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“Jimmy!” Madison shrieked, leaping out of her seat while still trying to brush the tears from her eyes.

Roman spared her a look as he nursed his hand. Admittedly, he’d never been very good at normal fighting. He’d been full of fiery confidence a second ago, but now that he was thinking about it more clearly, he might be in trouble if Darius decided to get back up.

Which he did. And then a few apparent buddies emerged from the crowd to join him.

“Gentlemen,” Roman tried, “I’m sure you’re all very reasonable. Your friend here had it coming. Just look at the young lady there. He was clearly upsetting her.”

None of them so much as glanced at Miss Reach. “How dare you lay a hand on one of us, peasant,” someone said.

Roman scratched his brow. “Did you just call me a peasant? I’m sorry, did we travel five hundred years into the past, or are you just an idiot?”

Surprisingly, that didn’t seem to placate their anger.

And Roman sighed, knowing what was about to happen. In order to maintain his cover, he was gonna have to get his ass beat, at least until security got here. Assuming they would even bother to come help him.

‘Agh, I’m so bored,’ came Voreese’s unhelpful interruption. ‘This plan of yours is really unfair, you know. At least you get to enjoy all that ritzy, high society bullshit. Meanwhile, I’m stuck here with someone who can’t even see me.’

Roman watched them close in around him. ‘Well, it’s not the most enjoyable party I’ve ever been to.’

‘Oh, why? Do they not have those crab shits you like so much?’

He avoided the first punch, as well as the second, but the third caught him right on the jaw and sent him stumbling into the grip of a much larger man. ‘They’re not crab shits.’

‘Man, I wonder what Hector and Garovel are doing. Whatever it is, I bet it’s way better than this monotonous fuckery.’

‘Voreese. Gonna need you to shut up right now.’