Since he was a dwarf, he wasn’t quite five feet tall, but his shoulders were wider than a chair. His biceps looked like they’d been carved out of steel and attached to his barrel chest. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt, and a large tattoo showed on his left bicep—a lit stick of dynamite. A rune. One I’d seen somewhere before, although I couldn’t quite place it at the moment. Didn’t much matter. I could study it in further detail when he was dead.

“This isn’t your fight, lady,” he spat. “This is between the girl and me. Run along before I do you too.”

“Oh, but it is my fight,” I replied in a cold voice. I shifted the knife in my left hand, moving it into position.

“Why’s that?”

“Because you shot up my restaurant today.”

The dwarf ’s blue eyes narrowed. “So what if I did? What are you going to do about it?”

“For starters? This.”

I threw my knife at him. The dwarf didn’t flinch as the blade caught him in the chest and sank into his right pectoral. Damn. I’d missed his heart by at least an inch. Probably closer to two. I hadn’t been retired that long, but I hadn’t exactly been training every day either.

Looked like some rust had already gathered. Use it or lose it, Gin. Since I didn’t want to lose anything, since I knew I couldn’t afford to, I made a mental note to get in some throwing practice after this was over.

The dwarf stared at the knife in his chest. Then he smiled, pulled out the weapon, and let it clatter to the ground. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles again. The sound ricocheted like a gunshot off the concrete barriers around us. “I’m going to enjoy making you pay for that, bitch.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, palming the knife hidden up my right sleeve. “Let’s dance.”

The dwarf charged me. I waited until the last possible moment, then stepped to one side. My left foot lashed out, and I tripped him. But he was expecting it. The dwarf tucked into a ball, hit the ground, and rolled right back up. Bastard was quick. Bendy too.

“Nice.”

He smiled. “I take yoga.”

I smiled back. “Me too.”

He came at me again. And then we got down to business.

The dwarf swung his hard fists at me. I ducked his blows, not out of cowardice but practicality. No way I was letting his sledgehammer of a hand connect with my face. I’d had my nose and various other body parts broken plenty of times already. I had no desire to repeat that particular pain tonight.