Page 102 of Off the Rails

The woman across the lot, thrashed against her attacker.

But when the hooded man saw three, towering masked clowns running toward him, he dropped her from his grasp and turned to sprint into the darkness.

The woman started to chase after him, tears welling in her eyes as she screamed. “Wait for me!”

By the time we crossed the lot and the street, finding her in the alley, the man had disappeared into the night.

That didn’t stop Cyrus from running past us, not willing to give up just yet.

But I stopped next to the screaming woman and knelt down. “Hey, hey. It’s okay, he’s gone now. We’ve got you.”

Her eyes were bloodshot and her face flush with anger as she met my gaze. “How could you?! What have you done?!”

My forehead scrunched together as I looked her over, bruises already developing around her wrists from where the guy had grabbed her.

It wasn’t just anger in her eyes, but fear.

Her cries grew louder as she looked up at my masked Freaks. “What the fuck?”

Slapping Blade’s shin, I growled at her. “Take them off. You’re scaring her.”

Blade and Nash did as they were told, slipping the masks off their faces and revealing themselves to this stranger.

The woman wrapped her arms around her knees, rocking back and forth as she kept her guard up.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened? We just want to help.” I tried, knowing better than to touch her.

“You ruined it. Ruined everything.” The stranger was crying now.

Cyrus broke through the darkness, out of breath now. “He’s gone. No trace.”

One glare from me and Cyrus ripped off her mask. At least she wasn’t interested in scaring this poor woman any more than she already was.

“We have to get her looked at.” Cyrus grumbled.

“No fucking shit, Sherlock. I’m working on it.” Rolling my eyes, I leaned back toward the woman. “We don’t want to hurt you. Can we take you to a doctor?”

All she could do was shake her head.

Nash caught my gaze, a knowing look in her eyes. Something was off here, all of us could see that.

Biting my lip, I tried to catch her eyes. “Look, we just want to make sure you’re okay. I won’t be able to sleep at night if I don’t. Can you help us?”

The well of sadness has drained, leaving the woman empty. Like a zombie, she stood up and started to cross the road.

I walked next to her, waving my hand for the Freaks to walk behind us. “I promise everything will be okay.”

In just a tshirt and jeans, the woman was trembling. Maybe it was just the cool fall breeze or maybe it was the fear. But either way, we needed to get her somewhere safer.

When we approached the Cadillac, I opened the back door for her and let her slip into the car. I walked around and slid into the middle seat, making sure that the scary, muscular strangers weren’t sitting next to her.

“What’s your name?” I asked before my three roommates could get in the car.

Swallowing hard, she avoided my eyes. “Jane.”

Sure.

I knew a fake name when I heard one. Just a couple weeks ago, I’d done the same thing to Blade, Nash, and Cyrus.