Page 21

Inés followed us. She looked around my sewing room.

“You sew,” she said. “That’s how you earn a living, but it’s hard to sew with one hand.”

All the blood left my head.

“Your boyfriend told me he’d take my hand off and mail it,” the driver said. It was the first time I’d heard him speak. He pulled me toward the press. “It gave Mrs. Cordero an idea.”

I fought him. I dug my heels in and hit him with my free fist, and it did nothing at all. He lifted the top plate of the press with one hand. The heat came up off it into my face.

I knew exactly how hot that press ran. I’d once dropped a wet cloth on the plate and watched it scorch brown before I could snatch it back.

He bent my arm down and got my wrist flat on the padded board. My fingers were spread out under that plate, and I looked at them, terrified of what came next.

“Last time, Ava-Rose,” Inés said. She sounded tired. “You take the money, we walk out of here, and you keep both hands. Yes or no.”

I was crying. I couldn’t stop it. My whole body was shaking so hard the board rattled.

One word, and he’d let go.

“No,” I said.

Inés sighed. She nodded to him.

Out front I heard Brynn. She had her phone, and she was screaming her brother’s name into it.

“Havoc! Havoc, they’re in the shop, they’ve got Ava!”

A crash. Her voice cut off.

The plate started down.

My shears were on the cutting table, where I’d left them that morning. Eight inches of steel, sharp enough to go through leather. My left hand found them without my eyes.

I drove them into his forearm as hard as I could.

They went in deep. He roared and let go of the plate, and I tore my wrist out from under it as it slammed down. The edge caught me, and I screamed. I fell back against the rack. Hangers came down around me, and the green dress slid to the floor.

He stared at the shears standing out of his arm. He pulled them free and dropped them. Blood ran off his fingers onto my floor.

Inés had backed out through the curtain.

He looked at me, and he came for me. I threw everything I could reach at him. It didn’t stop him. He got his good hand around my throat, and he was too strong.

CHAPTER 6

HAVOC

Iwas two miles down the county road, flat out toward that smoke, when I worked it out. They hadn’t burned my shop to hurt me. They’d burned it to move me.

I was already on the brakes to turn around when my phone went off against my chest. My sister’s name flashed up.

“Havoc! Havoc, they’re in the shop, they’ve got Ava!”

A crash. A man’s voice. The line went dead before I could say anything.

I threw the bike around so hard the back wheel stepped out, and I went back up that road with the throttle pinned. The club was coming the other way, strung out behind Preacher, headed for my fire. I went straight through the middle of them with my arm out, pointing at town. Preacher sent Switch on with the prospects and brought the rest around behind me.

I’d left her there. Nearly two weeks I’d sat in her laundromat watching over her. They’d lit one match and I’d left her. I was cussing myself for it as guilt hit me.