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abi
Hayat’s hand gripped mine so hard my fingers ached. A mixture of different perfumes, sweat, and a metallic odor that I suspected was blood filled the air. The combination of scents made me have to fight my gag reflex as bile lifted into my throat. I wasn’t sure if it was anxiety or the heat of the building from all the bodies crowded around. Air conditioning was blowing hard, but it couldn’t keep up.
At first glance, it looked like we were at a rave, with neon lights flashing to the bass of techno that a DJ was mixing on a platform suspended above the crowd. People danced around, drinks and drugs passing back and forth among the masses.
But the deeper into the warehouse we got, the more I realized how much danger my little sister was in. People stood around a large white mat that was covered in splashes of red that I instinctively knew were the source of the metallic scent. Someone wiped up a puddle of the fluid from the mat as two guys dragged an unconscious fighter from the center.
Guys in nothing but athletic shorts or jeans, chests covered in sweat, blood dripping from their faces, stood around the mat. Bruises and gashes and welts decorated their faces, along with various tattoos.
Hayat and I had been at the warehouse for almost an hour, searching for my sister, Bentley, and Evan. But there were at least a thousand people there, making it a slow process. I was terrified of what we were going to stumble across when we finally did find them.
“How did they even know about this place?” Hayat shouted in my ear to be heard over the thumping music.
I shook my head, clueless. This was not a crowd I could see Ali being comfortable in. I’d seen gang members in one corner of the club, people I only knew to be aware of because of the news. One of them had been waving around a gun, but everyone in their group had laughed like they didn’t have a deadly weapon shoved in their face by a man who had “Lunatic” tattooed across his forehead.
Honestly, I’d been less scared when I’d heard gunfire at Sammy’s house the week before. At least then, I’d had somewhere to hide. In the warehouse, everyone was pressed together like animals being herded into a slaughterhouse.
“There!” Hayat pointed, but when I turned my head, all I saw was two shirtless guys shoving each other.
A new fight was starting, and everyone was already trying to hype the fighters up as they squeezed in closer to the action. They were equal in height, but one guy was lankier than the other. Leaner. The other guy smirked, and his opponent threw a punch, causing the cocky guy’s head to snap back.
“There is Sixx!”
That was when I saw my sister’s face. Pale and covered in tears. She rushed forward, but someone grabbed her. Evan. He was leaning over Ali, holding her back.
Shaking off Hayat’s hold on my hand, I slipped through the crowd, needing to get to my sister.
“Stop!” I heard Ali scream as I got closer. “Sixx, you don’t have to do this. We’ll figure it out. Please!”
My eyes were on Ali and Evan, but before I could reach them, someone crashed into me, knocking me back into a group of people. With a cry, I was shoved up against a sweaty guy who had one eye swollen shut and an open cut on his forehead. His sour breath hit me in the face, and I almost puked. He licked his lips, and I wanted to run.
An arm wrapped around my waist, and I was jerked away from the guy just as he gave a grin that made me shudder.
I tore my eyes off the predator and then blinked when I met the blue gaze of the one person I never wanted to see again. All thoughts of my sister, of Evan, of Sixx fighting, were pushed to the back of my mind as white-hot rage exploded inside me.
“What the fuck are you doing in this place? Are you crazy? You could have been hurt!” Madness swirled in Sammy’s blue depths, making her almost as frightening to look at as Lunatic had been earlier. “I swear to Christ. I’m going to put you in a goddamn bubble.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” My anger choked me as I spat the words at her.
Regret flashed across Sammy’s face for a split second before she shoved me behind her. “Touch her and die,” she snarled at the guy I’d bumped into.
“Abi!” I twisted around to see where Hayat was when I heard her yell my name. She’d reached her brother. I could see Evan’s head above everyone else’s. But the fight was going hard. Sixx was kicking the other guy’s ass. Bentley, Evan, and Hayat were struggling to keep Ali off the mat.
Ducking under someone’s arm, I struggled to get to my friend as the crowd moved closer toward the mat. Someone shifted as I was trying to squeeze by, and I got an elbow to the face, knocking me to the ground.
Pain exploded as the taste of blood filled my mouth. I wiped at my lip, feeling it pulse, just as a body dropped to the ground beside me, a bullet hole between their eyes.
A scream got trapped in my throat when I looked into the open, empty eyes of what was now a dead person. Bile burned the back of my throat, but I fought against it. Ali needed me, damn it. I couldn’t freak out now.
Slim, graceful fingers wrapped around my wrist and pulled me to my feet.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I hissed at her, the horror of what she’d done sinking in. “Did you just kill that person?”
“That was an intentional hit. But also, they touched you.” A deranged sort of smile tilted Sammy’s lips as she kicked the body at our feet. But seeing her like that, in a moment when I was helpless to do anything to protect those I loved most, gave me a weird sense of calm. I hated her, yet I felt safe with her.
There had to be something seriously wrong with me. I was putting my life, the lives of my sister and friends, in the hands of a psychotic killer. But I wasn’t afraid for myself.
It was everyone else I worried about her murdering.
