The Hero and the Hidden Royal - Renae Kaye Page 0,3

managed to get in some martial-arts style kicks.

He was like Aragorn taking on the five Nazgul and kicking their asses—whirling between the men who surrounded him, pushing them away and defending himself against the next.

There was a glint of something in the dim light, and with horror Derek saw that one man had pulled out a gun. He didn’t know what the fight was about, but three-to-one when one of the three had a gun? Someone was about to get murdered. The big man was wrestling with one guy and with an audible rip, the red T-shirt that was fisted in his opponent’s hand was torn. The loss of resistance threatened to topple the two and the big man snatched at his attacker and tore the mask from his face.

With horror something belatedly occurred to Derek—the three figures in dark clothing wore balaclavas. Were they robbers? Were they robbing the jewelry store? The café? The blacked-out window place?

The one with a gun stepped back and extended his arm into firing position and Derek knew he had to do something. But what? His gaze went to the stacks of crates he was cowering back against. Obviously from the restaurants and awaiting pickup from someone, they were precariously stacked and rose higher than Derek’s head. It didn’t take much to grab one of them and pull the stack over. The clatter and noise of bouncing crates was enough to distract the four in the alley. The gunman spun around and pointed the gun in Derek’s direction. Luckily he didn’t fire, because being invisible didn’t stop bullets. Nevertheless, an invisible Derek put his hands up as if to surrender. It would’ve been amusing if the situation weren’t so serious.

The big man spun toward the noise as well. His opponent didn’t hesitate. With a mighty shove, the big guy with the ripped red T-shirt was slammed into the wall. He went down.

“Let’s go,” someone yelled, and the three robbers were running… straight for Derek. The one with the gun stopped and picked up a moped lying on the ground, righting it and sliding onto the seat. Focused on the gun, Derek stepped back and tripped over a crate. He fell, sprawled in a puddle on the wet ground, right in the path of those fleeing. One man hit the invisible legs lying in his pathway and went sprawling, too. Derek rolled to the side and managed to avoid the second man who stopped, yanked his mate to his feet, and kept running. Then the roar of the engine alerted Derek to the fact that the moped was barreling down on him.

He rolled again, hitting the stack of crates still against the wall. They came down with an awful racket, hitting Derek painfully, but not so hard he was seriously injured. The moped swerved to dodge the falling crates and scraped up against the wall, leaving marks on the brickwork. Then the sound of the engine died away and the lane was quiet again. Derek slowly got to his feet and mentally took stock of his body. He didn’t feel like anything was bleeding or broken, but he wouldn’t be able to check until he was home. And had calmed down.

~~~~~~~~

Chapter Two

A GROAN CAME FROM THE alley and Derek remembered the big guy in the red shirt. Three guys in dark clothes with balaclavas and guns were up to no good, right? On that assumption, someone fighting with them would be the good guy? He wasn’t sure if his logic was correct, but he knew that morally he needed to check if the big guy with the ripped red T-shirt was unhurt.

He approached with trepidation. Thin air talking to you was usually a shock. The man was slowly picking himself off the ground, one hand over his face, blood dripping from between his fingers.

Derek swallowed and managed to croak out, “Are you okay?”

The man didn’t take his hand from his face, just groped around in the air with his left hand until he found the wall and leaned against it. “Ow. Dammit.”

“How bad is it?” Derek asked.

“Not too bad,” the man answered. “I managed to stop them taking the jewelry. That’s one thing at least. Bloody no-good thieves. They grabbed something though. Not sure what. A bag of something. Mr. Gravos is going to be so angry. They broke his security system. At least they didn’t get his stock.”

With astonishment, Derek realized the man was talking about foiling the robbery instead of being concerned about