Page 80 of You Don’t Kiss Your Brother's Best Friends

I slammed the locker closed and bounded back up the hill, now a good fifty pounds heavier than before. From this moment on, every second would be important. I only hoped I could hook up with the others in time, before things went completely sideways.

CLICK.

The sound was ominously familiar: the hammer of a pistol being drawn back. I’d heard it a million times, but never six inches from my right ear. I froze instantly, my heart pounding.

“Whatcha got there, Delaney?”

~ 48 ~

JOCELYN

For having her feet rooted to the floor only moments ago, Dorothea sure moved swiftly. The tiny blonde broke free of my grasp and flew down the hallway leading into the kitchen. This time however, she turned right and headed straight for the front door.

“Dorothea! Wait!”

Stopping her was hopeless, I knew. By now fear had taken over completely, and she was mindlessly frantic and single-minded in her goal. Not to mention, astonishingly fast.

Somewhere behind me, I could hear Roman screaming again. This time, someone was yelling back at him. The argument rose in pitch and volume, until it was cut short by the unmistakable sound of scuffling and violence.

A chair hit the floor, followed by more screaming and fighting. There was the roar of a gunshot, then another, and then suddenly everyone was firing at once.

I ran full tilt, instinctively bending at the waist and covering my head with my hands. The move proved foolish. My shuffling feet couldn’t keep up with the rest of my body, and a moment later I was pinwheeling head-first, out of control.

The resulting collision would’ve knocked me unconscious, if I hadn’t had my hands overhead to cushion the blow. My wrists exploded with pain as I sprawled to thefloor, cursing and screaming, heedless for the time being of the unimaginable violence taking place in the dining room behind me.

“SON OF A—”

“Bitch?”

I screamed again as my hair was yanked practically out of my head. Suddenly I was being pulled from the hallway, half dragged, half crawling into a side room to keep from being scalped. Somehow I got back to my feet, but that was a mistake too. A split-second before I could regain my balance, two furious hands collided with my breasts, shoving me backwards and sending me sprawling painfully back to the floor.

“Get up.”

The voice was low and gravelly and dripping with malice. It didn’t belong to anyone I knew, except that it did.

“Get up so I can shove you right through that fucking window.”

‘That window’ was the breathtaking plate glass wonder I’d grown so very fond of during my initial week here. We were in the library, now. And the person standing between me and the exit; was Evelyn.

“You want him?” she snarled, her eyes all bleary and full of hatred. “You can have him. But first,Emily…you’re going to tell me who you really are.”

The way she sneered my name left zero doubt that she’d caught on. Evelyn’s hair was matted and disheveled, her eyes all swollen and puffy. She’d obviously been drinking. I could smell it all over her as she dragged me. But she’d been crying, too.

“Evelyn—”

“You’re sure as fuck not Emily,” she swore angrily. “I checked on that. Emily’s back at home. Someone intercepted her on the way to the dock, and paid her four times her normal fee not to show up.”

“Evelyn, listen to me.”

“Listen to you?” she shrieked, mockingly. “Listen tothis!”

She ran forward to kick me, but this time I was ready. I dodged to one side, grabbed her beneath the ankle, and shoved upward as hard as I could. The sudden addition to her momentum threw her completely off balance, heaving her into the air for a very alarmed-looking half-second.

Then gravity took over, and dropped her flat on her ass.

I moved to scramble to my feet again, but something pulled me back. Somehow, she had my ankle. Even drunk, the bitch was surprisingly fast.

“Who are you?” she growled, scratching her way up my leg. “You’re going to tell me.”

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