Full Steam Ahead

With the addition of the boarding party, the original combatants could make a hasty retreat, which they did. Laurel’s knuckles throbbed from repeatedly hitting the guy’s head. But damn. What a night.
Phineas stumbled out of the tavern with a man still attached to his neck. He quickly dispatched him with a knee to the outer thigh that looked even more painful than it must have been. Growling a curse, he shoved the man away from him, leaped the couple of stairs to the street proper. Lady Augusta and Carmina followed with a couple of crewmembers. Laurel was about to rush to them when Phineas roughly yanked her back by the collar of her jacket.
“All of you, go to the ship,” he panted. His eyes could have melted metal, she was sure. The scowl on him. “I shall have a word with her.” He gave her a rough shake.
“Hey!” As much as she tried to pry his hand off her jacket, she couldn’t. So huffing and puffing were basically her only remaining recourses, which she used copiously.
While the group ran away and disappeared into the churning crowd—no one seemed to care a fight had just broken out in the tavern—Phineas kept his fist on her collar and “drove” her forward one block. He turned left into a narrow alley that reminded her of Chinatown in half a dozen cities. Smells assaulted her. Cooking oil, wet wool and spices. People became sparse then nonexistent. Above their heads, wind howled through the jagged rooftops and the many protrusions.
“What the hell are you doing?” She grabbed the handrail on a passing staircase. Phineas didn’t even slow down, despite the obstacle. She grimaced and had to let go when the skin of her palm began to burn. “Are you out of your mind? Let me go. Right now. I’m not joking, Phineas.”
Sky appeared between the rows of decrepit buildings ahead. A dead-end. Laurel gasped in fright when Phineas released her only a couple of feet from a wrought iron fence that was the only barrier between her and an endless sky. She stumbled to a halt. Fog, steam and a timid glow from a faraway streetlight illuminated a long, long drop into darkness.
Phineas brusquely turned her around. “Do you know what you have done?”
“I wasn’t trying to do anything. All I did was—”
“I do not want to hear your excuses. You are an irresponsible, imprudent little—”
“Whoa. Wait just one goddamn minute. Nobody gets away with calling me names, I don’t care if you’re hot as hell in those fancy velvet pants of yours.”
He opened his mouth, snapped it closed. Did that a couple of times. Rage made his eyes into twin dark suns. “I should toss you over that fence right now.”
“Yeah, well, you keep saying that, don’t you. But when you have your chance, you do nothing. Just like yesterday night.”
Uh-oh.
His hands gripping her lapels and hoisting her to him effectively interrupted her good mad. Those lips she’d loved at first sight quivered as he obviously tried not to bite her head off. Or toss her into the void, as he’d said he should do. Laurel couldn’t control the flush of heat rising to her cheeks.
“You’re some hot when you’re mad.” Laurel chuckled at the expression on his face. Shock. Disbelief. Outrage.
Help her god, she was still drunk.