Page 139 of Vengeful Guard

Someone bumps into me hard and…

I open my eyes.

But I can’t see. I hurt, though. All over.

Reality hurts, but I remember now.

I snuck out of my house, like I did that time when I was sixteen, and when I got home, Da was sitting in the living room in the dark.

I nearly screamed because Da was hardly ever in the living room.

“Are you going to yell at me?” I looked down at my feet before peeking at him through my eyelashes.

Da shook his head. “Not going to yell, Paige. But it’s time for us to have a wee chat.”

I swallowed hard, sitting down across from him on the couch. He always sat in that same, stinky recliner when he came in here.

“I’m sorry.”

Da looked far away, as if he was thinking and not listening to me.

“Paige, do you know what I do for a living?”

“Aye.”

Da smiled. He always did when my accent, however light, came out.

“Then you know that I’m a dangerous man.”

“Not to me.” I smiled, but Da’s smile faded.

“Never to you, no. But that means that other dangerous men are after what I’ve got. After the people I love.”

“They’re after me?”

“And if you ever get captured, Paige, do you know what to do?”

“Fight,” I said, knowing confidently that was the right answer. Da had taught us as small children to scream, kick, fight if we were ever touched by anyone we didn’t know.

“Aye.” Da nodded once. “You fight for all you’re worth, Paige Burke. And you’re worth a lot.”

My legs cramping up pull me out of my memory, and I hiss, wanting to scream and cry.

The car is slowing down, and the ground below us sounds different. Maybe a parking space.

I kick at the trunk with all my might, but there’s only a useless thudding sound before someone jerks open the trunk lid.

I try to pry my eyes open, and I’m able to get a slight slit to look through.

The skinny guy I punched on the nose looks down at me, and he still has blood on his face.

Though my face hurts like hell, I smirk, unable to help myself, and he backhands me across the face hard, making my teeth snap together so hard I think one of them might have cracked.

“Bitch.” He yanks me out by my elbows, and puts me over his shoulder, carrying me across the huge parking lot.

I scream, and Fatso approaches me.

“Shut up, or I’ll do it for you.”

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