Dante lies on the pavement, writhing and clutching his foot. Blood soaks through his designer pants and pools beneath him.
“I think I got him,” Travis says, breathless. “Holy shit. I got him.”
Beau steps past me and lets out a low whistle.
“Well, damn. You’re officially not useless.”
Dante screams and tries to drag himself away across the asphalt.
I holster my gun and walk toward him.
His mouth opens as he tries to speak.
I kick him hard in the stomach.
“We’re taking a ride.”
His eyes widen. “I’m not going anywhere. Do you know who I work for?”
I grab him by the collar and haul him closer.
“Yeah, that’s why you’re going to take me to Elliot’s manor.”
“Fuck you. I’m not telling you shit.”
He thinks this is a negotiation.
He’s wrong.
A slow smile spreads across my face.
“That’s what they all say.”
Chapter 24
Brooke
Something hurts.
Pain, distant and dull, blooms somewhere in the center of me.
Then sound creeps in.
A thick, wet noise. A sharp exhale. The slap of skin against skin. It echoes strangely, like it is traveling through water before it reaches me.
Pressure follows.
My chest caves inward. My body reacts before my mind does. A violent jolt runs through me as something heavy drives down on my sternum. My ribs protest. Another impact. Then another.
Where am I?
The question drifts through slowly, like it has to fight its way up.
A voice breaks through next. Muffled at first. Then closer.
“Come on. Come on. Breathe.”
Hands. That is what the pressure is. Hands pressing down, hard enough that my spine feels it against the tile beneath me. The floor is cold. I register that now. Cold and unyielding against my back.
