Page 50 of Heavy

I swear my ears are bleeding with how hot they are.

Ronan groans. “Someone is following her. She’s going to come to you. You’re closer than I am.”

He hums. “You got it.”

“Have Amy outside waiting for her.”

Pussy… Amy?

“I’ll have the boys ready, too.”

My bottom lip trembles. I don’t want to go anywhere but straight to Ronan. Nowhere is safe… but he is. I crave his violence—against me, against them, against the world for what it’s done to me.

“Baby girl, listen to me, I’m going to hang up the phone—”

“No!” I scream, my voice cracking as I take in a shaky breath. “Don’t leave, just stay until… until I get there, please.”

“I cannot focus on driving at top speeds while worrying what is happening on your end. I have to focus or I’ll crash.” I drop one hand into my lap, drawing it across my work pants to get rid of the sweat that has piled in my palm. My eyes flick to my rearview, the black sedan still right on my tail. “I’ll be right there, I…”

Every fiber of my being shuts down at his pause.

“I’ll come for you, don’t worry. Ken, give her directions and keep her fucking safe when she gets there. I’ll be there in twenty.”

Then I hear the line click, and his friend's voice comes through loud and clear.

“Alright, doll face, where ya at?”

16

Calista

I’mshockedIhaven’tthrown up yet. My eyes keep flicking between the road and the gas gauge, watching it slowly drop from a quarter to an eighth. When the red light finally pops on, warning me I'm low on fuel, I feel like my heart could stop.

Ken has been talking to me like I’m a child—not in a condescending way, but gently, giving me steady reassurance that I’m doing great and that I’m almost “home”. It’s strange hearing him call his place home, but I’m not about to argue.

I took the exit he mentioned about three minutes after Ronan hung up, and I’ve found myself in a residential area, one totally unfamiliar. Mobile homes line the street, their yards unkempt, metal gates barely high enough to keep in a wandering child. Dogs bark as I pass, but no one’s outside. This place feels odd—isolated, almost misplaced. It’s settled in the middle of a forest, yet the atmosphere is as barren as a desert.

“You should see a yellow house with a white fence, turn left there.” I take the last turn when I feel my car beginning to sputter.Holy fuck…I would have never made it home. I would’ve still been on the freeway.

“There you are.”

As I glance in my rearview mirror, the black sedan slows, its tires turning as if it’s about to follow me down this street. My pulse spikes, but at the last second, the wheels correct and it keeps going, disappearing down the road I just turned from.

I must have been breathing this whole time, but the second I start to hyperventilate, it feels like I’d forgotten how.

“Blue house,” he says. “Pull up, Amy will bring you in.” The call then abruptly ends.

Redirecting my gaze forward, I see three people standing outside. None of them are Ronan or his friend. One of them is a woman, whereas the other two are men.

My car rolls up slowly to the front, and somehow I manage to throw it into park and jump out, though I have no idea where I find the strength. The moment I look at the house, memories I’d buried, that I’d hoped would stay hidden forever, crash over me in a flood I can't control.

“This ain’t no place for a little girl, Jasmine.”

“Go fucking after them,” the girl—I’m going to assume Amy—screams, causing me to jump and look at her. “Stop staring at her and go!”

My focus stays on her as they scatter off. The sound of motorcycles revving echo before tires screech with their departure.

I blink, taking in the woman standing before me. She’s beautiful. Her bright red hair falls just to her shoulders, framing her face in a sharp, confident cut. She’s tall, probably six feet or even a little more, and her light brown eyes are fixed on me, scanning me up and down with an intensity that’s almost unsettling.

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