Page 106 of One Filthy Kiss

I ignore the dread pooling inside my stomach. “You own the thrift store?”

“Ha!” he snorts. “Did you learn nothing from your mother?”

Without warning, he has a gun in his hand, and a bullet hits the wall behind me, sending jagged stone chips flying all around. One hits the back of my head, and I flinch, reflexively inspecting the damage with my fingertips.

“Amber! Come out!” The sing-song voice has turned cold and brittle.

“She isn’t here,” I say loudly enough for Amber to hear. “Did you honestly think that I would let you have her? You don’t care about her. You’ve never even?—”

I don’t finish. Another bullet whistles past my head, and this time, I duck. It ricochets off the stone wall and I pray that it will hit him straight through the skull; I even picture the tiny red hole, oozing blood. But luck isn’t on my side tonight.

“Amber! Get the fuck out here now before I kill your sister.”

“Amber, don’t listen to him!” I scream and lunge at him, my nails scratching his arm before his free fist collides with the side of my head.

I hear a scream as I hit the wall. The world goes black momentarily, and when I open my eyes again, I’m on the floor. Tiny silver stars spiral in front of my eyes, and my head feels like it’s inside a pinball machine, but I can still hear the screams.

They’re not coming from me.

I wait for the room to come into focus. The shrill sounds fill my head and bring hot, stinging tears to my eyes. But I force myself to my feet.

Amber is standing upright inside the carton, her pale face scrunched up with fear, her mouth wide open to let the screams out.

“Amber, it’s okay.” I reach out a trembling hand in her direction, but she doesn’t stop.

She can’t hear me. Panic has gotten hold, and she won’t calm down now until I hold her in my arms and talk to her. Sing. Tell her a story. Prove to her that monsters aren’t real and that good always triumphs over evil.

I step closer, and he fires again, the bullet going straight through my foot.

I collapse into a heap on the floor, folding in on myself to contain the white-hot pain messing with my brain. Blood is pumping from the hole in my fucked-up foot. I mean, I always thought blood would trickle from a bullet wound, but this… This isn’t a trickle, and the brown-red spatters on the floor feel like tiny drops of my life dripping through the cracks, never to be seen again.

“Meggie!” Amber screams.

She tries to climb out of the carton and ends up tipping it over, sprawling forward with renewed shrieks into a pile of garments.

I crawl towards her. The pain is like a beacon flashing inside my head, but I focus on reaching Amber before he touches her. On my knees, I pull her against me, noting with horror that there is blood on my hands. How did that happen?

Amber’s screams scrape the inside of my ears. She fights me off, terrified because she witnessed what happened, and I force myself to hold on tightly and talk to her.

She needs me.

I’m the only one who can save her.

“Listen to me, Amber.” My teeth are chattering with the pain. My jaw feels numb. The pain is on-off-on-off, pulsing like morse code. But none of these things matter. “I’m alright, Amber. I’m still right here with you like I promised.”

Her screams are growing hoarse, but I have no idea if she can hear me.

“Shut her up!” he yells, swinging the arc of bright light our way.

I ignore him. My teeth snap together like a mousetrap. Click-clack-click.

“Amber, please listen to me.” I can’t feel my mouth; I’m not even sure if the words are coming out right, but I keep going. “I’m still here. Please, stop screaming, baby. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. You believe me, don’t you?”

She stops struggling. Her screams are growing hoarse, and I’m worried that she’ll have a sore throat tomorrow. I didn’t bring Ibuprofen. If she gets a fever, I don’t have any medication to give her, and this vacation was supposed to be fun…

“I’m going to count to three,” his voice drowns out my spiraling thoughts. “If you don’t shut her up, I’ll do it for you, and I don’t think you’re going to like it if that happens.”

“Amber!” I grip her upper arms and shake her.