Page 25 of Fire in Stone

“Good point,” he agreed. “I’d drink to that. If I had wine.” He glanced at his cup of now cold coffee with undisguised resentment.

“But you don’t.” I took his cup. “And it’s way too early for drinking, so…” I gathered the rest of our trash, including the tiny ball he had pressed the sandwich wrapper into. “We best get going. Now that we know where to go.”

Georgia.

Who knew?

Magic truly was all around us. One just had to look for it closely.

I shook my head with a smile, heading to the trash can on the train platform across the street. There were much fewer people at the station now that the morning rush had passed.

As I walked by the platform shelter, a dark shadow leaped my way from around it. A rough arm suddenly grabbed me from behind.

“There you are. You dirty little thief,” a voice with a thick German accent hissed in my ear.

Dread froze my insides, robbing my lungs of air.

Six

AMBER

Ahand fisted in my hair, brutally yanking my head back.

“Wo ist es?Where is it?” the man growled in my ear, holding me from behind. “Where’s the fucking statue?”

The Miller Brothers.

My stomach hollowed with terror.

How did they find me? No one in this country knew what I looked like. Maybe I could convince him he had the wrong girl?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whimpered.

He tsked above my ear. “A thiefanda liar. Not good.”

I’d laugh at that admonishment, delivered by a criminal much worse than I ever was. Except that this wasn’t a laughing matter. It was all I could do not to break into tears from fear.

The train platform suddenly looked deserted. Everyone had either left with the last train or hid at the sight of the armed men rushing here from across the street.

I ventured a quick glance at the bench where Elex and I had been sitting. My duffel bag remained on the ground next to it, but Elex was no longer sitting there. Instead, he was running toward me. Fast.

A man leaped into his path. “Hey, who the fuck are you?”

Elex swung a fist, tossing the man more than fifteen feet away. It didn’t even look like it cost him that much effort. He swatted the thug out of his way as if the man was a fly.

A vehicle screeched to a halt. A few more thugs climbed out of it. Another car joined them.

How many men did they send to apprehend one single woman with a statue?

More thugs charged Elex. He scattered them all with a few well-placed blows. The graceful movements of his large, toned body made the fight look like a dance—smooth and easy. He turned in my direction again, his dark eyes narrowed into slits, focusing on my attacker.

The man holding me snarled at me, “Do you know what you got yourself into?”

“Let me go!” I struggled against his grip.

A few people headed to the platform from a nearby parking lot. The moment they spotted what was happening here, however, they scurried away. Some of them pulled their cellphones out, making calls, I hoped to the police.

The thugs didn’t seem concerned, though. The one holding me dragged me toward one of their cars. They clearly intended to be out of the area by the time the authorities arrived.

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