Page 7 of Under His Embrace

Her.A woman.

“Knocked out cold, but she’s got a steady pulse,” Liam replied as I approached the prone body of a slender blonde on the disgusting carpet.

He blocked her face, but that long, blonde hair was like a sucker punch to the gut. Soft and so golden, even in lousy lighting.Like Chloe.

Before I could scold myself for thinking of her again, I neared them and realized it would be impossible to talk myself out of letting her stay in my mind. I blinked once, not trusting my eyes. My vision was fine, though. I stood there, stunned speechless and unable to move, shocked down to the marrow of my bone and the bottom of my heart.

What the fuck?

Confusion battled with my shock.

Because the witness, the only surviving employee at A&J’s Deli, was none other than the ex I never got over.

Chloe.

It was her.

4

CHLOE

Between the sharp, stabbing pain at the back of my head and the lighter taps on my cheek, I woke up with a nasty headache. Bile rose. Dizziness rattled my bearings, and as I squinted my eyes closed tighter to avoid facing what awaited me, a low groan rolled through my chest.

Pain took over my body. After the rush from last night and at least a decade of skimping and saving to the point that I was chronically malnourished and low on energy, I didn’t want to get up. I needed more rest. I wanted to sleep. I had to have five more minutes to let my body recharge.

“Get up.”

I winced, more aware of the facial movement I made. The man who ordered me was firm but not mean.

Unlike the other ones who… Who…

I frowned, still lacking the energy to open my eyes. Thoughts floated out of my reach. On the edge of my conscious awareness, memories threatened to come back.

Unlike who?I was scared before I passed out, but then again, I was always terrified. How couldn’t I be with the life I led, with the consequences I had to suffer from the horrible choices I’d made?

I’d been running. Again, nothing new. But this time, it was different. I couldn’t run too far or too hard because I had a job. I had bosses who’d expect me to show up at my new job now.

Manny and Suzie.I worked for them. I thought I did. But as I caught on to their names, more memories rushed back in. They were dead. Shot at that deli shop. The men who killed them chased me too.

More recent, hazy images flitted through my mind’s eye. I saw myself driving the A&J van. Seeing Winonna at the motel check-in desk. Hiding in the bed but falling to the carpet to hide under the bed. Then those men bursting through the door.

All the ideas seemed so far away and loose, like I was on the outside looking in. Like I was floating, untethered.

Am I dying?This numb sense of pain and weightlessness didn’t make sense. I’d driven myself to the point of exhaustion before. Moving to New York and starting a new job was stressful, but to witness murders on top of it all?

Am I dead?

“Wake up,” the man ordered again. His hand patted at both of my cheeks, and the slight impact jarred me again. I couldn’t take solace in the darkness of unconsciousness any longer. Not with how determined he was to wake me up and jostle me.

“I…” My mouth was too dry. My throat felt tight, but as I woke up more, my lungs couldn’t fill fast enough.

“Slowly,” the man encouraged. “Hey,” he said. “Are you all right?” His voice shifted, like he’d moved his head and spoken to someone else. If he had been asking me that question, I wouldn’t have been able to confirm whether I was. This emptiness and lack of willpower worried me.

Am I dead?

I only had to open my eyes, but it was such a struggle to do so. Everything was a struggle, but I always powered through. I had to, if not for myself, then for my son.

Wrenching my eyes open was too sudden of a shift. Light penetrated and caused tears to well up. Blinking faster, I tested out more of a range of facial movements to combat my eyes tearing up at the brightness.

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