The laugh started small and built into something loud and genuine. The laugh of a man who has just heard something he finds truly funny. He turned to his group with his arms spread wide and two of them laughed along.
"Sixty seconds." He kept laughing when he turned back. "You walked in here alone. Kid, you really don't know who you're dealing with." He reached behind him and drew a knife. The blade flashed briefly under the street light. "I'm telling you one last time. Walk away before this becomes something you cannot come back from."
Alexander looked at him.
Then he glanced down at Elena.
She was still conscious, but her eyes were half-open and not focusing properly. She could tell something was happening around her but she couldn't make sense of what. She was past the point of being able to help herself.
He looked back at the leader.
"Time's up," he said.
And he took his hands out of his pockets.
It was not a long fight.
The leader came first. Fast and sure of himself. He was on the ground before he finished his second step. One arm bent the wrong way. His knife slipped from his hand and skidded quietly across the ground.
He looked up through the pain and saw his men standing there frozen watching him.
"Idiots." His voice came out sharp and furious. "Fools. You see me down here like this and you are just standing there. Will you kill him for me or not?"
The two who had been holding Elena let her go and rushed at him together.
They went down just as fast.
The third man ran.
Alexander let him go.
He walked over to the leader lying on the ground. The man was in real pain. Holding his arm. Breathing hard. Everything that had been easy and confident about him five minutes ago was completely gone.
Alexander stood over him and pressed one foot down on his leg.
The leader made a sharp sound.
Alexander looked down at him and said nothing.
The leader looked up at him through the pain. Then something shifted in his eyes. He still had one card left.
"You think you are tough." His voice was strained but he was pushing through it. "I have backup. One call and this alley will be full in two minutes." He looked up at Alexander with as much confidence as he could manage from the ground. "If you think you really have power then stay right there. Let me make the call. See what happens."
Alexander looked at him for a moment.
Then he stepped back.
"Make the call," he said simply.
The leader blinked. He had not expected that.
He reached into his pocket slowly and pulled out his phone. He made the call. Short. Two sentences. Location and come now. Then he put the phone back in his pocket and looked up at Alexander with something returning to his face.
"Two minutes," he said.
"I heard you," Alexander said.
Then he turned around and walked back toward Elena.
He crouched down in front of her. She was sitting against the front wheel of her car. Her head was tipped back slightly. Her jacket was still half off her shoulder. Her eyes found him when he got close and tried to focus on his face.
He looked at her carefully. She was not physically hurt. Scared underneath the alcohol even if the alcohol was covering most of it. Her breathing was unsteady but present.
"Are you hurt," he said.
Her mouth moved. Something came out that wasn't a full sentence.
"Can you stand?"
She tried. He could see the effort she was putting in. She pressed her hand against the car and tried to get her legs under her. They didn't cooperate. She settled back against the wheel looking frustrated. Like a woman who was not used to her body refusing to listen to her.
He reached out and lifted her carefully. One arm under her knees and one behind her back. Her head came to rest against his shoulder. Her body had run out of the strength to hold itself up.
He stood up and turned toward the street.
And then they were there.
Fourteen men. Already filling the entrance of the side street. Spread out across the width of it blocking every way out. They stopped when they saw him. They looked at the three men on the ground. Then they looked at Alexander standing there holding a woman against his chest with one arm.
Nobody moved for a moment.
Behind Alexander, the leader had gotten himself up off the ground. Still holding his damaged arm he walked forward and stopped behind Alexander and looked at his backup with visible relief.
Then he looked at Alexander's back.
"I told you." His voice had found its confidence again. "You should have walked away when you had the chance." He paused. "Now listen carefully. I am going to count to three. You are going to put that girl down. You are going to strip her naked right here in front of me. And then you are going to stand there and watch and not make a single sound. And after all that maybe I'll let you walk out of here alive." He took a breath. "One—"
Alexander turned around slowly.
He looked at the leader the way you look at someone who has said something so far from a real threat that you are not sure it deserves a response.
The leader opened his mouth to say two.
He never finished.
Alexander moved.
He did not put Elena down.
He kept her against his chest with one arm. What happened next was too fast for any eye to follow. One moment fourteen men were standing. The next moment they were all on the ground. Nobody had seen it happen. Not one of them.
Only Alexander was still standing. Elena is still against his chest. Completely calm. Like nothing had happened at all.
The leader stood alone.
He had not moved. He stood there looking at Alexander in the middle of the side street. Something in his body had made a decision his mind was still catching up to.
The leader's legs went slowly from under him.
He dropped to his knees.
His hands came up in front of him.
"What are you?" His voice was barely above a whisper. "You are not a normal person. You are—" He stopped. He couldn't find the word. "Please." Everything was gone now. The confidence. The smile. The ease. Just a man on his knees with nothing left. "Please. I don't want her anymore. I don't want to die. Spare me. Please."
Alexander looked down at him.
"I don't have time for people like you," he said quietly. "I thought your backup would at least give me a challenge."
He turned and walked out of the side street.
Elena was fully asleep by the time he reached the main road.
All the tension in her body had let go. Her breathing was slow and even against his shoulder. Her face was calm in a way it probably hadn't been since early that morning.
Alexander stood on the quiet street and looked down at her.
She looked like someone who had been carrying something very heavy all day and had finally put it down.
He didn't know her name.
He didn't know a single thing about her.
He started walking.
His apartment was three blocks away.
It was the only place he had to take her.
He knew exactly what she was going to think when she woke up. That he was one of them. The one who had carried her away from the others. The one who had brought her somewhere quiet to finish what they started.
There was no way she was going to believe him.