Change of Heart

fight fair, J. He broke into your place in the middle of the night."
    This said more about me and Crane's crappy locks and how hard I had been sleeping than anything else. Crane had started dating a stripper, and of course she had a jealous ex-boyfriend who had stalked the two of them until he found out where Crane lived. The night he broke in, my roommate wasn't even home. I was the only one asleep in the dark on the couch, having collapsed there after a sixteen-hour shift.
    "That asshole could've killed you."
    "Yeah, well, live and learn."
    "But it wasn't even your lesson."
    There was that.
    "You know you looked like shit after he hit you."
    And I had. Split lip, black eye, and bruises on my throat from where he'd tried to choke me to death. Ben Eller had broken into the apartment a week ago simply to threaten his rival, but, entrenched in the moment, adrenaline had 31
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    overwhelmed him, and it went from scare tactic to attempted murder that fast. He had tried to strangle me.
    Dazed, only half awake, I had twisted free of Ben Eller's death grip and then shifted right there in the middle of the living room. My hand had been forced by circumstances; I was not allowed the choice of flight, there was only fight, and so I had instinctively brought out the biggest weapon in my arsenal. He had run screaming from the apartment, but I wasn't worried. What was he going to tell the police? When I was trying to choke this guy to death, he turned into one of those big cats from the Discovery Channel right there next to the coffee table. I was thinking that attempted murder made your eyewitness account less credible.
    "Jin?"
    "I know how I looked," I said quickly, rejoining the conversation. "I appreciate your concern."
    "You should've pressed charges."
    "Both Crane and I have a restraining order; it's all we need."
    He shrugged. "Hopefully, your stalker goes away."
    "He's not even my stalker," I chuckled, the irony not lost on me.
    "Oh, yeah, that's hilarious." He scowled at me, leaning closer. "But off the subject, I heard Ray offered you the GM
    spot."
    "He did."
    "So take it already. We're all behind ya."
    "Thanks."
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    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    He smiled at me, turning to get back to work. "Don't mention it."
    Even though he never said it, I knew Ramon liked that I checked on him daily to make sure he was fine and had everything he needed.
    Back on the floor, one of my servers, Linda Rice, nearly plowed into me.
    "There you are," she sighed. "J, the party on the patio is loud, and one of those guys is drunk. I'm so not going back out there."
    I nodded, turning to go.
    Before I could slip past her, she grabbed hold of my wrist.
    "I'm gonna go get one of the bouncers from the lounge to go with you, alright?"
    I smiled at her. "Don't worry about me, Linda, my love.
    I'm scrappy."
    "Yeah, that's great, but a couple of those guys look like Russian mobsters."
    "What did we say about too much Law & Order ?"
    "Yeah, you're so funny." She made a face like she'd bit into a lemon. "Just be careful. You're not as big and bad as you think you are."
    "No?" I smiled at her, and she giggled even though she was obviously flustered from her altercation outside. It was cute that she had to slap my ass before I got away from her.
    On the patio, there were three tables pushed together, and everyone was drinking. It was really loud, even for outside, and my second server, a nice boy named Owen from Tulsa, was getting yelled at. The women wanted champagne, and as 33
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    he was trying to ask which one they wanted, a huge man with massive shoulders suddenly stood and shoved Owen hard. He almost fell, but the guy grabbed the front of his sweater, shook him, and asked if he understood English. I moved fast and put myself between my server and the stranger.
    "That's it," I said flatly, pointing at the door. "You're done."
    "Oh, we're done," the guy said, poking me in my collarbone hard. "Is that right?"
    The second he touched me, I knew. He was a cat. He wasn't a semel, not a leader, but he was close, either the crook or the flail, sylvan or sheseru; I wasn't sure which.
    Either way, he was powerful and used to having people defer to him. I would have deferred as well, because I really didn't want anything to do with any cat, but Owen was there, and he was mine to protect.
    "Yeah," I said, my eyes locking on his. "You're done."
    He was drunk, or he would have never growled at me and