’re going to let you recover your stinging nuts by tying you up over here behind the lumber yard.” Damian nodded to Alexa to grab a handful of plastic lumber ties as he hauled her attacker to his feet and half walked, half dragged him behind the nearest pallet. “Workers punch in for the day. You never saw us. Understand?”
    Sasha nodded his profuse agreement. Perspiration sprang out all over his contorting face. Damian waited for Alexa to tighten the ties before releasing the man’s wrists and gave him the parting gift of a few strong words, directly in his face.
    “You ever, ever come near Alexa again, your balls won’t just be stinging. I’ll make sure they’re blown off.”
    Damian held out his hand. Alexa took it, without hesitation. He pulled her briskly across the intersection and into the diner. They bypassed the