Page 23 of Swerve (Boosted Hearts 1)

“Hey, baby,” a deep voice said behind me.

I spun around, and the guy that had put his arm around me was following me. Another guy behind him. “Where are you going, sweet thing?”

“Home.”

“Now why would Neco let his girl walk off all alone?”

“I’m not Neco’s girl.” I shook my head, as another wave of pain nearly overwhelmed me.

He grinned and I knew I’d made a mistake.

Neco may try to shelter me, but I lived on the same streets as him. I knew how things worked around here. I tried to walk away. “I need to go.”

“Not so fast, baby.”

They moved in on me before I could make a break, grabbing me roughly.

“You wanna have a little fun, girl?” the other guy said.

“No.” I shook my head. “I want you to let me the hell go.”

They laughed and started dragging me further from the party. I struggled, letting out a scream. One of them cursed then backhanded me. My mouth filled with blood and tears stung my eyes. I tried to fight but I couldn’t get away. They took me to the park across the street then shoved me to the ground. One guy held me down while the other climbed on top of me. The sound of fabric tearing filled the air, and another scream tore through my lips. The guy holding me down kneeled on one of my arms and covered my mouth again with his hand.

“Hurry up, man, I want my turn.”

They guy on top of me undid his jeans.

I was shaking my head frantically, fighting as hard as I could. They laughed at me and the guy on top of me gripped the front of my underwear . . .

Then he was gone . . . flying across the dry grass. The other guy holding me looked up and his eyes went round, then he let me go suddenly and I could hear him scrambling back behind me.

Then Neco was there. He had a gun in his hand and it was aimed at my attackers.

“Can you get up, Ruby?” he said to me, without looking down.

A sob of relief escaped. My body ached from being thrown down, I was shaking uncontrollably, and I had to spit the blood still filling my mouth to answer. “Yes.”

Neco pulled me into his side as soon as I got to my feet, doing his best to cover me since my dress was ripped right down the front.

“They hurt you?” he growled.

I knew what he meant. He wanted to know if they’d raped me. “No,” I whispered.

“Don’t fucking move, you hear me,” Neco growled to the two men now cowering on the ground.

I saw Hunter crossing the street toward us, and relief washed over me. Neco couldn’t take on these guys on his own.

“Nec, what’s going on? You left the party so fast . . .” Hunter’s voice trailed off when he took in the scene.

Neco spoke to him without taking his eyes off his targets. “Give her your shirt and hold this.”

Hunter dragged off his shirt and tugged it over my head then took the gun.

“Come on, then,” Neco barked out, motioning for the two assholes on the ground to get to their feet. “Show me how fucking tough you are.”

I’d seen fights, a lot of them. I’d even seen Neco fight before. But nothing like this.

He fought both of them until they stopped coming at him, until they stopped getting back up, then after giving the guy that ripped my dress one last brutal kick to the ribs, making him scream—he took me home.