Page 134 of Heartless
“St Mary’s cemetery.Nigel...Nigel’s here.A bike...cut me off.His two men are chasing me.Ruiz ...I called 911 but they’re not...they’re not—”
Dead air.
I called Sile.“Sile, Morrison cornered Sienna in St Mary’s cemetery.I’m fifteen minutes away.”
“On my way.”
The line disconnected.My gut seized.Talk to me, baby.Talk to me.
After the fucking longest ten minutes, I slammed on the brakes on the gravel of the cemetery.The place was big but there were not that many places to hide.
Another text came in from her.
Sienna:solder statue
Soldier statue.I scanned the graveyard and clocked the gold statue.
Running at full speed toward it, I prayed.
****
Sienna
Sweat coated my skin as I fused my back against a tree trunk.
I took a deep breath to calm my deafening heartbeat and listened.
“Where the fuck did the bitch go?”one man asked.
The second goon’s voice was unbothered.“Let’s just find her and give her back to him.”
No.No.No.
The steps were getting closer.Then...Silence.A man appeared in front of me.My breath cut off.My foot lifted.I kicked his crotch with all my might.He yelled and folded over with his hands over his balls.
I took off.
There was a building.A building meant potential people.If I could just—
A weighty hand clawed on my shoulder.My feet skidded sideways, and I started falling.Fast.The paw that had stopped me grabbed my upper arm and yanked it up so hard, I felt it detach from my shoulder.I howled in pain.Once I was upright before him, the disgusting baboon I’d kneed slanted his ugly face inches from mine.
“Stupid little bitch,” he snarled.
He unhooked his painful hold on my arm just as his beefy hand arced across his chest.He swung it up.The back of his hand collided with the side of my face.
Agony erupted in my cheekbone.My brain jounced against my skull, and my whole body careened sideways.I instinctively threw my arms out as I fell on the hard ground.
The side of my face was on fire.My ears rang.My stomach collapsed, and I blinked several times.I raised my shaking hand to my stinging face, and a sob erupted from my knotted throat.
When the explosion of stars around my eyes started to fade, I slowly stood on shaking legs.The other man had positioned himself between me and his accomplice.
“You’re not supposed to touch her, man.”His tone was chillingly...bored, and I clamped my hand on my mouth.
“The little bitch kicked me in the balls, she—”
A thundering roar surged from behind me.I twisted just in time to see someone very fast come at me.Past me.Next, the man who’d hit me was pinned down to the ground by Jake.
Bending over Nigel’s man, Jake grabbed his collar.His other fist rose and smashed into the hitter’s face.
