Page 1 of Three to Fall

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HAYDEN

Anger swirled in the air. One person’s hate and greed spread to the next like wildfire, until normally sensible people were dragged under by the tide of evil that Josiah’s podcast stirred up.

One hundred thousand dollars to the person who captured his wife and returned her to him. He’d painted a target on her back in bright-red paint, impossible for the underprivileged people in this town to ignore.

The crowd swarmed, engulfing me, an angry mob all shouting for Kara’s capture.

Or her blood.

Every cell in my body demanded I run toward her. Hurt these people who wanted to take her from me. Pull her into my arms and put my body between her and the very real danger surrounding us.

But then she’d signed Hayley Jade’s name.

And in the same sign language we’d been learning so we could communicate with her nonverbal daughter, Kara told me she loved me. Signed it with her fingers through the glasswindow of the security door, barely hanging on against the barrage of chairs and fists thrown at it.

She needed to run, but she wouldn’t while I was standing here.

Wouldn’t until she knew her daughter was safe.

I wanted to scream for how stubborn she was.

Just nights earlier, she’d made me promise I would always put Hayley Jade first.

Now I needed to hold up my end of the bargain. Trust that she was strong enough to save herself while I went for the daughter she’d die for.

With every muscle in my body screaming to protect her, I turned and ran in the opposite direction. Leaving Kara to save herself.

I burst out into the daylight, bellowing out my frustration and fear.

My shout faded away, and I muttered to myself, “Get it together.” If something happened to Hayley Jade because I was standing here falling apart over Kara, then I was no good to anyone.

The streets from the hospital to Hayley Jade’s school felt a million miles long, and yet they flew by outside the car windows. In a blur, I called nine-one-one, shouting down the line that the hospital needed help before gunning my truck toward the gates of Hayley Jade’s school.

They were wide open.

No security guard in sight.

No sign of Ice or one of the other prospects Hawk had assigned to stand guard every day Hayley Jade was there. Dark figures scattered throughout the schoolyards, fighting to make their way inside, shouts and cries breaking through the screaming siren of the school’s panic alarm.

The mob had made its way to the school. A bounty on Hayley Jade’s head, the same as the one on her mother’s.

My blood ran cold at the sight of the Slayers’ club van, abandoned a few feet away from the gate, engine still running.

No one inside it.

Suddenly, I wondered if Kara had sent me after Hayley Jade.

Or after Hawk.

“Dammit, Kara,” I swore beneath my breath, realizing it was probably a combination of both. The woman was too damn selfless for her own good, always putting others first.

Bile rose in my throat at the sight of three men at the office administration door.

“Where is she, bitch?” one shouted. He smashed his fist against the wood. “Open this fucking door and tell us, then we’ll be on our way!”

“We’ve called the police!” the terrified woman on the inside called back. “Just leave!”

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