The pendant underneath my shirt stirs. I pull it out and ask, “What is it?”
“Danger.”
I stop and turn around. It’s dark, but I squint until I notice the silhouettes of three men riding on horses. I don’t wait to see their faces. In a heartbeat, I dash down the street, looking for alleys to hide in, but the houses are too spread out for that, and most have fences around them.
The horses are closing the distance, and I can’t run fast enough to lose them. When I notice a house with lights inside and an open gate, I take a sharp turn inside and bang on the door. “Help! Open up!”
“Who the fuck is it?” a woman asks from inside.
“I need help! Please, I can pay you.”
The horses slow down, but I don’t dare look.
“Please!”
The door swings open, and I’m facing the barrel of a shotgun. “What the fuck do you want at this hour?”
I raise my hands and swallow the lump in my throat. “There… there are men after me. I need… just let me inside, please. I need—”
“We can take it from here, ma’am.”
A strong arm slips around me, pulling me back against a broad chest. Before I can shout, a warm and rugged palm blocks my mouth.
“Don’t ma’am me. Is this one with you?”
“He sure is. Used to belong to my brother, but my brother’s dead and buried, and little Finn here might know a thing or two about that.”
“Fuck if I care. Get him off of my property.”
“Will do.”
I try to fight as Clint drags me away, but he’s as big as I remembered, and his two men are waiting to help if needed.
“Life’s funny,” Clint says as he ties my hands behind my back. “Fucking hilarious.”
“Let me go, Clint. I’ve done nothing to you.”
He holds my face, still an ugly sight with his crooked nose, missing front tooth, and two scars beneath his left eye from when a woman he tried to rape fought back.
“You and I have some catching up to do. Where are you staying?”
“Nowhere.”
He punches the side of my head. I fall to my knees, lights blinking wherever I look. He pulls me back up and shakes me. “Let’s try this again.”
With my head pulsing in pain, I tell him.
*
“He has a shitload of novas.”
“Search if he has more hidden around. Finn is the sneaky sort.” Clint smirks. “Aren’t you?”
I look up from the floor, my hands bound behind my back and my mouth gagged. Derek used to say that Clint had one hell of a temper, and it says a lot coming from someone like Derek.
Clint leans down from the couch and pulls the gag out of my mouth while Bobby continues to search around the house, grabbing anything worth taking. There’s another man I don’t know who’s leaning with his back against the front door to keep watch, though no one is going to come to help.
My shoulders ache from being tied for over an hour, and the punch to my face is turning into a painful bruise.
