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“I’d love to. Not sure I’ll be able to slip away from my prison wardens, but I’ll see what I can do.” I rolled my eyes, finishing the last of my coffee.
“Bring them. Maybe you can ditch them for a while and have some fun without them. Zane and Lyra will be there too.”
Over an hour had passed since I’d left the house. Knight would know by now. The others must not be back or they’d already have tracked me down.
After Clover left the café, I took a few minutes to give my dad a call. He sounded understandably moody and a little drunk. I made him promise that we would have dinner soon. I worried about him being alone right now.
I exited the café, finding the parking lot empty of people. Wishing that I’d found a parking space closer to the door, I hurried across the lot to the SUV. I rounded the back of the vehicle next to mine and screamed.
A man dressed all in black with a ski mask over his head rushed toward me. Having no other choice, I turned and ran in the opposite direction. The sound of his shoes hitting the pavement behind me had my adrenaline pounding through my veins. I ran fast, my feet barely touching the ground.
Unfortunately, I ran straight toward the parking lot of the business next door. An electronics shop that was closed for the night. There was nobody around to help me. On the other side of the electronics shop was a strip mall with a restaurant and lounge on the end. If I could make it there, I’d be safe.
The masked man was hot on my heels. His strides were longer, and he quickly caught up. The sound of his grunt as he lunged for me reverberated in my ears. I hit the ground, the electronics store parking lot ripping at my skin.
I felt like an idiot. I had not yet replaced the knife I’d lost in the cemetery the night Nikki tried to run me down. Neither had I thought to carry the small pocket sized pepper spray I’d acquired since. It was stuffed into my bag sitting in Havoc’s bedroom.
The man came down on top of me. My instincts kicked in. Rolling over beneath him, I threw an elbow in his face. Then I went for an eye gouge, jabbing my finger hard into his eyeball. He let out an angry shout, punching me in the face.
My head hit the hard asphalt beneath me. Stars exploded behind my eyes. That wasn’t enough to make me stop fighting. He fought for my throat, like he planned to choke me to death. No mess. No weapon or evidence.
Who the hell was this guy? What kind of man would hook up with Nikki and do her bidding even after her death? Someone who hated my father? That could be just about anyone. Even someone inside his organization. The possibilities were endless. Maybe he was nothing more than her illicit lover, her accomplice. And now he wanted revenge.
In desperation, I grabbed a handful of tiny pebbles and gravel from the ground beside me and flung it in his eyes. It wasn’t easy with the mask he wore.
Unable to get my leg up to knee him in the balls, I tried shoving a hand down between us instead. Once I felt something soft and vulnerable between his legs, I squeezed and twisted.
His shriek was a thing of beauty. Curling into a ball, he rolled off me while trying pitifully to grab a handful of my hair. Jerking away, I shoved to my feet and kicked him hard in the face. He caught my foot, trying to pull me back down. With my other foot, I stomped his arm.
When he let go, I ran like hell toward the restaurant in the distance. I didn’t look back. As I reached the restaurant, Knight stepped out from between two cars. He caught me by my upper arms, bringing me to a sudden stop.
“Raina, what the fuck?” he demanded, his brown eyes wild. “Why did you take off like that?”
“There’s a man,” I babbled. “He’s chasing me. He tried to strangle me.”
I turned to look back at the electronics store parking lot. The man was gone.
CHAPTER FOUR
RAINA
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Havoc’s voice raised to an uncomfortable level. “Why would you take off like that when you know there’s someone looking for you?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared up at him from where I sat on one of the two couches in the living room. Havoc stood over me, doing his best to intimidate. I was still too freaked out from what had just happened to buy into it.
“I knew that she’d run the first chance she got,” Gage said with a smug smile. “I told you.”
He sat on the recliner chair in the corner, smirking at me like an evil villain plotting bad things. I flipped him a middle finger without looking away from Havoc.
“I didn’t run. I went for coffee. It’s not as if I was trying to hide or flee the city. You’re being a little heavy on the drama, Havoc.” Doing my best not to show him how scared I was from the incident earlier, I leaned back against the couch and rolled my eyes.
“You could have been killed. Or worse. What if that man didn’t plan to kill you? What if he wanted to abduct you, Raina? Did you consider that?” Havoc clenched both hands into tight fists, making the veins on his forearms pop. It briefly drew my gaze to the arrow tattooed on one arm.
Of course I’d considered that. I was a woman in a man’s toxic world. I’d learned from an early age not to trust men, as most of us had.
I shook my head and laughed. “Would you really care if he’d dragged me off and sold me to some freak on the black market? You’re not so squeaky clean with the purest of intentions either, you know.”
“Of course I’d care. I don’t like people touching my things.” Havoc stared down at me, a possessive gleam in his impossibly blue eyes. “You should work on your self-defense. Get in some practice. Maybe learn to shoot a gun too. This is no time to take stupid chances.”
