Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Chief rounds the corner, and when his eyes land on me, his face drains of color.
“Mischief, fucking get out of here. Now!” he roars.
My legs stiffen and suddenly I can’t move, even though I really need to. Three of them detach from the group and surge forward. Panic sears through me, and I bolt down the steps toward my car. Freedom is a heartbeat away, until a hand clamps my arm. I spin and lash out, scratching and clawing at everything I can get my hands on.
Whoever is holding me curses and lets me go.
Relief flickers, until someone else takes his place. I kick, my feet hitting his shin, but his friends close in. Demon is standing, laughing, like a fucking wild maniac. He lifts a sleek pistol. I taste copper; I must have bitten down on my own tongue. Dread grips me. My eyes dart to Chief, guns pointed at his head. If I run, he dies.
They’re making sure I know that.
I stop fighting. Someone shoves me to the ground, gravel biting through my jeans. “I want you dead, Chief,” Demon taunts. “But I want you to watch your daughter suffer unimaginable pain first.”
“Let her go,” Chief snarls, chest heaving.
Demon kicks me in the ribs with steel-toed boots and my scream rips through the air as his second boot smashes down. Dirt and blood mingle in my scream.
“Stop. Fucking stop.” Chief’s cry echoes through the air.
“Just one more,” Demon grins.
He drags me up by my hair, and my scalp bursts into fire as he slams his fist into my face. Stars erupt behind my eyelids.
“Fucking stop!”
Chief’s roar is so loud, it breaks me into a million pieces.
Demon pauses. “Hurts, doesn’t it, Chief? When someone fucking destroys what you love.”
Chief’s hand twitches, like he is more than willing to take a bullet if they stop. “Kill me,” he spits, “just don’t hurt her.”
“That wouldn’t be fun.”
My vision swirls as Demon tosses me on the ground like a rag doll. Two shots crack. I jerk, covering my face. Then I hear, “Mischief, stay down!”
I don’t know who yells it.
It sounds like Bill.
A thunderbolt of warmth explodes in my shoulder, sharp white agony. I scream, my body convulsing. Chief’s roar rises above the chaos, then silence. I manage to open my eyes, even though they’re filling with blood. Chief slumps, crimson running down his shirt. As his knees hit the ground, blood begins to pool beneath him.
“Daddy!” My voice is a rasp, broken.
Demon’s boot crushes into my shoulder, and I gag, vomiting bile and blood. He sneers down at me. “You’re next.”
Another shot echoes.
Demon’s body crumples beside me, blood spraying my skin. I blink against the pain, every nerve on fire. A trembling hand grips mine. Somehow, Chief has managed to drag himself over to me. He coughs, a terrible wet rasp, blood dribbling from his mouth.
“Baby...go, run...” he whispers.
His body goes still.
“Daddy!”
The scream bursts from me, raw and broken. I claw at his arms, soaked in his blood. He’s limp. I shake him, but he doesn’t move. My tears flood my face, hot and blinding. Sirens wail in the distance, too late. I collapse beside him, world spinning into darkness, every pulse a hammer blow.
Until nothing remains but black.
13
Travis
I can hear the cops before I turn onto the street, sirens filling the air. Ahead, all I can see are people everywhere, paramedics, police, and bodies just flung across the lawn. My heart feels as though it comes to a stop in my chest. Then I see her—my life, my soul, my girl. She’s crumpled in a pool of her own blood, and maybe someone else’s, with people just surrounding her. I unleash a feral roar, yank open the car door and sprint, until a cop slams into me, hauling me back.
“This is a crime scene.”
“Let me go! That’s my fucking girl!”
He glances at her tiny form with paramedics surrounding her, closes his eyes, breathes deep, then loosens his grip. I tear free and run to her, dropping to my knees. The paramedics are talking, but I don’t hear what they’re saying. I can only hear my own voice pleading with her to wake up. Then, my eyes swing to Chief a few feet away, blood trickling from his mouth, his hand stretched towards her.
“Help her, goddamn it,” I bellow.
“We’re doing everything we can to get her stabilized,” a paramedic tells me.
Someone asks me to move and then they’re putting her on a gurney. Rage and despair tear through me, tears roll down my cheeks. Why didn’t I take her with me to work? Why did I leave her here? Two medics hoist Chief’s body up as they work desperately on him.
“He’s barely holding on,” one murmurs.
“Trav.” Bill’s voice cuts through the chaos. He strides over, soaked in blood that isn’t his own.