Chapter 1
Sabrina
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Muscles burning, Islow to a jog before bracing my hands on my thighs to catch my breath. The streets are fairly abandoned this early in the morning, the sun only beginning to crest the horizon. Forcing myself to keep going, I give myself a chance for the stitch in my side to ease up, searching for the motivation to start running again.
In the ensuing silence between songs, a muffled grunt makes me pause, and I reach up to remove one of my earbuds. Glancing around to make sure I’m still alone on the sidewalk, I strain my hearing, nervous adrenaline rapidly replacing my exhaustion. A scuff of gravel is followed by a feminine cry from the alley up ahead and I pick up my pace, heart hammering a mile a minute. Double tapping the screen strapped to my arm, my playlist cuts off and opens the emergency app I keep running in the background when I’m out jogging, and I keep my finger hovering above the call button as I creep closer.
As I peer around the corner, anger and adrenaline help drown out the sudden spike of fear. Pinned against the brick wall is a woman, blonde hair tangled and dirt streaked across her cheek, as she claws at the wrist of the man with a hand currently wrapped around her throat. As he dips his head to whisper something in her ear, she catches sight of me over his shoulder, golden eyes widening.
Smacking the screen on my phone, I don’t give myself a chance to chicken out, sprinting forward. It takes longer than I’d like to find the button on the keychain hanging from my bracelet, fumbling it in my haste, but I get a solid grip just as a crunch of broken glass beneath my shoe has the bastard’s face whipping in my direction. I get a brief glimpse of him, but with the fear pulsing through me with every heavy heartbeat, his features are instantly committed to memory. Short-shorn, dark brown hair, eyes a few shades lighter, and has about seventy pounds on me, but all muscle.
Only going to get one shot, can’t afford to fuck it up.
He opens his mouth, but before he gets the chance to tell me to fuck off, I raise my fist and jam my thumb down hard on the small button. Mace instantly floods his eyes, sending him stumbling back a couple of steps with a shout and slew of curses.
“You fucking bitch!” he snarls, rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes.
The woman falls in a crumpled heap to the ground, clutching her bruised neck. Chest heaving with gasping breaths, it quickly becomes apparent that she’s completely naked, but we don’t have time to search for her clothes, or what’s left of them. Releasing the mace to dangle from my bracelet again, I haul her back to her feet. Before she’s even fully upright, I’m snatching her hand and yanking her forward a few steps.
“Run!”
There’s no time to check if she evencanrun; she has to. I might be able to buy us a few seconds for a head start, but there’s no way in hell that I can hold my own against a guy that size for longer than a few minutes, if even that long. Fight or flight, and I have no shame in admitting that I’m way out of my league here, and I doubt I’d get the chance to land another cheap shot, so flight it is.
Sprinting to the end of the alley, we bank left, and I keep an iron grip on her hand. To the woman’s credit, she keeps pace with me, adrenaline the most beautiful thing ever created. Nearly wiping out on a split on the sidewalk, she manages to keep me upright as I stumble without stopping. Ignoring the tight pressure in my chest, we take turn after turn, too afraid to look to see if he’s still following us. The heavy heartbeat thundering in my ears and the slap of my shoes on the concrete drowns everything else out, so all we can do is keep going.
“Ma’am, I repeat, what is the emergency?” a cool voice faintly reaches me from the earbuds smacking against my chest, still draped around the back of my neck.
“No police!” the woman begs in a hiss, and I waver. But as an onslaught of fresh tears race down her face, I cave. I may not know exactly what the hell happened to her, but if our roles were reversed, I wouldn’t want someone to strip yet another choice out of my hands.
Yanking the headphones out, my phone automatically switches to speakerphone. “Oh my god, I’m so so sorry! I opened the wrong app when I was switching playlists. Nothing’s wrong.”
After a stern lecture, the woman hangs up, and all the while, we never stop running. When a cab comes into view though, I’m not taking no for an answer, flagging it down. The second he pulls against the curb I yank the door open, physically shoving the woman in the backseat before clambering in behind her. We both smack the locks automatically, and it only takes one look from the driver before his lips press into a thin line, merging into traffic without a word. I’m sure when you’re in this line of business, you’ve seen it all, enough to know when to simply roll with the punches and not ask questions.
“The backseat folds down and there should be a blanket in the trunk,” the burly man states in a low, calming voice. Firmly keeping his eyes on the road, he drives aimlessly, simply headingawayuntil one of us gives him a direction.
Fumbling awkwardly to finagle my position so that I can pull my section of the seat down, I manage to get the flannel blanket from the trunk and click everything back into place. With trembling hands, I shake it out, helping bundle up the woman to cover her up, and get my first solid look at her.
Under the streaks of dirt, her skin is sun-kissed, blonde hair a tangled mass hanging loose around slim shoulders. Even her eyes are a bright gold, like she was brought up drinking liquid sunshine instead of water. She stares right back at me, a hard glint in her eyes beginning to replace the fear now that she’s safe enough to give into her fury at the situation.
“Hospital?” I whisper, silently begging her to say it isn’t necessary.
Shaking her head, she replies, “No need.”
The breath rushes from my lungs in a tidal wave of relief and I nod rapidly, sucking down slow, deep breaths to regain my composure. Pulling my phone from my arm strap, I withdraw a folded twenty dollar bill from the pocket beneath it, reaching between the seats to offer it to the cab driver. “Can you take her home? I’m not sure if this is enough, but I’m not far from here so I can walk-”
He cuts me off, gently curling his hand over my fist and pushing it back without turning around. “Let’s get you ladies home, hmm?”
“Thank you,” I croak at the same moment as the woman and an inappropriate, slap happy laugh bubbles out of me before I can bite it back. She gives me a small smile of understanding, and before I know it, we’re outside of my apartment building.
Pausing with my hand on the door, I look between her and the man that’s already doing us a massive favor, yet ask for another. “If you can wait for a couple of minutes, I can bring down some clothes.”
He tips his head in my direction and I sprint up the cracked steps to my building, through the first door, and up three flights of stairs to my apartment. Swiveling my elastic bracelet around, I manage to get the key in the lock on the third attempt. Racing to my bedroom, I grab a baggy shirt and a pair of pajama shorts along with my wallet, flying back out to the street.
When I see him still waiting, I sigh in relief, crawling in the back to offer the basic outfit to the woman. “Sabrina, by the way.”
Covering my hand with hers, she gives me a watery smile and chuckles with dark humor. “Emmy. Nice to meet you, Sabrina, though I wish it’d been over coffee.”
