“Okay,” she said. The card key was already in her hand, attached to her key ring.
Something slammed into my back and I went careening forward. Samantha stumbled, almost tripping, but caught herself.
“Get the fuck back here, bitch!” Crew Cut shouted. “We’re not finished!”
The four of us turned to face him. Crew Cut stood proudly, cracking the knuckles of his fists, his four buddies right behind him.
“Open those doors, Kamiko,” I hissed. “Get inside right now.”
“Stop it!” Samantha shouted at Crew Cut.
“Too late for that, bitch.”
Kamiko had one of the doors open. “Come on, Romeo!”
Romeo was overwhelmed by what was happening. Kamiko reached out and pulled Romeo into the building.
“Get inside,” I said to Samantha.
“Not without you!” she pleaded.
“Now!” I backed toward the door.
Samantha stepped inside. “Come on, Christos!”
Crew Cut was advancing toward me.
Samantha reached out for my arm.
I pushed the door to Paiute Hall shut, forcing her inside. “Don’t open that door,” I growled.
Crew Cut rushed at me. I ducked and pivoted under his right arm and launched a looping left into his liver. He folded like a sack of potatoes and banged his shoulder against the doors of Paiute Hall with a rattle.
Four guys came at me like charging rhinos. I danced to the side and slammed my fist into one guy’s left temple. Lights out. He was on the ground.
But Crew Cut was getting up, and the three other guys pounded me with a hailstorm of fists. One caught me in the chest, another in the jaw, another in my left eye. My own fists were flying and I whipped an elbow into the bearded guy’s nose. Blood gushed from his face. The other two guys tried to wrestle me down but I snaked out of their hands and ran like hell for my bike in the parking lot.
I heard heavy footsteps pounding behind me, but there was no way they were keeping up. I had my bike key out when I made it to my Ducati and hopped on. I started the bike and heeled the kickstand up while revving the throttle. I had the bike turned around as the guys rounded into the parking lot and I was off like a rocket.
In my rearview, I saw them sprinting after me, but they gave up after ten yards. I flew out of the far end of the parking lot, turned onto Adams College Drive, which led out to North Torrey Pines, and cranked the throttle.
What the fuck was that?
My mind raced over the situation. I wasn’t too worried about those guys following me now that I was on my bike. One, they couldn’t catch me unless they had sport bikes, and two, with three of them banged up pretty good, I doubted they’d be in hot pursuit.
I wanted to call Samantha and tell her I was okay, but her phone was gone. I didn’t have Kamiko or Romeo’s numbers, so I couldn’t call them. And I didn’t want to head back to campus too soon, because I wanted to wait until those guys were long gone, and because someone would probably have called campus security by now.
The one thing that couldn’t wait was putting my helmet on. A quarter mile from campus, I rolled to a stop on the side of the road and grabbed my helmet from where it was strapped to the side of my bike. No need getting pulled over for riding without a helmet on top of everything else.
After my helmet was on, I cruised toward La Jolla Village. I ended up at the La Jolla Village Square mall and parked outside the Ralph’s grocery store. I swung my leg over the seat and took my helmet off. I was sweating good from the exertion of the fighting and the running. My helmet liner was damp with perspiration. I strolled inside Ralph’s. Pausing at the liquor aisle, I considered grabbing a bottle of bourbon, but I had to ride my bike home. So I snagged a huge bottle of water off the shelf in the beverage aisle and went up front to pay for it.
I set the water on the conveyor at the cash register. The clerk, a young woman with a sleepy expression and too much eye makeup, looked up at me and grimaced.
That wasn’t the reaction I was used to with the ladies.
“What happened to your face?” she asked.
I reached a hand up and touched my cheek. Now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off, I felt the throb on my cheek bone where one of the rugby guys had clocked me. He’d hit me harder than I’d realized. A dozen lame excuses raced through my brain. Ran into a door. Tripped on the sidewalk. Fell down the stairs. Stepped in front of a forklift. Wrestled a bear. Went twelve rounds with an elephant. Etc., etc., etc.
I winked at her, “Got in a fight with a drunken rugby team.” Sometimes the truth sounded too ridiculous to believe. That was my plan.
She arched an eyebrow, “All by yourself?”
“Yeah.”
She frowned skeptically, “Really?”
I chuckled. What was it about my physical appearance (muscles, tats, banged up face) that said, “this guy doesn’t get in fights”? It always amused me when people didn’t believe the truth.
“Really,” I said.
She flashed a big smile, and her sleepy expression gave way to a pretty set of teeth. She had a rocking little body and was actually cute when she wasn’t halfway to slumberland. “Do you need someone to put ice on it? My shift is over in half an hour.”
I hid my grin. Much better. This was the sort of treatment I’d come to expect from the ladies.
I saw her eyeing the tattoos on my arms, and the script of my Fearless tattoo which peaked out of the notch in my V-neck T-shirt. I grinned back. “I’m good. Just the water.” I flashed her a dimpled grin.
“You sure?” Her eyes narrowed into bedroom territory, but not the sleepy kind.
Yeah, too much eye makeup. Not that I cared. I had a girlfriend who was going to move in with me unless her parents put her under house arrest. “Totally sure.”
The cashier harrumphed in a cute way, kind of like a sleepy kitten, then rang up my water bottle.
I paid cash and walked out to my bike, guzzling down the entire bottle before climbing on my Ducati and riding back to SDU.
SAMANTHA
Romeo called campus security on his phone while we watched in horror through the glass doors as Christos fought with the jerks of Team Testosterone outside of Paiute Hall.
“There’s five guys with SDU rugby shirts beating up my friend!” Romeo shouted into his phone. “What? One guy! Yes, he’s fighting them all by himself! Please send someone right now! They’re in front of Paiute Hall!”
“Ohmygod!” Kamiko screamed. “They’re hitting him!”
I was freaking out because Christos was in danger from the guys outside, but possibly worse danger if campus security showed up. SDU had actual police on campus. They were the same ones who’d arrested Christos the day we’d met.
I had to do something to stop this.
I was about to push the doors open when Crew Cut fell into them, blocking them shut.
The next thing I knew, two more guys were out of commission and Christos was sprinting out of sight with the last two guys chasing after. Everything had happened so fast, there was no time to do anything.
Crew Cut and his buddy with blood running down his face were trying to lift up their friend who had been knocked out.
“Pick him up,” Crew Cut grunted.
Bloody Face draped one of the unconscious guys arms around his neck.
The two of them hoisted their friend and started walking across the lawn in front of Paiute.
“They’re going to get away before security gets here!” Kamiko growled. “They’ll get away with it! That’s not right!” Kamiko pushed the panic bar on the door with a loud thunk and strutted outside.
“Kamiko!” I called after her. “Don’t! Stay inside!”