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9
River
I’m backin the alley again.
Julian stands there in front of me, anger and hate on his face. He opens his mouth to curse me, to tell me he should have killed me when he had the chance the first time—but when he speaks, it’s not his voice I hear.
Instead, it’s his father’s voice.
Lorenzo Maduro, whose voice I heard so many times when he held us in captivity that I could pick it out of a crowd immediately.
“Come here then, pretty.”
Julian’s face is a mask of frustration and spite, but the words are slippery. Oily with fake comfort and affection. A trap in every sense of the word.
Hannah is behind me, but then all of a sudden, she’s not. All of a sudden, she’s on her knees between me and Julian. She’s not the mother and strong woman I got to know before this wedding. Instead she’s just a kid again, her arms wrapped around herself while she shakes and cries.
“I said, come here,” Julian says in Lorenzo’s voice. He reaches for her, and something visceral in me cries out to not let him touch her. I try to reach forward, to move and block him from getting to her, but I can’t. It’s like I’m locked in place.
I look down, and there’s nothing holding me to the spot, but then suddenly I feel the phantom feeling of chains around my wrists and ankles.
“No,” I manage to croak out. “No, leave her alone!”
Julian looks up at me, his sneer still in place.
“You shouldn’t have gotten involved in my business!” he snaps, and there’s a split second flash of relief to hear he sounds like himself again. I never thought I’d want that.
My heart races in my chest, and I reach for Hannah again. This time, I can move, but as soon as my hand goes to touch her shoulder, it phases through it, like she’s not even there.
She turns to me with wide, terrified eyes, opening her mouth to say something, but before she can, she jolts hard, struck in the side by something.
“Hannah!” I scream. It’s my voice, but it sounds younger, more scared than angry. It sounds like me at sixteen, and suddenly we’re not in the alley anymore.
The dream shifts, and I’m alone in a room. I’m not tied down, but my body is sore and worn out. My wrists are scraped raw from fighting against restraints. I know the door to the room is locked, but I throw myself at it anyway.
From beyond the door, I can hear Hannah crying. The choked off sobs that mean she’s trying to hold the sound back, so I won’t hear it and worry.
I beat my hands against the door.
“Stop it!” I scream. “Leave her alone!”
No one seems to hear me.
Or if they do, they sure as fuck don’t care.
I don’t know what to do, but I know I have to do something. I can’t let them hurt her. I have to—
BANG!
The gunshot is loud, piercing my eardrums. And then there’s silence. I frown, trying to make sense of it, trying to think what could possibly be happening.
The room fades around me, and I’m back in the alley again. Hannah’s on the ground, blood seeping from her side, mouth opening and closing as she gasps for air.
It’s the scene from the wedding again, but Julian and Cody aren’t there this time.
Instead, it’s the other men. Lorenzo, Ivan, and the rest of them, in a circle around Hannah’s body. They lean in around her, like they’re going to touch her, and I lunge forward, feral and furious.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” I scream, already swinging, ready to beat them back with my bare hands if I have to.
