"You look like a little thug."

Dressed in dark jeans, a white undershirt, denim jacket and a black beanie, I glared over at Jessica.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I kinda feel like a little thug."

"Maybe a little thug like you should watch where she's walkin' at night."

I was shoved from behind, and I twisted sideways to toss Rick a scathing look; still keeping Jessica in my line of sight.

"Maybe a little thug like me can handle herself when she's walking around at night...and maybe a little bitch like you outta watch where he's walkin'," I snarled, shoving Rick back a pace or two with my shoulder. "And maybe he outta keep his girl a little closer," I mumbled, stepping toward Jessica and snatching her arm, spinning her around and smoothly twisting my own arm around her neck, "So she don't get hurt."

Rick started forward, stretching out his arm as if to stop me. I flicked out my butterfly and held it to Jessica's temple, which froze him in his tracks.

"Ah, ah, ah..." I tisked at him and shook my head. "Not unless you want the sound of her screams to wake the whole damn neighborhood...and that'll just make her an unwilling human shield." I glanced down at Jessica a moment before fixing my gaze back on Rick, shrugging. "Guess your friends just don't get the picture here, Jess...bummer."

Jessica's eyes snapped wide as my knife tip began to press into her flesh, and she tried to twist out of my grasp. Rick watched her struggle for a second before his expression hardened. Jessica, not missing it, wrapped her arm around my waist and attempted to pull away from me.

"Rick!" Jessica gasped, continuing to struggle. Rick didn't move and his face didn't lighten.

"Okay, this has gone too far! Percy, put your back to a building, just please don't kill me! Rick's got three other guys comin from behind and to your le-"

"Shut the fuck up, Jessica!" Rick growled, moving forward to hit her. I flashed my knife in his face and moved Jessica around to my side, stepping toward the alley on my right at the same time. Dark, sure, but I knew this particular alley enough I was confident, even in an ambush. Lucky, since this was apparently shaping up to just such a scenario.

"I don't want to get killed, Rick, and if you're just gonna stand there and let her slit my throat, then fuck you! She's the one with a knife to my face! I'd rather help her out right now, dick!"

In the alley and eyes adjusted, I twisted Jessica around and slid my knife down her face, pressing the point into the base of her throat, my other hand twisted into the collar of her shirt.

"Shut your mouth, Jessica," I whispered. Rick hadn't followed us into the alley, but I could see him and two others standing in the street, heads together and muttering to themselves and trying to peer into the gloom.

"Where's the third guy, huh?" I grumbled as I scanned the alley. Jessica whimpered something I didn't catch and actually started to quietly cry. Satisfied that the alley was abandoned, I turned and slammed Jessica into the concrete wall of the alley by her neck. "Where?"

Jessica shook her head and opened her mouth, but no words came out. I rolled my eyes and yanked her away from the wall, forcing her to her knees beside some old, moldy boxes.

"Useless," I muttered as I pulled out my .45 and knelt beside Jessica. I held the gun in front of her and pulled her head close, whispering, "If you can't answer my questions, then how are you helping me?"

Shaking, tears running down her face, Jessica peered up at me. Her mouth worked furiously and her eyes darted from the gun to me to the mouth of the alley, back to me.

"Please, Percy...I'm trying to help, I swear to God, just give me a chance to think, clear my head...I..." She faltered, swallowed, began again. "I don't know where the third guys is. Rick said he was bring three, he did, and...and, and he said something about weapons, bats and..."

Fighting fair, then, as always....I sighed inwardly as I got to my feet and came to stand behind Jessica, putting my hand on her shoulder when she would have stood. She tried to twist around to look at me, but I dug my fingers into her shoulder and put the muzzle to the base of her skull.

"Close your eyes, Jessica, I said, and pulled the hammer back.

"Please, Percy, please don't kill me! I'll do anything you want me to!" Jessica flung her hands away from her and cringed downward, away from the gun, wrenching her shoulder from my grasp. I snatched her back by her hair and dropped to a knee to bring Jessica's face close to mine, planting the gun in her cheek in one swift motion, cursing softly.

"No Percy please don't kill me!" I stared at Jessica a moment before shaking my head and rising to once more plant the gun in the back of her neck, taking care to twist my hand painfully into her hair this time. She winced, and her head jerked to the side. I smiled in spite of myself as I carefully released the hammer, speaking over the soft click of a disarmed gun.

"Close your damn eyes, Jessica. nobody wants to die with their eyes open."

"No, please..." Jessica moaned, squeezing her eyes tightly a split second before I brought the handle down on the same spot I'd had the muzzle a moment ago. Jessica went limp and began to fall forward, and I caught her before she cracked her face on the blacktop. No reason for the kid to have a broken nose...she'd probably been coerced into this little stunt by some kind of threat on Rick's part.

Glancing at the street to make sure Rick and his buddies hadn't gone anywhere, I gently laid Jessica on the ground at the base of the alley wall. Covering her with a few flattened out boxes, I started off down the alley, planning on making good my little escape by shooting off a couple rounds and hopping through a window into one of the empty apartments at the end.

I'd reached the window I planned on using and had my gun leveled at the wall, when a soft click behind me caught my attention. Putting my gun in the air and the other hand above my head, I slowly bent and placed my gun on the ground. straightening, I slid it backwards with a nudge from my boot.

"Knives, I suppose?" I sighed, cocking my head to the side. The resulting click of my gun being cocked answered me.

"There's five on me...two on my right hip, one in the back left pocket, inside jacket left, right boot," I reeled off, slowly reaching with my hand to lift my jacket and reveal the six-and-a-half inch blade I wore at all times. Since I wasn't dead yet, I reached down to slowly un-hook the strap holding it and it's five-inch counterpart to my belt. Painfully slowly, I lifted it into the air and held it at arm's length. Still I went un-accosted. "Do you want me to drop it, or toss it..."

One barrel to my back and the other to the left side of my neck effectively silenced me. The whispered, "Shhh..." just stopped my heart and froze my blood.

Removing the gun from my back, my new-found chum snatched the knives from me, making my decision an easy one. I raised both of my hands higher as I subjected to being patted down like a criminal. Not that I was an innocent lamb, mind, but still...I'm not gonna lie to the kid with a gun to my neck.

As a hand slid down my side, into my jacket, into my pockets, taking out my knives, cigarettes, phone, Zippo, keys, and everything else I had, it dawned on me that here was the third guy Rick had recruited to help kill me. Jessica had played her part well, luring me into the alley. Safety nets, I reflected, worked better when they weren't so full of holes.

As the kid reached down to take my last weapon from my boot, I glanced at the street to check on Rick. Still trying to penetrate the darkness with his eyes, he'd sent one of his little pals to check things out. I watched as he found Jessica and began pulling her toward the street, frantically glancing around him. I couldn't help but let out a chuckle, although the fist to my ribs I received for my outburst killed my enthusiasm.

"Somethin' funny?"

I nodded and pointed with my left hand to the light at the opening of the alley, where Rick was cradling Jessica an yelling at the two standing over him.

"Not funny. Pathetic." The kid swung me around and chucked me into the bricks beside the very window I had been planning on slipping inside, gun still glued to my neck.

"Disarm everything and get inside. They'll brave their way down here sooner than you'd think."

I hesitated for a split second before reaching out to unhook the trip-wire I'd strung across the base of the window. The hesitation got the side of my head smacked into the wall, almost causing me to slip and set off my own trap. Knowing that I'd almost blown up about three or four city blocks, I snapped, "Watch it, you wanna die?"

This time not only did my face get slammed into the brick again, but a few smacks to my ribs and face got thrown in, out of pure charity, no doubt. Slightly dazed, I was pulled up by my collar and shoved toward the window again. The gun barrel resting just below my ear was added incentive to keep my mouth shut.

Once I'd gotten the window open and crawled inside, followed closely by the gun and the kid holding it, a moment passed while I stood, hands diligently suspended like a fuckin' scarecrow. I felt, more than heard, the guns being put away for the moment. I felt stupid standing with my arms stretched wide, and almost felt it safe to drop my hands. Until a sharp kick to the side of my right knee dropped me to the floor, that is.