UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(25)

Brody helped Mina to her feet and then tucked her against his side protectively. Mina leaned into Brody’s chest for support and took comfort in his arm wrapped around her shoulder. Even if it was for this one intense moment, he acted like he cared. Breathing in the warm scent of his shirt, cologne and sweat, Mina felt safe, secure, until she stumbled on her own feet.

Brody felt Mina falter, so without thinking he bent down and picked her up in his arms, intent to get her out of the alley and somewhere safe. Carrying her seemed the fastest solution. When he got to his car, he put her inside and buckled her in. Mina knocked his hands out of the way, trying to get him to quit messing with her buckle. Brody felt tense, uneasy like he couldn’t breathe easily until they were far away from here.

He peeled onto the road and pushed on the gas making the car accelerate with barely a sound. It wasn’t until Mina saw that he was going forty over the speed limit that she thought to panic.

“Brody, slow down!” she yelled.

He pounded the steering wheel in frustration, his blue eyes stormy with anger. His face was cold as steel as he took the turns with the ease of a seasoned Nascar driver.

“STOP! Let me out!” Mina cried. He didn’t seem to hear her and she began to panic, grabbing the door handle for safety.

Brody sensed Mina’s fear, got his temper under control and slowed the car down. “I’m so sorry Mina. I should have been there to protect you.” He reached out to touch her bruised cheek but Mina flinched back in fear. He dropped his hand dejectedly to the ground. She had hurt him unintentionally.

“You see, now you’re scared of me. I’m not angry at you, I’m angry at myself that you got hurt.” Brody looked at Mina and she could see the fear written there in his eyes.

“Brody, it could have been worse, but you saved me.” Mina gently reached out to touch Brody’s arm, to comfort him, to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him.

“Who was he, Mina?” Brody’s jaw clenched and unclenched in anger.

“I don’t know,” Mina answered truthfully.

She watched as Brody’s knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. “He threatened you, and you don’t know who he was. He seemed to want something; he said he would be back.”

“I told you, I don’t know who he is and I don’t have what he wants.” Mina felt her own anger rise.

“But you know what it is he wants?” Brody asked unbelievably. “If you know what he’s after, than give it to him!”

“I don’t have it, and even if I did, I couldn’t give it to him. You have to believe me,” Mina pleaded with Brody.

“Maybe I could, Mina, if you told me what’s going on?”

Mina’s silence was the only answer that Brody got.

“Please take me home now,” Mina spoke a few minutes later.

“I think we need to go to the police!” Brody argued.

“No, I want you to take me home. I don’t want to go to the police and if you take me I will deny everything.” Mina turned on Brody angrily. “I never asked you to get involved, I never asked you to sit with me and chauffeur me around. You have no idea what’s going on with my life and hanging out with me for two days does not give you the right to decide what I should and should not do. This would never have happened if you hadn’t run over my bike! I never asked for your help and I don’t want it. TAKE ME HOME!” The last words flew from her mouth and she instantly regretted her tone. But it was too late to take them back, the damage was done.

Neither one of them spoke a word until they reached the international district. Brody drove through the shops that had the different Mexican stands and restaurants. He was one block over from her home, but she still didn’t want him to know where she lived. “Stop, here!” she pointed and Brody pulled over.

“Mina, I’m sorry!” Brody began but was interrupted my Mina’s sudden exit from the car.

Mina jumped out and ran between the stalls and people trying to lose him. She waited until his car pulled away into the night and she could no longer see his taillights. When Mina was sure Brody wasn’t on her street she ran home. She grabbed her key to the blue street level door, ran straight up the stairs, yelled goodnight to her mom, claiming she was tired. Mina crawled into bed curled her hands around her knees and cried herself to sleep, wishing she had’n’tstumbled on the Pandora’s box that was her family’s curse.





Chapter 9




The next morning Brody waited for Mina to walk her normal route to school, she didn’t come. Thinking she must have gotten a ride already, he looked for her at school. She never showed up.

She didn’t show up the next day.

Or the next.





Chapter 10


Mina had the full intention of going to school the day after the attack, by covering her bruises with makeup. She was about to tell her mother about the attack at the library, but then decided against it, when Sara took one wide eyed look at the bruise and began to shake. Mina quickly played it off as another clumsy gym class incident, which was not uncommon for Mina, and it seemed to ease her mother’s fears.

If Sara knew that her daughter was attacked by a large man in the alley, she would make them run again and Mina wasn’t ready for that. Mina went to the small closet that housed the family stackable washer and dryer and reached into the dryer to pull out a clean hoody. “What the..?” Mina spoke aloud. It was red! She hated the color red.