Page 3 of The Stolen Dagger
I looked back over my shoulder to find Adrian’s dark eyes narrowed on me.
“Emilia?” Adrian’s deep voice shook with confusion and anger.
His tone alone caused goosebumps to rise all over my body. I wanted to run, but I completely froze as more tears trailed down my cheeks.
A sinister grin spread across his handsome face as he took his first step toward me, the gun still firmly in his grasp.
“You weren’t supposed to see that,mi princesa.”
CHAPTER ONE
A YEAR LATER
KATHERINE
Someone was watching me.
Like ants crawling up my spine, tingles broke out along the back of my neck. I could feel someone’s heavy, lingering gaze.
Watching.
Waiting.
I told myself it was just a figment of my imagination. That after almost a year, the paranoia was to be expected—normal, even.
But that little voice in the back of my mind and in my gut told me it wasn’t just my imagination.
That little voice whispered the horrors of my past. The very things I’d tried to forget.
It told mehehad found me.
It told me torun.
“Katherine!” someone yelled.
I jumped, dropping my dish rag on the floor behind the wooden counter of Jerry’s Bar and Grill.
The rush of the night had finally slowed, but there was always a possibility it could pick back up again. That was just one perk of working in a college town bar.
“Kat!” Sarah yelled again.
I spotted her in the crowd, dodging the few tables spaced around the dance floor as she made her way to the bar.
Her dark red hair fell over her shoulders in big, bouncy waves. She was a few years older than me but looked younger thanks to her round cheeks and the full-glam makeup she wore when she needed good tips.
“I need three beers at table five,” Sarah said as she cleared the empty bottles of her serving tray. “They want Coors Light.”
I retrieved the washrag, tossed it aside, and wiped my hands on the apron covering half of my jeans and black T-shirt with the bar’s logo on it. “Got it. Thanks.”
I slid open the large cooler that spanned a portion under the counter and grabbed three beer bottles.
“Oh, and they’re asking for you,” Sarah added over her shoulder as she sashayed her way back through the crowd to take more orders.
Envy stabbed through my chest. I used to be confident like that. I used to be blithe and fun beforehim, before I had to cut my hair and change my name just to hide from him.
Maybe if I hadn’t?—
No. I wouldn’t think like that. I was alive. I was happy. I was right where I wanted to be. I just had to keep reminding myself of that.
