I don’t know what to do.
For the first time in ages, I’m completely lost.
“I can help with that,” Bobbi says. She raises the gun.
“No!” I shout, sprinting forward. “Don’t!”
Bobbi cusses and pushes Samantha at me. Samantha crashes into my body, and we both go down hard.
I need a second to catch my breath. Samantha whimpers beside me.
Before I can get up, Bobbi stomps her foot down on my hand.
I cry out in pain.
“Shut the fuck up,” Bobbi growls.
Samantha scrambles, trying to get up, but she slips on the ice and stays down on the ground.
I shake my head and tug on my arm. Bobbi puts her entire weight on my hand. It’s almost funny. Didn’t River and Blaze break someone’s hand? I can join the club.
I get onto my knees and wrap my other arm around Bobbi’s leg, pushing with all my might. I don’t have a lot of leverage, but since all her weight is on the other leg—the one stomping on my hand—she’s forced to shift her weight.
She growls and grabs my head. My beanie slips off.
It’s probably still cold, but I can’t tell anymore. My breathing is coming in hot, while my hand and arm are on fire fromthe pain.
“Fucking…” Bobbi steps off my hand.
I start to stand, but Bobbi backhands me with the hand holding the gun.
Blinding pain flares out through my head. Literally blinding, not figuratively. I brace myself on the sidewalk.
Something red drips onto it.
That’s probably not a hallucination this time.
“Pandora!” Samantha cries out again. She starts to crawl toward me, but Bobbi only has to look in her direction to paralyze her.
We’re really going to have to work on self-defense training to raise her confidence.
Then again, confidence doesn’t help much when you’re dealing with a gun.
I reach into my pocket, only, god dammit, it’s still not the right one because everything is underneath the coat. My knife, my phone, my charm. I go for my zipper.
Bobbi grabs me by the hair and punches me in the face.
I take back what I said about the previous blow being blinding.
This one hurts worse. Forget period cramps or getting stabbed, I think getting my nose punched in is probably the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.
I bet it’s right up there with childbirth or getting your finger chopped off.
Somebody screams.
Probably not me.
I don’t know how I’d be able to scream with my nose stuffy and bloody.
