Losing Me, Finding You(75)

“Kimmi and Austin are fine, but you girls hold tight and don't call the cops. We're on our way,” he says and then he's slipping the phone away and starting to run, slogging through the mud with all the power in his legs that he can muster. Nobody says a thing; we just follow after him and I pray to God that Amy Cross is still going to be alive when I get there.



Chapter 57

I dial Gaine and luckily for me, I get an answer. He tells me to hold tight and hangs up, leaving me alone with the sound of screaming and crashing and banging. I should open this door and fight, I think to myself, wondering why Mireya gave me this spot, leaving herself out there to fight while I sit here in this tiled room that's no better than a cage. I have to help. I search quickly though the contacts list until I find Margot.

She answers on the first ring.

“What should I do?” I know she thinks it's Mireya that's calling her, but there's not enough time to explain, so I just blurt it all out.

“Bested by Crows is here looking for you. Get in the bathroom and take a chair, lock the door and bar it. Sit tight and we'll come get you when it's over.” If it ends well that is. I hang up before she can respond, setting the phone on the granite countertop next to the sink and pressing my ear to the door. There's a lot of grunting and cursing, but not as much shouting as there was a few seconds ago. Please tell me they didn't take them down already? Melissa and Mireya are both tough, a lot tougher than me, and I expected a good fight out of them. When I listen in though, I hear only harsh breathing and whimpers.

That scares the crap out of me.

“Did you miss me, baby?” I hear Walker say, the sound of his voice making me go cold inside. I have no love for Mireya, but I have nothing but hatred for a man like that, someone who uses others and doesn't care what happens to them. When I hear her whimper, I know that I have to go out there, no matter what happens. If Walker rapes or kills Mireya while I just stand here, I'll never forgive myself.

I slide the chair away from the door, careful not to make much noise and give away my position. As I reach for the lock, I get dizzy with fear and anticipation and have to call on a good, old fashioned Glance Serone quote to get me through this.

The toughest f*cking moments in life are the ones where the whole world is a big, fat unknown, where chance has more power to change your fate than you do. It's then that you're gonna want me, Sali, because me, I'm a sure thing.

I pick up the metal lamp in one hand and open the door with the other.

I don't shout or call out a battle cry (why on earth anyone would think giving up their position like that was a good idea, I'm not sure), just step out behind a man – Kent, actually – and raise the metal to his skull. He stumbles and shouts but doesn't go down.

“You little cunt,” he growls, spinning to face me as my eyes take in the scene and find Melissa on the floor with her eyes closed, blood trickling down the side of her face. I can still see her breathing, so she's not dead, but there are three men around her, looking down on her quiet face with looks that could've only been plastered on their bodies by the devil himself. One of them has a coil of rope in his hand.

Mireya isn't faring much better.

The man, Walker, a blonde with tanned skin and a good ol' boy smile has got her by the hair and is holding her down on her knees. I'm happy to say that his lip is split and he looks like he's nursing a shiner on his left eye, but that's about it. Mireya is tough, but she didn't stand much of a chance – there are two more men behind her, pinning her arms back.

Nobody moves to help Kent.

“If you can't handle one bitch on your own, how on earth you gonna wrangle a whole stable full of them?” Walker asks, laughing as he watches me pick up another vase and swing it at Kent Diamond. He moves suddenly, flickering like a ghost to the side, so fast I can hardly see and suddenly, there's a knife pressed tight to my throat, too tight.

I try to breathe, but when I inhale, my skin gets slit along the blade and starts a trickle of warmth down the front of my neck.

“Try not to beat her around too much,” Walker says, reaching down to unzip his pants. “They're not worth as much that way.” Kent growls like he doesn't like being told what to do and jerks me back by my hair, cutting just a little deeper and making me cry out. Still, I can't stop watching Mireya, looking down at her and seeing her eyes pressed shut, thinking about the way they looked when they sent me into the bathroom. There was love there. It wasn't for me, no, but it was for Austin. She wanted to save me for his sake.

Walker's pants come undone, and I explode, turning my body sideways and sliding along Kent's blade as I move, slicing my own throat.

The way I've done it isn't going to kill, but God, it hurts. I think about Austin as blood spatters the floor and my body goes flying forward, hitting Tray Walker so hard that he drops his hold on Mireya. The man uses his powerful arm to knock me back and send me sprawling where I smash into a dresser and fall to the ground, gasping and touching the wound in my neck. It's more of a psychological thing at that point, just the feeling of blood there makes me certain that I'm going to die.

Immediately my mind goes to Austin Sparks.

He's the first man I've ever slept with, ever even 'dated' if that's what you want to call our arrangement, but it doesn't matter. I know. I think I've known all along what's going to happen. I'm going to fall in love with him. I'm going to be head over heels and my stomach is going to hurt every time he walks into a room. I'm going to worry about him whenever he isn't there, and there are going to be times where I'll hate him. Because that's what love is. It's a kaleidoscope of emotions, all sorts of different colors blending together into one.