Page 22 of Burn

I leaned my head back.

Something dug into my hip and I shifted to pull the framed photograph out. Am stared up at me from where we stood, arm in arm. It had been her graduation from law school.

“I need to call my sister.”

The guys didn’t say anything.

“Please,” I said. “I just need to call her and make sure she is all right.”

“We’ll take care of it, after we’re secure,” Alphabet said. “I didn’t see another team, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. Running silent and fast is the best thing we can do right now.”

“Is your sister in New York?” Lunchbox asked.

I shook my head. “No.” I wasn’t sure where she was, that was the problem.

“Good, then we don’t have to worry about her going into your place.”

“If someone is after me…” That meant they could be after her too. Or they already had her. More and more, that reality settled into my bones and I wanted to cry.

The more the tears burned in my eyes the angrier I got. Am had to be all right. She just had to be.

“No ifs,” Lunchbox said and I caught his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Don’t know why, but you were definitely the target. We’ll get you secure, don’t worry. Then we’ll reach out to your sister. If necessary, we’ll pull her out too.”

If necessary…

Then what? What were we supposed to do? Just stay with these guys? I didn’t barely knew them. They barely knew me.

And they still came in to save me.

An immutable fact. They could have just left after they dropped me off. They didn’t.

They’d gotten me out. They dealt with the pursuers. Goblin bumped his head against my hand and I glanced down at him.

Fine, I would trust them for now.

“How long until we get somewhere secure?”

Chapter

Eight

LUNCHBOX

At some point, mercifully, our passenger fell asleep. The shadows under her eyes and the pallor to her skin couldn’t diminish her beauty. If anything, the smudges and lack of color, gave her a more hollowed out look, yet the tarnish couldn’t reduce the shine.

Grace Black was a stunner. More than that, she had a million dollar smile who lit up every campaign she’d ever been a part of, from fashion to cars to perfume and more. I still couldn’t get past the fact she was found on a truck of trafficking victims.

In no way did she fit that profile. If anything, she was the farthest from it. She had a high profile, recognizable, and was even featured in some memes the last time I checked. She may not be Gigi or Bella Hadid famous yet, but she was well on her way despite her small size. Most models were a lot taller than her what? 5’2? 5’3?

Maybe not a household nameyet. But if I recognized her, well, she couldn’t be far off it.

“She still out?” Alphabet asked in a low voice and I nodded.

“Hopefully she sleeps the rest of the way to the rendezvous. I don’t think she’s slept once since we met her.” The wariness inher killed me. I wouldn’t call her wounded, but I didn’t doubt the wounds were there.

Then I kept circling back to her expression when we came in. She’d been fighting. There’d been a cold kind of rage in her face and a fire in her eyes. From the destruction around her, she’d been throwing everything at the guy. It wasn’t going to help much when he had an easy seventy pounds more muscle on him.

Still, had to admire her. I’d wanted to kill the guy because as soon as the fight was over, all the fight bled out of her. It was like someone just cut her strings and she sagged.

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