Page 56 of Senseless
Mari put a finger down, her chin wobbling slightly. "Then it’s the other thing—that you don't trust me."
"That's not true either!"
"You don't believe that I care about you enough to stick around if I see what's in your past." She blinked away the tears accumulating in her eyes. "You're so convinced that I could never love you, it doesn't matter how many times I tell you. It doesn't matter that I followed a bird across the countryfor you. You'll stand here and tell me I deserve better, because that's whatyoualready decided. But your thought patterns affect other people too, Shadow."
She spun on the toe of her boot and headed for the stairs, the reaction I was hoping for just moments ago. But I felt no sense of relief or victory now. I felt gutted, flayed open and exposed. It was like she reached into my mind and laid bare what I had failed to see this whole time.
She'd been trying to tell me I was worth something, worthwanting. And to keep rebuffing her like I was, only added insult to injury.
I started after her, my heart pounding in a wild panic. Because I knew after this time, she wouldn't try to convince me again.
"Mari." She was almost to the first landing, ignoring me as she quickened her pace. "Mari, wait!"
The floorboards creaked under our weight. As she neared the top of the stairs, I swore I heard something else among the creaks. Something more like aclick.
My instincts kicked into overdrive and I lunged up the stairs, grabbing Mari's ankle and pulling her back toward me.
"Get down!" I bellowed.
She fell hard with a scream, knees and forearms hitting the stairs just as bullets sprayed holes in the walls over our heads.
Seventeen
MARIPOSA
In one moment, I was walking away from Shadow for what I was certain was the last time. In the next, I nearly face planted on the stairs to the rapidpop-pop-popof gunshots.
"What's happening?" I cried, arms around my head.
"Traffickers," Shadow grunted out, his voice near my ear. I hadn’t even realized he had splayed over me, shielding me with his body. "They come to retrieve runaways from the girls' camps."
"What?" I hissed. "You mean this is a regular occurrence?"
"They didn't get close last time, about three weeks ago. I saw them coming and fired off warning shots from the roof." Shadow's arms tensed on either side of me. "Sounds like they brought bigger guns this time."
Another round of gunfire popped off, forcing us to slide lower down the stairs while making our bodies as flat as possible. This time I heard the panicked screams of the service girls on the main floor and in their rooms.
"Well, fuck! What do we do?" I demanded.
"Youdo nothing," he growled. "Get to your room and wait until it's safe. I have weapons stashed by the bar."
"Do you know how many there are?"
"No, but I bet it's several."
"And who's gonna back you up?"
Shadow's teeth ground in his jaw. "Doc's an okay shot, he's probably loading up now. I know he's scared, though."
I twisted underneath his massive body to the sounds of men shouting outside. "I brought a gun. Let me help."
"No, Mari," he barked. "Just wait for me in your room."
Someone had barricaded the front door and now it buckled under the heavy slams of boots from the outside.
"You know I can shoot," I continued to argue. "Gunner taught me."
"Fine!" he yelled. "Just shoot from your window. I won't let them get past the stairs."
