“Crap.” I started to follow him out to the front of the restaurant when Brysen suddenly stopped me.

“Are you okay?”

“No. I have to go, Bax will kill him.”

“Let him. That jerk was going to hit you.”

I flinched. “I know.” But Bax didn’t need more blood on his hands because of me. I didn’t want to be that to him.

“Dovie,” Brysen called out to me as I rushed to the door. “Forget what I said. You deserve a guy who makes the rest of the world treat you right.”

There were raised voices, and it didn’t surprise me that not one of them was Bax’s. I had seen him in action. He didn’t waste time talking when he had a point to make. The guy who had raised his hand to me was unconscious, facedown on the asphalt of the parking lot. Bax had one of the drunken buddies on the ground next to him with the sole of his black boot on the back of the guy’s neck. The look of fury on his face was enough to keep the rest of the crew a safe distance away.

“Bax, let him go. This isn’t necessary.”

His black gaze shot to me and I shivered. I hated it when all I could see in it was myself looking back.

“He was going to fucking hit you. He’s lucky I don’t break his neck.”

One of the guys in the crowd held up his hands in surrender. “Dude, we know who you are, we didn’t know she was your chick. It was an honest mistake.”

That was the wrong thing to say because Bax removed his foot off the other guy and stalked toward the guy who’d just spoken. He made a really pathetic squeaking noise and tried to back up, but Bax snagged him around the collar and hauled him to his tippy toes while he got right in his face.

“So if she wasn’t mine it’s okay in your world to raise your hand to a woman? Why? Because they’re too small and scared to fight back?” He shook the guy so hard I heard his teeth snap together from where I was standing. “What about me? Why don’t you take me on, asshole?”

The guy looked like he was going to cry. “I saw you break that guy’s arm after he stabbed you at Nassir’s. You’re crazy!”

“Damn straight, and I wasn’t even pissed then like I am now.” He let go of the guy and sent him flying across the parking lot with a hand on the center of his chest. “When your buddy wakes up, remind him I have his wallet, so if he wants to get shit-faced and act like a douche anywhere else, I can find him again, and it isn’t going to end well.”

The remaining guys who were still mobile hobbled their injured and unconscious friend into the flatbed of a pickup and raced away from the restaurant.

“Bax.” He held up his hand and pulled his phone out before I could ask him what he was doing here, though I had to admit his timing was perfect. He might have called Race an altruistic bastard when we first met, but apparently he had some strong threads of chivalry running through the dark fabric that made him who he was.

“Titus, it’s Bax. Tell your drunk patrol to pull over a red pickup on the south side.” He rattled off the license-plate number without telling his brother thank you or good-bye. He turned those dark eyes on me and I felt like they were pulling me in. I sighed and walked over to wrap my arms around his waist.

“Did you have to knock the one guy out?”

“He had a glass jaw and he’s lucky that’s all I did. You don’t hit girls. In fact, if Benny’s nose wasn’t already broken, I would shatter it in retaliation for him knocking you around.”

“Not that I’m not grateful, but what are you doing here? I told you I was staying at Brysen’s after work tonight.”

“I have to run to Spanky’s and I figured I would let you know where I was going and what I was up to.”

A chill ran along my skin when he told me he was going back to the strip club.

“Why are you going there?” If he told me it was to talk to Honor again, I might hit him. I knew he wasn’t a stranger to the District or the girls there, but I didn’t have to like it. In fact, I was pretty sure in that very moment, I hated it.

“There’s a card game tonight and I want to see if a familiar face is there. I might have a line on the rich guy Race was asking about.”

There was more to it, I could tell.

“Can I go with you?” I fully expected for him to tell me no, to tell me I would just be in the way, but he cocked his head to the side and considered me silently for a long minute before answering.

“You gonna go home with me after?”

I shivered and ran my hands over my arms. “Yes.”

“How much longer until you get off? I think I might want to have a drink at the bar and chat with the dick who was just going to let that drunk idiot hit you in the face.”

“I’m almost done. I just have to finish a few more tables. Leave Ramon alone. I like this job. Normally it’s easy and I make good money. Ramon’s job is to look pretty, not play bouncer.”

He gave me a flat look and I rolled my eyes. Even though it was rewarding behavior that I didn’t really approve of, I used his arm as leverage to reach his mouth and planted a big ol’ sloppy kiss on his mouth. He tasted like cigarette smoke and the worst kind of enticement.

“Thank you.” It came out as a husky whisper.

“Life knocks you around enough as it is, Copper-Top. Dickheads like that don’t get to add to it. At least not while you’re on my radar.”

He followed me back into the restaurant and I looked at him over my shoulder.

“How long do you think that’s going to be?”

He cocked a dark eyebrow at me and the star next to his eye fluttered as his jaw clenched. “What?”

“Me on your radar? How long do you think that might last?”

We shared a long look that was only interrupted by Brysen telling me she had cashed out my last table for me, so all I had to do was clean the section and do my side work. I looked back at Bax and he was watching me in that way he had that made me feel like he was seeing right down into the very heart of what made me, me.

“So far you’ve been on there longer than any other chick I’ve ever met. Hurry up, I don’t want to miss who I’m after.”

I blinked at him like an owl. “You gonna tell me who you’re hunting?”

“No.” With that, he turned on his heel, his face a mask of displeasure as he walked up to the bar. He was probably going to scare Ramon into next week, but I couldn’t say a small part of me didn’t appreciate that he was doing his intimidation and threatening thing on my behalf.

Man, I wished having a crush on him was easier than it was proving to be. His dual personalities were hard to keep up with, and the more time I spent with him, the more reasons I found to appreciate all the badass, criminal tendencies that made up Bax as I did the softer, more tragic parts of him that made up Shane. The last thing I needed or wanted was to fall under the spell of both of them.

I blazed through the rest of the stuff I had to do, fueled partially by the desire to find out what Bax had up his sleeve, but mostly out of fear that he would pull Ramon across the bar and I would end up having to find another job. Brysen kept giving me these knowing looks that made me blush. There was no arguing he was hot, but having a guy go all gladiator for you was something else. I wasn’t used to being protected, even with Race I was still used to taking care of myself. Having Bax act like a buffer between me and all the bad things in the world was a potent aphrodisiac and zero help in making me keep my head on the level where he was concerned.

I pulled my hair out of the tie that held it and shook out the curls. I took off the baggy shirt I wore for my shift so I was left in one of the fitted T-shirts Bax had bought for me. I didn’t have any desire to walk back into Spanky’s looking like someone’s frumpy, put-upon girlfriend. They were simple fixes, but they must have been effective because when those devil eyes rolled over me from head to toe, there was no missing the spark of heat that flared to life in their coal-colored depths.