Page 1 of Burn

Prologue

GRACE

The hand wrapped around my throat tightened, threatening to squeeze off what little air I could inhale through my nose thanks to the meaty hand plastered against my mouth. The only thing I could smell was the stench of sweat, feces, and urine. The room reeked. My eyes watered as I fought to keep my breathing shallow. An impossible task with my heart desperately sprinting as if it would get us to freedom.

“Gracie!” Alphabet’s voice rang out of the darkness. “Come on, Gracie. I know you’re pissed. I’d be pissed too. But this isn’t the time to play these games.”

A whimper of sound scrabbled in my throat and the hand fastened over my mouth went even tighter. The pressure dug his fingers into my cheeks, as if burning their imprint into my face. I jerked my gaze up to the dark eyes of the man holding me.

He was a giant. Bigger than Voodoo and Bones. I twisted, trying to kick him again. The fact he held me off the ground with only his hand on my throat gave me desperate little in the way of purchase. Twice I connected with his leg, but he barely even flinched.

“Gracie,” Alphabet called again, the coaxing note in his voice almost sweet. “C’mon, I promise, I’ll pin the dickhead down for you and you can pummel him.”

The tears spilling out of my eyes redoubled at the kindness in that offer.

Spots danced in front of my eyes as the amount of oxygen I was even able to suck in through my nose seemed to be too thin. I’d gone scuba diving once. The mix had been a little off. I’d gotten lightheaded and sick. Thankfully, the diver with me had recognized it almost immediately. It could have gone so much worse.

My captor shoved even closer to me, like he wanted to cover me with his whole body. With his stench. The smell alone was nauseating. Combined with the smothering effect of his grip, I fought to maintain my awareness. His face was so close to me, all I could see were his dark eyes and the scar that bisected his eyebrow.

I wasn’t going down like this. I wasn’t going to die, in the dark, covered by the smell of someone who had spent too much time with corpses. I wasn’t dyinghere…

Raising my hands, I dug my fingers into his wrist. I needed something to hold. Something to tear into with everything I had. I worked my way up to his thumb. With both of his hands on me, he couldn’t go for a gun or another weapon.

“Gracie…” Alphabet’s voice was drawing mercifully closer. I managed to get a grip around my captor’s thumb. The shift in his grip freed up my jaw for a split second and I bit down into the meat of the man’s palm.

He jerked and slammed my head back against the wood. The spots dancing in front of my eyes threatened to black me out as I slid down the wood. I needed to yell. His hand was off my mouth but the grip on my throat had tightened completely, shutting off my air.

Then he had a gun in his hand. The barest flicker of light gleamed off the weapon. A footstep with a familiar drag just outside the barn door. That was right, I was in a barn. The world spiraled as my lungs caught fire. I couldn’t breathe. I needed air.

Fighting harder, I clawed at his arm, at his hand and flailed with my feet, but he only knocked me against the wood again and as everything went black, the gun went off.

A crack of fire in the darkness that swallowed me whole.

Chapter

One

GRACE

The car picked me up at four in the morning to get me to the shoot before sunrise. The perfume campaign was kicking off with a series of print ads, billboards, and eventually commercials. My agent was up my ass about setting up a “publationship” with someone in the sports or acting world. It would raise my profile and set the stage for making the leap from modeling to acting.

Possibly.

Course, I wasn’t totally decided on making that leap. Not that my agent wanted to listen to me on the subject. Modeling was a challenge thatalsorequired a solid bit of acting to deliver the mood, or not deliver it, as required by the job. Five years in the business and I still enjoyed what I did.

The air was crisp when the driver opened my door. I was more than capable of doing it. This early, however, I would absolutely let them spoil me.

“You made good time,” Nancy, my manager’s assistant and also mine for shoot days, said as she met me with a stay-warm tumbler. The flat white was the perfect temperature, likely made in the past five minutes. My driver probably kept them alert towhen I was arriving. The unsweetened oat milk added a creamy texture while the non-dairy helped prevent bloating.

It was the only indulgence for the long shoot in front of me. While I preferred to limit those when working, it was too damn early in the morning and the day promised to be brutally long. I deserved the coffee, particularly since it would just be water after this. I’d add electrolytes to the rotation at lunch because food wasn’t on the menu untilafterwe finished.

“Madeline and Louise are already here,” Nancy said as she walked with me toward the trailers that were set up. The whole shoot was on location with a full crew from the photographer, the product company,andthe marketing company. “Eleanor is still on her way.”

Nancy climbed the three short steps ahead of me to the prep trailer and opened the door. The warmth inside flowed out to wrap around us.

“There she is!” Louise hustled up the aisle to me. “Good, you have your coffee, come sit, sit. Let’s make you more beautiful.”

From the moment I arrived, I relaxed into the moment and just sipped my coffee while Louise and Madeline debated the hair, the makeup, and the look they were going for. Since we would have several styles for the day, they had to go with what the photographer and marketing rep had agreed on first. All I had to do was settle in and let them play like I was the dress up doll.

---