Page 48 of Shallow

The murderous look on Tiny’s pudgy face slowly fades and he nods. “Well, that explains why you didn’t call the boss for a ride towork.”

What? Has he taken one too many kicks to the head in thering?

“Are you kidding me? I would’ve hitchhiked before I’d have called him. And no one tells him about this, do you understand?” I look each one of them in the eye until they nod in agreement. Eventually, everyone agrees to mythreats.

Everyone butFrankie.

“Frankie?” I ask, arching aneyebrow.

He’s quiet for a few moments before letting out a heavy sigh. “Fine. But if you’re gonna do stupid shit like what you did today, you need to learn how to defendyourself.”

“What are you going to do?” I say with a loud snort. “Teach me tofight?”

“Yep.” A one-word answer is all I get as he lifts the top rope of the ring and climbsinside.

“I’m kidding,Frankie.”

“I’m not. Take off those things on your feet and get your ass inhere.”

I can think of a million and one reasons why this is a bad idea—getting punched in the face topping thelist.

“No way. This isridiculous.”

“Oh, because you’re a girl, is that it? Are you too weak and helpless to throw a punch, Snowflake? Wouldn’t want to break a nail,huh?”

I don’t know if he’s being serious or trying to rile me up enough to kick his ass. It doesn’t matter anyway because his taunts flip my bitch switch, and I’m up and out of my chair, ready to prove apoint.

Pausing by the ring, I rip off the ankle strap on my wedge heels and belly roll under the bottom rope. Crawling to my feet, I stand right in front of Frankie with what I perceive to be a menacingglare.

Not so much toFrankie.

A grin breaks out across his face, and he laughs so hard he doubles over. “Girl, I don’t know if you meant to look hard, but you look constipated asfuck.”

“Shut up and do this, or I’mleaving.”

“Okay,” he says, tempering down his grin. “First thing you need to learn is what to do if someone comes at you from thefront.”

“Easy, knee him in thenuts.”

There’s a collective sound of air sucking through teeth and Frankie winces. “True, but in most cases, the dude will anticipate that and be on you before you have a chance.” Pressing against me, he grabs both of my wrists and jerks hard. “What are you gonnado?”

Without hesitating, I swing his left hand wide while ducking underneath, and spinning both of us around until he’s forced to let go. I’ll admit I’m a little smug, going so far as to do a little victory bounce and jab the air like a realboxer.

“That’s all you got?” I tease. “I thought you hadskills?”

I can tell Frankie is less than enthused with my display of confidence. “That was an easy one. They getharder.”

“Ohhhh, I’m scared,” I taunt, wiggling my fingers by mycheeks.

In a blur of shiny scalp and tattoos, Frankie’s behind me, hooking both of my arms at the base of my spine with his muscular forearm while jerking a handful of my hair back with the other. This time, I don’t react. The move is too familiar and too recent to form a coherentthought.

“What about now?” he sneers beside my ear. “Stillscared?”

“What the fuck isthis?”

Frankie immediately releases his hold and steps backward. “It’s not what it looks like,boss!”

I quickly turn around to see Cary standing three feet away from the ring, his fully inked arms crossed tightly over his chest. God, his arms are the kind that girls dream about. Artfully tattooed from his fingertips to his neck. Masterfully sculpted, possessing strength that could lift a woman up and kiss her senseless or hold her down and fuck her into acoma.