The Scars That Define Us (The Devil's Dust #2)(54)

“I’ll be here later,” he reminds me, revving the bike motor and taking off. I love it when he does that; the roar of the motor sounds sexy.

I walk into the dance studio, already apologizing.

“I know I’m late,” I say, noticing only a couple little girls are in attendance instead of the usual group.

“Did the parents get tired of waiting?” I ask, pointing to the girls stretching.

“A lot called in. Seems the flu is going around,” Mila says, sticking her tongue out in distaste.

“Yeah. I haven’t been feeling too well myself,” I admit, grabbing my leotard from my bag.

“Well, I’m going to work on the books and then I’ll be out of your hair,” she tells me, grabbing a book with ‘Monthly Tuition’ etched on it in black marker.

“Okay,” I respond, heading to the changing room.

“Okay, girls, let’s practice the five basic positions of ballet, starting with the first position,” I command, clapping my hands, hoping the loud noise will motivated the girls.

“Miss Lexington?”

“Yes?” I respond to one of the little girls, noticing her complexion is a little pale.

She opens her mouth to speak but vomit spills out, chunks of food and liquid splatter onto the floor, followed by a foul odor. I have to look away and swallow slowly or I’ll puke myself.

The other girls start gagging and ewwing. This is going to be a long day.

After calling Hayden’s parents and cleaning up the mess, I decide to call the other girls’ parents and inform them a bug is going around and to come pick their kids up. I don’t want to clean up anymore puke, and I’m not feeling well myself, so it’s a short night of work.

“Hey, I’m going to head out,” Mila says.

“Okay, I’ll be outta here, too, when the parents come pick up my last fairy,” I tell her, pointing to the last little girl twirling in a circle.

Mila laughs. “Okay, have a good night.”

Finally, after the last kid is picked up, I decide to text Shadow and let him know I’m off work early. I turn all the lights off and go to grab my paycheck only to find Mila forgot to set it out.

“Damn,” I mutter.

I leave the dance studio and start to walk where Shadow has been parking lately.

I kick a stray rock as I make my way across the side of the lot and notice a bright beam of lights flare behind me.

I turn and am blinded, so I shield my eyes with my arm, trying to look under the bright lights making it hard to see anything. The car starts and tires screech with sudden speed. The hairs stand on my neck and my heart begins to race as the car flies toward me. I turn around and sprint, not knowing what else to do. My heart is pounding with fear as my mouth lets out a scared whimper. I look over my shoulder and notice the car is catching up. I drop my bag trying to lighten my load and give myself speed. The car speeds up and drives right next to me, I clench my eyes shut for a second, urging myself to try and run faster. When I open them, the car door suddenly opens and slams into me. The asphalt bites into my knees, tearing at my flesh unforgivingly as I’m hurled forward. I hear the car tires scream to a halt, making my heart skip a beat. I crawl on my hands and knees and let out a strangled cry at the raw flesh digging into the ground. I look behind me for the car to find a bunch of men climbing out. I look for my bag to grab my gun but remember I dropped it, so I push myself to stand but one of the guys kicks me back down, making me fall on my back painfully.

“This is for Darin!” one of the guy yells as a wooden bat flashes in front of me. The name Darin hits me like a bolt of lightning: the guy me and the girls beat to a bloody pulp and left for dead.

I shield my face and curl into the fetal position, knowing this is going to hurt. The bat slams into my arm hard. I scream as an earth-shattering pain riddles deep into my bone. My lungs run out of air to scream, leaving me gasping for more.

“Fucking punta!” one yells as the bat slams back into the same arm. If it wasn’t broken before, it is now. My ears ring as my vision blurs from the pain and I bit my cheek to try to keep from screaming again. The only thing I want is to pass out, but it’s no use; I can’t help but scream in pain.

My head is jerked back with a sudden kick to the face. I feel my eyebrow split when the rubber sole makes contact. I close my eyes as blood begins to pool into them. My entire body aches, unbearable pain pulsing from one end to the other.

“Shut the hell up!” another yells as I continue to scream in pain.

They all begin to kick and slam their feet into me. All feeling starts to fade slowly, and I can sense myself becoming numb with the amount of pain my body is consuming.

“Hey, get the f*ck away from her!” I hear a voice yell. “I’ve called the cops. They’re on their way!” I try to open my eyes to see who is yelling but can’t.

“Let’s go,” one of the guys yells. I hear footsteps fade, along with everything.





SHADOW


“Royal Flush, boys,” I laugh, laying my cards out for all of them to see.

“Fucking cheater,” Locks says, slamming his cards down. I raise my eyebrow, wondering why I’m even listening to Bull’s orders. Locks should be dead by now.

“He is a cheater,” Bobby agrees, tossing his cards along the table. Bobby always thinks I cheat when I win; he has since we were kids.