Chapter 3

Bolting upright in bed, I pant, trying to catch my breath. I’m drowning in sweat from head to toe. The thin cotton fabric of my pajamas sticks to my clammy body like a second skin. Squinting, I make out the early morning sun emerging over the line of old rundown apartments across from me.

Glancing at my phone on my nightstand, I check the time and let out an audible groan.

One hour!

I slept for one motherfucking hour, and the whole time I was having a nightmare, reliving the hell that was my reality just six months ago. All that shit with Ian being so overprotective last night had me playing last Christmas Eve on repeat.

Wearily swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I run a hand through my bird’s nest of colored raven curls before sliding my feet into fluffy slippers. They were cheap as shit from Walmart and probably won’t last me the winter, but slight comforts in my current living situation make it bearable, and I need a layer between me and the sticky linoleum floor.

Walking to the kitchen in three simple steps, I put two scoops of instant coffee into my mug as I wait for the water to boil. There’s no chance I’ll be able to go back to sleep now. When I see my captor’s handsome face with those piercing blue eyes, under all that mask paint, I know it’s over. Instead, I plonk myself down at the kitchen counter and pick up a pencil, letting my fingers glide over the sketch pad, quickly perfecting every detail until I have an exact match to his face. This man is the devil of my nightmares. Gorgeous as sin but just as deadly.

My black coffee goes down way too quickly, but I’m out of time to make another, so I slot the new sketch in with the twenty others in my kitchen drawer. I scan over the tattoo sketch I did last week. It’s from the hulk-like shooter’s forearm, a monster of sorts. This is all the evidence I have since the entire house was burned to the ground. The only clues I can piece together to explain who took my family from me and stole my life.

Ian says he can help me, and I have to believe him, because I don’t have anyone else. And the only thing that’s gotten me through the last six torturous months was knowing they would eventually be punished for their crimes. Tonight, after my shift at the diner, I’ll meet him at the gym with these drawings. And then we’ll catch the fuckers who took everything from me. I’m done watching over my shoulder and pretending to be someone else just so I can survive. I want to be the carefree college student whose biggest concern is begging her papa for the latest computer appliance or handbag so she can keep up appearances at the ritzy school he shipped her off to.

I want my life back.

Flipping burgers at a grimy diner on the outskirts of Ravens Hollow isn’t my dream job, far from it. But here I am at three pm on a Tuesday, the smell of BBQ and French fries lingering in the air, fat spitting up over my apron as I stand behind the greasy mint-green laminate counter, spatula in hand. The flickering neon sign illuminating the worn linoleum floors outside is getting on my last nerve. My overtired eye twitches every so often as I try to tune it out and focus on my task at hand.

Our servers, donning roller skates, gracefully serve coffee to exhausted truck drivers with worn eyes and rugged hands. I guess I hit the jackpot with kitchen duty today. No handsy old dudes to deal with. I think our boss, Mark, knew that one more ass slap and I’d reach my breaking point, ready to unleash my fury on the asshole. What he doesn’t know is the snide remark I offered on my way out of this place yesterday wasn’t too far from the truth. The next creep to touch me is losing a hand.

Anxiously I pat the side of my leg, checking that my trusty combat knife strapped to my thigh permanently is where I left it. I relax my shoulders when I feel it is. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined I would be this girl. Jumpy, sleep-deprived, just waiting for the next person to piss me off so I can take out my bottled-up rage on them. But here I am. A ticking time bomb.

“Who has been biting you with such force that it’s leaving noticeable hickeys?” Dani silently comes up behind me and softly whispers in my ear. She touches the place on my neck that’s marked. “Did my little shy friend, Lana, finally get a good dicking last night?”

I can’t help but laugh at her confidence, a delicious shiver running through my entire body at the thought of Ian’s lips on my skin. The man’s hotter than sin. He’s also forbidden. We never should have gotten carried away. “Not likely. Had a rough session in the gym last night. Must be from that.” I shrug off her comment. I’m not one to kiss and tell. Especially when I shouldn’t have kissed him in the first place. One minute, he was warning me off him because he could get in serious shit for taking advantage of me in his position of authority. The next he was fucking me like his life depended on it.

For six months he’s been my savior, my angel, the person who was there to pull me out of the darkness and force me to keep moving forward. He taught me how to fight in his gym, helped me get a job, an apartment, and a secret identity. Without him, who knows what would have happened to me. But what happened between us last night was unexpected, and I already know there is no way it can happen again. No matter how much I’m craving him. He could get in serious trouble. And with how kind he’s been to me, I can’t let that happen.

“You can’t lie to me. I know a hickey when I see one. Least now I know who it is that has you smirking to yourself today.”

I shake my head, focusing on the sizzling hot plate in front of me. She has no idea what this is, and neither do I. But it has to end tonight. When I hand over the drawing, I’ll set him straight. We need to go back to what we were before.

“Check out these two hot motherfuckers.” Dani wolf whistles so only the two of us can hear. “I’ll take the big guy, blondie with all the ink, and you can have blue eyes.” She demonstrates riding him like a cowgirl, and I can’t help but laugh, shaking my head at her confidence. If it wasn’t for her playful comments, these shifts and days would drag on forever. One thing Dani knows how to do is get me to smile, even if it’s a half-assed attempt.

A gravelly voice prickles over my skin, ordering a couple of coffees with plain coolness. I know that voice! Using Dani as a human shield, I spin round so I can see who’s at the counter. I wasn’t interested in the dudes she was checking out, but I am now. That’s the voice that haunts me every night. Peering over her shoulder cautiously, I take them in. “Holy fucking shit.” My heart races so hard I feel like it’s going to pound right out of my rib cage. I found them. I swallow hard. Or have they found me?

“I know, right,” she agrees. “Not like the usual old scumbags we get in this place. Think it’s our lucky day, Lana girl.”

“Shh.” I try to hush her so I can hear what he’s saying. Blue eyes appears to be chatting up Wendy, our server who’s manning the front counter. He orders two large, long blacks and smiles like he’s the host of a game show. She’s doing our usual “fries with that” spiel, and I can tell she’s trying to keep him at the counter for longer, leaning over the laminate counter, twirling a long strand of hazelnut-tinted hair with her fingers. Probably thinks she’s won the jackpot with these two. Dani is right, they are downright gorgeous in the light of day. Little does Wendy know, they’re cold-blooded killers.

Icy-blue irises gleam with charisma as he flirts back. The big guy with the mohawk looks less interested, folding his arms as he leans his ass against the counter, scanning the room in a way that makes me feel uneasy. What’s he searching for with that scowl on his face? It’s obvious that this isn’t their usual coffee place since they’ve never been here before. That idea makes me feel nauseous.

“Girl, stop hogging all the view,” Dani complains, trying to move me, but I don’t budge. I need to know why they’re here.

There is no doubt about it, the big guy sports the exact monster tattoo on his forearm that the gun-wielding madman who broke into my papa’s house wore. This is them. The tormentors of my nightmares. My heart races out of control while I try to get my brain to kick into gear .

The kitchen provides us with slight shelter from the diner floor. But it also means I can’t make out what blue eyes says next because Dani is talking at the same time, sending a text while she chatters on. “Come on, babe, what’s going on with you, you look like you’ve seen a ghost, not the hottest guys to ever walk through our door.”

I try to tune out her playful chatter, but when blue eyes leans in closer to Wendy and she turns back to look our way, I drop to the ground like a ninja.

Oh fuck. I can’t stay here.

The usual playful smirk on Dani’s face is gone, replaced by a look of worry. “What are you doing, babe?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I wish I could tell her, but I don’t need her caught up in my mess. It’s safer if I just disappear. Cautiously, I crab crawl my way to the back door, ensuring I stay hidden.

Removing my frilly pink apron, I toss it toward her. “Tell Mark something came up,” I say, closing the door behind me and sprinting for my car before Dani replies or tries to follow me. She looked shocked as shit. But that’s probably because until today I’ve been the good girl they all expect me to be. That was only because I desperately needed this job to survive after I lost everything. Since I had to hide my identity, I had no other means of earning money. I met Dani at a supermarket, and she helped me out with this job, and since then I have been doing my best to keep it.

I couldn’t be the girl those thugs were looking for!

The one who got away.

My papa always said I was clever, and I would like to think that’s true. I made sure not to cause any trouble or draw attention to myself. My routine consists of work, the gym, and returning to my shabby apartment. I’ve been living like this for half a year. And it’s all been leading up to this very moment. The day I get to face the assholes that stole my life from me. And finally, make them pay for my brother and papa.

On the electrical pole right next to my car is another damn missing person poster. I tear it off and scrunch it in a ball, then toss it on the floor well of the passenger side of my car along with the others I’ve discovered pinned up all over town this week. Who the fuck is searching for a dead girl? Don’t they read the paper? Her body may not have been found in the house, but she was declared another casualty caught up in the fire. Her funeral was held alongside that of the rest of her family. I know that because I am her. And after Ian found me a trembling mess on the side of the street in the middle of the night, it was his idea to change my identity to keep me safe.

Adrenaline courses through my veins as I sit in my little red Mazda. Keeping a low profile, I pull on a shabby baseball cap while I wait for the two men to have their coffee order filled. I’m sure they got more than they bargained for with Wendy. Her tits would have been busting out of her top when she bent over the counter. That’s why she does it. For the extra tips.

Before too long, they stroll into the parking lot with takeout mugs in hand and find their car, a dark gray army-style Jeep. I snap a quick photo of the license plate as a precaution in case I lose track of them. Maybe Ian can find them again if I do. I know he’s going to kill me for following them out of here, instead of calling him to take care of the situation. It’s his job, after all, but it’s my life they stole, and I want my revenge. If he arrests them, I’ll never get it. Once the engine revs up, I follow suit and quickly leave the parking lot, falling into traffic behind them. This might be the dumbest thing I have ever done, but I don’t care. I have nothing left to live for, anyway. They took it all from me, and now I will take whatever I can from them.