A loud scream emanated from Lexy’s mouth as someone grabbed her from behind in the darkness, while the howling sounds of coyotes echoed in the mountains.
Applying what she’d learned in her self-defense class, she held tight to the arm around her waist, pushed it away from her body, spun around still holding tight, and heard a snap. Yes, she thought, as her attacker screamed out in pain.
“Oh my God, I think you popped my arm out of its socket!”
“Jack? Is that you?” she hissed, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness.
“Yes,” he whined in pain, as he snapped his arm back into its shoulder socket.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I made my nightly drive by your house and saw you weren’t home yet. Then I happened to see your date walk out of the Stardust without you and I got worried. I know the guy who bartends there. He told me where your date lived, so I came here.”
“So your first thought wasn’t that I shacked up with some other guy from one of the casinos and left my date hanging?” Lexy was deliberately being sarcastic.
“Lex, I was a jerk, okay. I don’t think like that anymore.”
“So, you were genuinely worried about me?”
“Of course I was. But aside from that, what are you doing running around out here in the middle of the night?”
“There’s no time for explanation right now. C’mon, let’s get to your car.”