Page 112 of The Billionaire Who Saved My Cat From The Mafia

The rest happens too fast for me to process.

I’m dropped.My head bangs against the side of the SUV.I crawl away as everything around me turns to noise and scuffling and flying fists.Broken glass.Blood.

I stagger to my feet in time to watch a gun go spinning down the sidewalk.Another weapon flies through the air and lands in Emma’s flowerbed.She rushes out the door and screams.Over and over, even as she pulls her phone from the pocket of her apron.

One man goes down.A second falls right at my feet, his body twisted into a strange shape.Like the night Niko invited me to his gangland ambush.

And at the center of all the chaos—the eye of the hurricane—is Special K.

He’s delivering carnage.He’s taking on every one of them.Fists, kicks, elbows, knees.A knife flashes.A skull cracks.He’s a one-man wrecking ball.

He’s why I’m not in that huge black vehicle speeding to Niko.

He can’t do this.

“Noooooo!”

The cry escapes my open mouth as I spin in a panic.No.No.No.

“Stop!Please!”

Niko found me.

Fuck, no.This can’t be real.Not now.

Emma’s horrified eyes meet mine.

I start running backward.I’ve got to get away.

Ground and pound.I’ve heard customers use that term talking ‘bout mixed martial arts.There has been no shortage of UFC fans who come to Lynx after a fight.And that’s exactly what I’m witnessing.

Ground.

And.

Pound.

And it’s all from Special K.

I scream.I just watched him turn a man’s face into a swollen melon.Into hamburger.Blood and spittle fly from the man’s slack mouth.The driver jumps out from the black SUV.

I know him.

He steps right up to Special K and glares at him.Special K turns and pounds the side of his head.

A truck screeches to a stop in the street.Cal and Finn jump out.

Special K’s brothers secure his arms behind his back while the men left standing drag their cohorts into the SUV.The black Lincoln speeds off just as two sheriff cars pull up sirens blaring.

Emma’s staring at me.She’s sobbing.Shaking.She thinks I’ve brought this nightmare to her nice little life, to her happy home.

And she’s right.

I’m gone.

I fly around the corner and race to Special K’s Escalade, damn glad to find the key fob in the console.I start up the car.Pull a U-Turn.And haul ass.

I don’t know how to get to the ridge from here, but I keep driving.I must get as far away from Yosemite Ranch as I can.I must get as far away from the MacLaines as I can.