The reply was instant.
Rubi:she just drew me with a nose the size of a traffic cone.
Mateo:she’s observant
Rubi:or her dad spawned a wind up merchant
Mateo:she’s really ok?
Rubi:I promise, bro
I needed to see her.
I knew I couldn’t.
Not yet.
Fuck, I loved Rubi so much. If I didn’t survive this, I wanted Liliana to have him forever. I wanted Embry to—
An ear-splitting crash punctured the night. Breaking glass. Splintering wood.
I surged upright, adrenaline pumping before my bare feet hit the floor, and charged to the kitchen, shouts piercing the air before I’d taken two strides.
The dark hallway enveloped me. Then the scent of Rubi’s cooking. For a split second, my fucked-up brain told me everything was okay. Then bodies spilled out of the kitchen, masked and armed, and I decked only two before I was thrown to the ground.
Blood filled my mouth, wrist bone crunching as a heavy boot stamped me down. A guttural yell ravaged my throat, but a gloved hand over my mouth kept it inside.
“Quiet.” The Spanish voice made my skin crawl. “Watch what we will do to him if you fight us.”
Another hand wrenched my head back, a knee pressed to my neck, ready to snap it if I fucked up.
It took a moment for my vision to clear.
Then I saw him. Embry. Two men unconscious in front of him, another three restraining him, while one waited for my attention.
He approached Embry, his hand distorted by a thick knuckle duster.
No.I fought the weight on me, ignoring the searing pain in my mangled wrist. But nothing shifted, and the masked man was up on Embry before I could snatch a fucking breath.
The blow was brutal.
Loud.
Embry’s gaze met mine, then rolled. Lights out. He fell to the floor, crumpled on his belly, blood seeping from his skull.
He was gone.
26
EMBRY
I came round on Rubi’s kitchen floor, glass in my hair, blood on my hands.
It was my blood, and my stomach wrenched, but reality kicked in before I could puke.
Mateo.
Heart lurching, I scrambled from the floor, my equilibrium protesting the more upright I became. Head throbbing. Bare feet slipping on the mess on the floor.
