A large beast of a man sat in the chair next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Looky what I found. A girl. In our bar. From the work crew.” He squeezed me against his sweaty body. “Whose dick did you suck to get in here?”

Calm. I had to stay calm. Even if I wanted to rip the man’s arm from his socket.

My skin buzzed with fury.

Six in. Three out. Three in. Six out. “Please, move your arm.”

“Don’t be that way.” He squeezed me tighter. “Come on. Play nice.”

Carl’s gaze locked with mine and he leaned back in his chair. He wasn’t going to do anything, but he was watching how I would handle this.

I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. If I somehow managed to defuse the situation maybe that would make me look like I was good in a crisis, which would help if anything went wrong while I was on a run.

Or maybe he was trying to see how tough I was. He could be wondering to himself if I could take this asshole down.

I could, and I wanted to, but something told me that might not be the best tactic.

“I’m going to ask you one more time. Please, let me go. I don’t want any trouble.”

The asshole stank of booze as he leaned against me, running his nose up my cheek before licking my face. “Come on, honey. Let’s go somewhere quiet.”

Okay. I was done with this asshole. He wasn’t going to let me go no matter how nicely I asked, which meant I was going to have to use force.

I didn’t take my eyes off Carl as I spoke. “I have to take care of this, but please don’t hold it against me.”

Carl’s eyes widened a little bit, and he gave me a small nod.

“Thanks. I appreciate your understanding.”

I slammed my elbow into the asshole’s stomach. His grip loosened as he tried to get some air in. I stood up, grabbed his head, and slammed it into the table. I gave him a little nudge, and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

I brushed off my hands on my pants and started to sit again. “I really need—”

“What the fuck.” Some guy was crouched over Asshole’s unconscious body. He stood up, staring at me, and stepped toward me.

I ignored him. “I really need this job. The thing is—”

Asshole’s BFF grabbed my arm, pulling me out of my chair and into his body.

I kept my eyes on Carl. “Excuse me. I’ll just be one more second.”

I darted out of the way just before the BFF punched me in the face. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

He snarled and came at me again.