Losing Me, Finding You(72)

When I see Melissa standing beside the patio doors, I'm even more relieved.

“What the f*ck is going on?” Mireya demands, but I notice she doesn't yell. She keeps her voice even and looks me straight in the eye.

“There's a group of men in the hallway,” I begin, my voice breathy. I'm having a hard time keeping my pulse under control. “With colors.” I gesture at my back, but of course, Melissa and Mireya are pros, and they don't need an explanation. I suck in a big breath and hurry on, knowing somehow that they're coming. Those men are coming. “Bested by Crows. They broke into my room when I was at the ice machine.”

Mireya's gaze snaps past mine and locks onto Melissa. Her face is starting to crinkle with worry, putting little lines between her dark brows. When I glance over my shoulder at Mel, I can see that her face is blanched. They have some idea of what's going on, even if I don't.

“He actually went through with it,” Melissa scoffs, shaking her blonde head from side to side like she can't bear to believe the truth that I've somehow revealed to her. “He … I … ” She stops talking and just stands there limply, blue eyes wide and disbelieving.

“What?” Mireya asks, starting to sweat. When I look at her, I see that her hands are shaking and her eyes are glossy and far away. “What does Kent want with Walker, Melissa? You came all the way over here to tell me, so f*cking spit it out!”

Walker.

My mind clicks with Austin's story. He hadn't specified the MC that Mireya was with, but he did mention that name. Walker. The man that Mireya was married to, the one that held her down while she was raped by the people she was supposed to trust most in the world. My heart breaks in two for her. For all of us. If they did that to her then, what are they going to do to us now?

Obviously, I can put two and two together and figure it out. Bested by Crows are the enemies here. My eyes swing over to the phone. Should I call 911? I wait patiently, trusting that Melissa and Mireya will tell me what to do. This is their world after all; they've grown up here and I'm just learning to walk.

“Kent … he … ” Melissa swallows hard and steps forward, a picturesque beauty with her long, long legs and her skinny waist and her full breasts, but in her face, she looks like a small child. There's basic, primal fear there and it's translating right across the room into Mireya's eyes. “I don't think Austin and Kimmi are coming back alive tonight.”



Chapter 52

Pain radiates out from my spine and quickly travels up my skull, giving me a sudden headache that I have to fight against as I struggle to figure out who or what is crushing me into the mud, trying to drown me in the muck and the reeds. For some reason, my first thought is of Amy and how she might cry if I died here tonight, how much that would hurt her. I don't even think about my own well being. I have been taken by that woman and I don't even know it yet.

Rage spikes through me, and I let loose, allowing those primal instincts of mine to surge forward and take hold.

I have a knife in my front pocket, one that's placed just so, easy to wiggle out and flick open, to swing back and plunge into the thigh of the man that's on top of me. His scream pierces the air and carries across the relatively flat ground until it's swallowed up by the sound of fresh rain and a bit of thunder that's rumbling in the distance. Whoever this guy is though, he's a pro and doesn't go down easy. Instead, he swings something at the back of my head and puts stars in my eyes and a fresh spurt of fury in my blood that drives my blade into his body a second time. I hit something soft, and the man grunts, finally releasing the pressure on my back enough that I can roll over, gasping for air and spitting mud and bugs and who knows what the f*ck else.

Immediately, I look around for Kimmi and panic when I see two men circling a flattened spot of reeds not far off from me. Behind them, more people are coming, appearing out of the shadows like ghosts. I don't know how many there are, but the odds don't look too good for us right now.

“You sons o' bitches,” I snarl as I use the power in my legs to propel myself forward, slamming straight into the gut of the crumpled man that I stabbed. He's groaning and clutching his side, so maybe he's down and out, but Austin Sparks doesn't take chances.

I pull my fist back, letting power coil in the muscles of my arms, and then I let him have it, punching him hard enough that his eyes roll into the back of his head and he passes out. I'm not gonna kill anybody, but I sure as shit ain't letting him come after me again.

I struggle to my feet with mud sucking at my shoes and dripping down the sides of my face and end up being knocked back down again by another man, one who's twice as heavy as the last. And he has a knife, too, a big, long, serrated one that he holds so awkwardly in his hand that it makes me sick.

I push myself to my knees just in time to see him swinging his arm towards me.

I flip my knife around in my fingers and rise to meet him.



Chapter 53

My entire body goes rigid.

“What?” I can't tell if that word comes from me or Mireya or both of us.

“What the f*ck does that mean?” Okay, that one was definitely Mireya. She throws a glare at me, just for good measure and then marches right over to Melissa, taking her by the wrist and pulling her forward so hard that she lets out a little yelp. Her blue eyes look like marbles, round and shiny and surprisingly enough, sad. She looks melancholy. “Explain. Now,” Mireya barks as she drags a cell phone from her pocket and dials a number. She switches it to speakerphone and we all listen as it goes straight to Austin's voice mail.