“It’s going to be a long couple of days without you,” she said, her words sounding almost ominous. “I wish I didn’t have school or I’d come hang out with you.”
“I know what we could do if you hung out at my motel,” I said, hooking my arm around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss. Her tongue slipped right in. From ‘never been kissed before’ to this. Damn, Grace was a quick learner.
I walked her to the driver’s side door and opened it for her. She slipped into the driver’s seat and secured her belt before gripping my face and kissing me again.
“Stay safe,” she said between kisses.
“I will.”
And I meant it. As soon as I was safely inside my motel room, I wasn’t leaving until Grace got me the hell out of here.
* * *
My promiseto Grace had been delivered in good faith. In a perfect world, things would have gone according to plan, and I would’ve stayed safe. Of course, I should’ve known promises never panned out in my world. They wouldn’t this time either. Ten minutes into my trek to the motel, a car screeched to a halt. A man jumped out and pushed me into the alleyway. Pain exploded on the right side of my face. I saw stars just before landing on my back.
“Remember me?” he asked, suddenly straddling my waist. His large hands circled my throat and black dots instantly swarmed my vision. But I saw him. I hadn’t forgotten his face. Or his name: Hartman. The hunter who’d destroyed my life before it had ever really begun.
Hartman shook me by the neck, the pressure slowly squeezing out my last remaining air.
Out of nowhere, Nikki latched onto Hartman’s back, her screams slicing through the night. “Noooo! Get off him.”
Hartman swore, removing one hand from my throat to pitch her off him like she was nothing more than a rag doll. Her scrawny body skidded across the asphalt. The pressure on my throat temporarily subsided, and I forced air back into my lungs. For that split second, I was free. But it didn’t last.
“Don’t let her fool you, boy.” He grimaced, his grip back on my throat and squeezing it tighter. My hands tore at his in a desperate attempt to restore my breathing. “She ratted you out for three capsules of oxy.”
“I didn’t, Rory,” she said, crawling toward me with blood trailing down her face. “Don’t listen to him. One of the girls saw me with you last night, and she heard me say your name…”
Nikki didn’t get the chance to finish her rebuttal. Hartman backhanded her to the ground with his one free hand. The other one he was continuing to use to crush the life out of me.
“I heard you’ve been talking.”
He let up on my throat long enough for me to answer him.
“I haven’t…”
It was the truth. I’d never told a soul what had happened to Nikki and me. Whatever source he had was lying.
“Oh, but you have. We warned you, didn’t we?”
Hartman and the men he worked for were so damn arrogant. Did they really think they could operate with impunity? You didn’t dabble in the shit they dabbled in and not have people poking through it.
“No, you actually didn’t,” I dared to defy only to be stopped mid-sentence when my head was lifted from the asphalt and then smashed back into the ground.
“Yeah, well, it was implied,” Hartman said, lifting my head up again. The next time it connected with the concrete, darkness shut me down.
PARTII
THE BREAK
13
GRACE: FALL IN LINE
PRESENT DAY
We’d formed a line in order of importance. Nothing formal, just a general acceptance of where each of us fit into Quinn’s life. Mom and dad were first in to see him after he woke from surgery. They’d birthed him, so I had no real qualms with that. But after them, I came next. And I dared any one of my siblings to contest it. Yes, even though the typical line of succession in our family went something like this: everyone else, then the dog, then the parade of cats, and then me.
Not this time. Quinn and I were a package deal. Had been ever since the day he angrily declared at six years old that the rest of the family wanted us to starve to death. He’d always been dramatic that way, but who could blame him? We had sort of been left on our own. Not dissing Emma—she’d come in the clutch after Jake went missing, taking care of our basic needs. More importantly, when he returned, she hugged us through the turbulent nights when Jake wreaked havoc on our sleep. But the vast majority of each day was spent with just Quinn and me entertaining ourselves.
