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I hear the grin in Frederico’s voice and see the rage burning across my Breakers faces. With the knife still pressed against my throat, Frederico doesn’t open the door straight away, instead his hand circles my waist and moves upwards. I know what he’s about to do and it makes my stomach turn over. “Look at you all going insane over this trashy bit of pussy. I never understood the draw. She ain’t even that pretty.”
“I swear to fuck, you move another fucking inch and I’ll put a bullet between your eyes,” Dax says through gritted teeth. His focus remains on Frederico, his arm is steady, his aim sure, but Frederico isn’t stupid, he uses me as a human shield. Dax won’t be able to get a clear shot. We all know that.
“Try it, dick, and watch your girl bleed out within seconds. All you’ll have left of her is a corpse… Then again, I heard you’re a bunch of twisted fucks these days. Do you want me to kill her so you can fuck her dead body?”
“You piece of shit. I’m gonna have fun gouging your motherfucking eyes out!” Xeno shouts.
Frederico lets out a laugh that verges on hysterical, then grabs my breast over the top of my hoodie and squeezes hard. I cry out again and Xeno roars, jerking towards me. Zayn reaches for him and wraps his arm around his torso, pulling him back as he urgently whispers into his ear. I swallow hard, trying to decipher what he’s saying. Whatever it is, it has the desired effect. Xeno stops struggling. Instead, he eyes Frederico with a calm resolve. The darkness in his eyes grows and for the briefest of moments his gaze flicks behind us before he looks back at me. I see how his fingers unfurl a little, some of the tension leaving his body. I realise then that we have company. Someone else is here and Frederico has no idea.
“Oh, this is so much fucking fun,” Frederico leers.
Xeno flicks his gaze from mine to Frederico’s. “Believe me when I say this, there will be no mercy. You hurt her; you will die a long, painful death. You’ve heard the rumours and now you’ve seen with your eyes what we can do. Your crew is all dead. There’s no one left. Every fucking surface inside of Rocks is covered with their spilt blood. Your friends, the boysyougrew up with, they’re all fucking gone because you dared to make a move against us. Dante’s Crew no longer exists. You’re the last man standing.”
“There are plenty of Skins dead too, or have you forgotten that part? I’d say the Skins ain’t looking too good either right about now.”
“Do you really think you’ll survive this, huh?” Xeno asks, ignoring Frederico’s attempt to enrage him further.
Frederico squeezes my breast harder and I grind my teeth together so that I don’t scream and risk my throat being slit. “I’m planning on doing a lot more than surviving,” he retorts, dropping his hand and reaching behind us. He jostles us both a few steps to the side so that he can open the car door behind him. Then pulls us both into the open space.
“If you let Pen go and drive away right the fuck now, we’ll give you a head start,” Xeno promises, his gaze flicking to mine then to York, silently telling me to look at him. I do.
“So, what, now you’re suddenly willing to let me go without repercussions? I ain’t a fool,” Frederico says to Xeno with a sneer. Despite his bravado, I can smell his fear. It’s pungent.
“We’re willing to give you the chance to get away with a head start. If you’re smart, you’ll take it, because maybe we won’t hunt you down, maybe we’ll let you live a life elsewhere, but that’sonlyif you let Pen go,” York says before glancing at Dax. “Put your gun down,” he urges. A look passes between them and Dax nods. He slowly lowers his gun to the ground, placing it on the floor before rising back up slowly. Beside him York drops his baseball bat, the sounds of it hitting the pavement is loud enough to make me jump. More blood slides down my neck and I bite back the sting of tears.
“It’ll be okay,” he reassures me. “Now close your eyes, Titch.”
I do as he asks, trusting him.
Three things happen at once.
The knife falls away from my throat as Frederico shoves me forward roughly, kicking the back of my knees, unbalancing me further. As I fall the sound of a gun being fired rips through the air, and I swear I can feel the bullet lift the strands of my hair just above my head.
“Kiiiddddd!” Dax roars, and my eyes snap open as I throw my hands out. The pavement comes at me in slow motion, but before I hit the ground there’s a blur of movement and I’m caught in a pair of strong arms, lifted off the ground and carried away from the fighting. Dax pushes me up against the brick wall of the building we’re outside of, pinning me with his body.
“Are you okay?” he asks urgently, lifting my chin gently to inspect the cut on my neck. He must be satisfied it’s a superficial wound because his fingers roam over my face as though he’s checking that I am, in fact, still breathing.
Behind us a blood curdling scream rips through the air. I push his hands away and try to look around his huge frame. “Dax, who was shot?!” I scream. Visions of one of the Breakers bleeding out on the pavement run through my head and I begin to shake violently.
Dax grips my face in his palms. “It’s Frederico. Beast shot Frederico. The boys are okay, but we need to get you out of here.”
“Beast?” I question, my eyes welling with tears. “How can Beast be here?”
“I messaged him. He came.”
“Oh God!”
“Jeb is on the warpath, Kid. Rocks is fucking carnage. I should never have brought you here,” he says, dipping his head low to peer at me. One of his eyes is bloodshot, the capillaries broken and blood seeping into the white making him look like one of those scary fucking zombies from that film28 Days Laterthat scared the shit out of me when we watched it as kids. “I don’t want you involved in this. Beast will take you home. But you need to go, right the fuck now.”
I suddenly feel all the air leave my lungs, and a second later I’m gasping for air, like a fish out of water. My chest heaves as I try to draw in precious oxygen.
“Kid, I need you to breathe. Look at me, okay?” he insists.
I nod my head, trying to make sense of everything that’s happening. Behind Dax I can hear Frederico’s screams and the sickening sound of bones breaking, blood spurting, and skin splitting. “They’re going to kill him, aren’t they?” I whisper, my legs feeling like blocks of concrete.
“Not before they find out who sent him. Can you walk?”
I shake my head. Right at that moment I can barely stand. Without a moment’s hesitation, Dax picks me up into his arms, carrying me bridal style. “Don’t look,” he demands, but of course I do. What I see will be forever imprinted on my soul, captured like a batch of grainy polaroid photographs. I blink against the violent snapshots, adding each one to the dusty, mildewed photo book that holds all my worst memories.
