CHAPTER SIX

I rolled away from Taylen the moment his weight was no longer pressing me into the earth. My entire body shivered as I rolled onto all fours and hurriedly scrambled away just as another thwack and thump echoed behind me.

"Let's see how you do against someone your own size," the other voice boomed, overpowering the wind. The storm. Silencing the very earth itself and still barely raising his voice.

"Hey man, come on!" Taylen cried out. "She asked me to—" Another crack. Taylen's cry of pain.

"Try again," the stranger said.

"Look, I don't know the bitch, okay? I'm just doing my uncle a favor. She's yours. Keep her. Fair trade, right? Just let me out and you can have her."

If I could find the sense around the roiling trauma coursing through me, the uncontrollable urge to vomit, the overwhelming pressure against the dam keeping my hysteria at bay, I would speak. I would say something.

But I came up against a bush and my body curled against it like it was the only safety in my life as the world crashed, and thunder rumbled.

Something pale and silvery caught my eye. It was tucked next to my hand, practically hidden beneath the bush. A tiny, heart shaped petal. Soft, velvety.

Silver.

Not white.

Not cream.

Silver.

Chrome silver.

Horrors temporarily forgotten, my eyes lifted. My chin tilted as I peered up at the single bush of roses. A bush as tall as I was with eight beautiful, fully bloomed roses. I wasn't a gardener. I was barely allowed in Mother's, but I knew as most people did that roses didn't bloom in cold weather. Not so close to winter. They absolutely didn't bloom in that color. They practically glowed in the dark, reflecting light from nowhere yet radiant. It made no logical sense, yet ...

I smoothed the petal under my fingers. What appeared to be metal bent and folded like a regular petal. It even felt like a flower. I brought it to my nose and smelled the sweet hint of roses.

Astounded, I raised my hand to touch the nearest bloom.

"Don't touch that!"

An iron fist twisted into my arm, and I was wrenched forward. I landed on all fours in the mud. My head jerked up. And up. Miles reaching to the heavens. Following the looming dark figure blotting out the world. But my gaze never touched past the gleaming chunk of metal hanging casually at his side.

A gun.

I'd never seen one outside of photos, but it was there in this stranger's hand. Just hanging there. Waiting to be used.

The sound that escaped me was no more than a whimper as I tried to edge back and not move simultaneously. Trying not to give him a reason to kill me or worse.

The stranger saved me from further humiliation as he bent down and dragged me to my feet by the crook of my elbow. I was partially grateful and terrified when he kept the toned fingers digging into my skin. My legs could not be relied upon.

"Who else is here with you?" he demanded.

I put a shaky hand up caked with dirt and bits of grass. "No one. Please ... I was just trying to get away..."

I stared at the shadows collecting around the center of his chest. As high as my gaze was willing to travel when there was still so much higher to go to face the man holding my life in his palms.

The weapon was jerked up and I flinched, but it was pointed at Taylen kneeling in the muck several feet away, clutching a bloody nose.

"Who's he?"

I started to shake my head. "I don't know him. He was my ride."

"See? I fucking told you, man. I don't know this crazy bitch."

"Get up," the stranger snapped. "Start walking."

The hand stayed on my elbow as we were led away from the silver roses tucked in a neat alcove of stone. I probably should have been relieved I was saved from Taylen, but the man at my side, the towering shadow of warm muscles beneath damp clothes was somehow a bigger threat.

It could have been his size. Without my heels, I barely came to the center of his chest. It could have been the gun still clasped in his meaty fist, aimed at the back of Taylen's skull. It could have been how gently he was easing me over inclines and across a wide, dark field. But he scared me in a whole other way I couldn't explain.

The sound of rapidly approaching boots had my steps faltering. Bare feet slipped on wet grass, and I had to catch myself on my captor's arm.

"Easy," he murmured. "I got you."

I forced my face up to the mask of shadows he wore so carefully, but neither of us said another word as a small group of men crowded around us. Their hands grabbed Taylen, ignoring his protests. One tried coming for me, but the stranger grabbed his arm before he could touch me.

"Don't touch her."

I was grateful.

I'd been manhandled enough for a lifetime. I'd been grabbed, pushed, pulled, pawed at, hurt, and hit in the span of a single night and if anyone else touched me, I was sure I would fall apart. All I wanted was to sit somewhere in warm clothes and sleep. Every bone ached. Every muscle throbbed. I was exhausted to the point of tears, and I just wanted a bath. But that didn't seem to be in the cards when we rounded a high, dark structure and the grass reverted to gravel. Light, warm and golden spilled across what I was beginning to gather was the driveway of the stranger's property.

My head turned to peer up at the structure bathed in shadows and secrets. Even with the solitary bulb lit above a majestic door of polished mahogany, the building itself lurked like a beast out of sight. But I could just make out a jagged outline of magnificent height and sprawling length before a pained grunt pulled my attention to the small crowd circling a kneeling Taylen.

"What the fuck do you want, man?" he was snarling around the hands bunched over his bloody face.

I thought of him crawling on top of me in the car, pinning me down, ripping my coat, and couldn't muster an ounce of sympathy for his predicament.

Oddly warm fingers captured my chin. My face was forcibly tilted up and I found myself falling endlessly in a set of polished ambers lit bright and hot from some inner light. Or maybe it was the light from over my shoulders, but they glowed with an almost supernatural quality that had my breath catching and every other thought in my head vanishing.

Full, perfect lips opened and words that were very much English slipped off his tongue into the wet space between us, but I couldn't get past the hypnotic flex of colors...

"I'm sorry?" I rasped when it became evident he was waiting for my response.

The corner of his mouth may have twitched. It could have been a trick of the shadows.

"Did he do this?" he said again.

It took me a minute to grasp he meant the cut on my lip. I touched it carefully with the tip of a cold finger. Winced at the sting and nodded once. That was all he seemed to need.

He stepped away. Taking his heat as he moved to stand over the kneeling man.

Taylen tried to scuttle back, but the men had formed a tight circle around him. Even as he raised both hands and pleaded with the man standing over him like an avenging angel.

"Seriously, man, I never touched the bitch. I swear she's lying."

"Have you ever seen what happens to a man's wrist when it's shot up close?" the stranger asked instead.

That seemed to be all the warning he was going to give when a deafening bang splintered time and space. My scream was swallowed by Taylen's howl of agony as he snatched the shattered and gory stump of his right arm where his hand used to be. The appendages hung from a thin, torn rope of flesh, a dangling weight spurting up blood in a small fountain down a bony wrist. The bone shattered.

I staggered back. Hands over my mouth as I fought the hot rise of my stomach. The air stung hot and gritty with the stench of gunpowder and copper. It stung my nose, a reminding force that I wasn't dreaming.

Taylen wailed, torn limb clutched at his chest. The crimson stain spread down the front of his white hoodie and soaked into the earth between his knees. Even the rain couldn't mask the sharp plume of urine.

The man with the gun seemed unfazed by the brutal display. He stayed, perfectly content to watch the horror and agony. The gun was still smoking in his hand.

Then, just when I began to think Taylen's suffering would never end, that I would have to endure that sound in my head for the rest of my life when a twin bang erupted, and Taylen's screams stopped.

The night plummeted too suddenly into silence.

It was so quick.

So final.

Taylen was doubled over, sobbing into the ground. Then he was facedown in a puddle of mud, blood, and urine. Body motionless.

The heat in my chest blazed beneath the skin of my face. Air thickened until there was none to pull in and my lungs screamed. I staggered or the ground moved, but I felt it tipping. Tilting. I was falling into darkness before I could fathom I was fainting.