Page 48 of Burn

Then an arm wrapped around me from behind and hauled me upward and backward. Maybe it was the guys?

That hope died with the smell of heavy onions, garlic, and what could only be cilantro.

The taser slid in my palm as I clawed at the arm around me. It released a little whine like it was charging. I couldn’t get his arm off of me, but he was still holding me, so I tased his arm. His guttural shout was a reward as he convulsed around me.

Then we were both falling.

Chapter

Seventeen

GRACE

Iwas lucky I didn’t bite my tongue, as it was, I bashed my elbow and narrowly avoided hitting my head as I slid. I scrambled to hang onto the taser, but my hands and arms weren’t doing what I told them to do.

Bouncing over the roughness of the ground just made it harder as I tumbled. I wanted to try and catch myself. Casting up against a heavier chunk of rock, I stopped sliding. The surface was rough on my palms. The taser was gone and I fumbled in the dark for it.

My jaw still trembled and my teeth clacked together. It seemed to take me more than a minute to think about what I wanted to do, process it, and then get my body to do it. Even then, I couldn’t get my legs under me. It was like I couldn’t process the fight or flight colliding in my system.

A grunt came from the man in the dark. There wasn’t enough light from the headlights above to see where the man was. I made it to my feet and a hand clasped my ankle.

“Goddammit,” I swore, jerking my foot back and toppling at the same time. It was like something right out of a nightmare. The man was just there, gripping my leg again and dragging me. Pulling me toward him, I surmised.

I didn’t want to go to him. I didn’t want to go to anyone. I just wanted to get away. I started kicking with one foot for all I was worth. I couldn’t seem to break his grip on the one leg, but the minute I made contact with his chest, and shoulder, I kicked harder.

His grunts punctuated swear words. “You fucking little cunt…”

The voice gave me another target, and I managed to land my foot against his cheek and jaw. His grip on my leg spasmed and I yanked it free. Crab walking backwards, I didn’t get far.

The slap of his hand on my leg halted my progress. Dragging me toward him, he banged me against more rocks and sharp stones. A light burned into my retinas and left me seeing halos dancing in the air.

It also gave me an up close and personal look at the man holding onto me. Dark eyes, dark hair, a red angry mark on his cheek that looked like something my shoe had left. The rushing of footsteps rustled through the grass.

My assailant jerked his head to look past me. He struck me with an elbow and I went down sideways. My face exploded with pain and my eyes went blind with tears. I tried to cover myself from more blows, when something slammed into the man over me.

I barely got my head up to see him hit the ground. Then a fist landed into his face. Then another. The wet impact of flesh slamming into flesh filled the air around us. The light that had dazzled my eyes came from a high-powered flashlight laying on the ground a few feet away.

For all that it seemed I’d traveled farther in the dark, the Jeep was only two dozen feet away, maybe less. The man who’d been attacking me was down, and there was a distinct crack of bone to go with the wetter blows.

Something hot splashed against my face. Eventually, the rain of blows slowed as the man ceased any attempt to fight back. He wasn’t moving at all. If anything, I didn’t even hear him breathing.

The smell of hot copper stained the air to go with the metallic flavor in my mouth. I tried to look for the taser, but the world was cast in an array of shadows thanks to the blazing bright single light.

I needed to get out of here before whoever that was decided I was a prisoner too. Climbing to my feet was a challenge, particularly with how hard I was shaking. A shift of the light cut across the downed man’s face.

Or what was left of his face. It was mostly a bloody, swollen mess and I jerked my gaze up from it immediately. The man turning to face me was?—

Bones.

I sagged at the recognition which brought a certain amount of relief with it.

“Why are you out here?” His voice was so soft, I almost didn’t hear it.

“Because bullets hit the car and I didn’t want to get shot inside of it.”

“So you decided to get shot outside of it?”

“No, I decided to run. I had my taser.”

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