back and forth examining us both. The guy is only a few inches taller than me, but what he lacks in vertical stature he more than makes up for in width. Every inch of his body is packed with muscle.
“I’m Lennie,” Smith immediately answers.
“No,” I say, at the same time the big dude says the same thing. Then he adds, “What you are is in the way.”
Then he very calmly jabs a short little syringe into Smith’s upper arm.
“What the—” Smith reaches for the syringe, pulls it out, and then his eyes roll up into his head and he falls to the floor, bringing me down beside him.
“What the hell did you do that for?” I yell as I struggle to sit up.
Something darts out from behind the big guy and slams into me. My head hits the hardwood floor and I close my eyes, feeling dazed.
“Damn it, Jules,” Pirate Man says.
Jules doesn’t reply. She’s a bit busy, I guess, grabbing hold of my shirt with her two tiny fists and shaking me so hard my teeth rattle.
At last she stops and makes this deep growling noise. I stare at her, speechless. Jules looks like Tinkerbell gone bad, complete with a bleached pixie haircut and lips painted an otherworldly shade of blue.
Being the sensitive person that I am, I say the only thing possible in such a circumstance.
“Arrgghh. The pirates get ya, Tink?”
Her fist slams into my face, causing some tinkerbells to go off in my head. I open my eyes in time to see good old Pirate Man reaching in to pull her off.
Tinkerbell growls at him, while I sigh in relief. Until I realize that now I have to deal with Pirate Man—aw, hell, I’ll just call him Captain Hook to keep things consistent—instead.
But no, he turns away from me to argue with Tinkerbell again. “Come on, we talked about this. No roughing her up. Delivery only.”
She shrugs, crosses her arms over her chest, and turns away.
Captain Hook throws up his hands. “Fine. You want revenge? Go ahead and cut out her tongue. But you get to explain to Cash why she can’t say, ‘I love you, Daddy’ anymore.”
Tinkerbell spins back around and points at her eye, then shows four fingers and finally jerks her finger toward Captain Hook’s eye patch. He nods. “Eye for an eye. I get it. But Jules, you know this isn’t gonna change anything, right?”
She looks up at him with these big, pleading eyes.
By this point I’ve scrambled to a half-crouched position, which is as high as I can get with Smith still passed out on the floor. I swallow, realizing it’s up to me to keep the two of us safe. And apparently away from my father, who after all this time seems to be looking for me.
Balling my free hand into a fist, I wait until Tinkerbell stops in front of me and pulls out a syringe that looks exactly like the one that just took down Smith. She hesitates for a moment to remove a stubborn plastic cap from the tip of the dart, and I take my chance.
I throw myself at Tinkerbell and am pleasantly surprised when my fist connects with one of her delicate cheekbones.
Boom goes the dynamite. I have to admit there is a certain amount of satisfaction in watching her stumble sideways. Sadly, it’s short lived, as Tinkerbell quickly recovers, using the wall to bounce back toward me.
Damn. It’s gonna take more than one hit to bring her down, which is not great since my whole hand is still throbbing from the first one. Still, I curl my aching fingers into a fist once more, ready to hit her as many times as it takes, when Tinkerbell suddenly sags and hits the floor.
“Holy shit,” I say, shaking out my hand and fighting off tears of relief that I won’t have to hit her again. “I knocked her out.”
Captain Hook, who I’d stupidly forgotten about, laughs. Then he leans down and plucks the syringe from where it is stuck in Tinkerbell’s leg. Pinching it between two fingers, he holds it out to me. “Not exactly.”
I take the needle from him. “I’m guessing this is a one-use-only thing, or you wouldn’t have just handed it over.”
“That’s right,” he says as he folds his arms over his chest and stares at me. It’s not exactly a nice look, but at least he’s not advancing, because if Tinkerbell’s tiny face bruised my knuckles, his would definitely break them.
“Soo,” I say.