Scott exploded into action. He kicked Duncan’s right arm and the gun clattered to the ground, sliding out of reach as the man stumbled. Scott followed with a punch to the kidney.
“Motherfucker.” Duncan came up swinging and caught Scott square in the face, knocking him back.
Blood spurted from Scott’s nose. Valerie screamed and ran at Duncan.
He produced a hunting knife and rolled to his knees. The blade in his grip was as long as her hand. Shiny, cold, deadly.
She stopped several feet away, her body physically recoiling from the horrible weapon. The metal flashed in the lamplight, like a beacon of warning.Stay away, stay away, stay away, it intoned in a menacing voice, keeping time with the frantic beating of her heart.
In that moment, she was fourteen again, frozen in shock as an angry beast of a man lurched forward and sank a knife deep into Dad’s abdomen. He repeated the stabbing motion even as her father fell to his knees, clutching his middle, eyes full of surprise as he registered the blood on his hands.
“Valerie,run.” Dad’s voice had come out strangled and hoarse, the spark of life already fading from his dark eyes.
She had run. Straight onto the attacker’s back with a primal yell.
But she’d been too late and too easily slashed open and too quickly cast aside to help.
Her scar burned with the memory.
Duncan pushed to standing. Scott sat up. Duncan lunged for the man she loved.
“No!” She launched herself into Duncan’s path, using her body as a shield. No shock, no fear would hold her back.
With a growl, he thrust his blade into to her upper thigh and tossed her to the asphalt. Her head bounced and the world went black.
“Valerie!” Scott cried as she was shoved aside.
Fear squeezed his chest in its iron fist and he ran headlong into Duncan, taking them both down on the sidewalk with a bone-cracking thud.
Scott reached for the knife. Duncan gripped it with both hands and tried to swing it away.
Enough of this fucker. Scott released the man’s wrists, catching him off guard. As Duncan’s arms snapped back, Scott unleashed his fists on the asshole’s face. His own nose throbbed and swelled, and he could hardly see, but he knew where to hit. And hit.
Duncan’s hands fell and he dropped the blade.
Scott hit him again. And again.
He wanted to kill the bastard, rip him limb from limb, tear him the fuck apart.
Instead, he stopped.
Scott straddled his quarry, breathing heavily. He would not murder him.I’m not my father. I’m not a killer.He was a protector, and as much as he hated the man whose blood covered his fists, he couldn’t take his life now that he wasn’t an immediate threat.
Scott squinted at Valerie in the dim light, feeling shaky. Scrambling off the other man’s limp body, he kicked the knife out of reach and rushed to her side. “Honey?’’
She moaned but didn’t open her eyes. “Valerie?” His voice was stretched tight with fear.
The overhead light glinted off a wet puddle under her leg. Scott’s stomach dropped. Her pants were wet and sticky. His fingers came away red.Oh, God, no.
He patted his pockets, searching frantically for his phone, fear lodged in his throat like a fist.
Footsteps pounded across the gravelly street. “Hold it right there!” “Hands up!” Shouts came from all sides as they were swarmed by half a dozen men in uniforms wielding guns.Finally.
“She needs an ambulance,” Scott yelled as his arms were wrenched behind his back for the second time in a week.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Annandale, VA
