Page 1 of Salacious Devotion

Prologue

Paige

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“Baby, where are you?”

“Ugh. I’m at the bank,” I tell Dane. “The line is long. I need to deposit my check before they close.”

“Okay, well, get here as soon as you can. We’re all waiting for you. You’re missing your own birthday party.” He chuckles.

I love his laugh. It’s infectious. It makes me smile every time. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I end the call, stuff my phone in my purse, and sigh. What the fuck is holding everything up? I lean to one side, and all the blood runs from my face.

“Hands in the air!” shouts a masked man holding a rifle. “NOW! Every fucking one of you.”

Fuck.

“On your knees!” This voice comes from behind me, and I twist to see a second man in a ski mask.

I’m shaking violently as I drop down to the tile floor. This can’t be happening. A bank robbery? This town isn’t large enough to warrant a bank robbery. I doubt there’s enough money in this bank to be worth it.

A gunshot goes off, and I jerk my gaze back to the front to see the man up by the tellers has shot at the ceiling. Drywall rains down. Everyone screams.

There are sirens in the distance. Don’t bank tellers have some sort of button they can push that automatically alerts the cops?

“Hurry the fuck up!” barks the man at the door.

“I said to open the drawer, bitch,” yells his accomplice, who’s next to the teller, swinging the rifle around.

People are crying. Sobbing. Many of them have dropped to the floor, huddled together. I’m frozen in my spot, and my ears are ringing from the gunshot.

The sirens get louder. They must be closer.

A man in front of me jumps up and charges at the robber who’s trying to get in the drawer.

The masked man shoots him in the chest, causing everyone to scream louder as the man drops to the floor, dead.

I slap my hands over my ears. My heart is racing. I’m going to die right here in the fucking bank. It’s my twenty-fourth birthday, and I’m going to die.

Dane…

He’ll be devastated.

Someone else tackles the man with the rifle, and it goes off again. It’s large and ominous—a machine gun or something.

Suddenly, the thief starts shooting. I watch in slow motion as he depresses the trigger and mows down everyone in the bank from one side of the room to the other.

I fall forward as a bullet hits me. I can’t find my voice to scream. All sound is stuck inside me. It won’t come out. It’s jammed. All I hear is the loud ringing inside my head. I open my eyes, wondering why I’m able to. No one is screaming any longer. It’s eerily silent except for the residual sound of the machine gun echoing off the walls.

I lift my head. My body won’t cooperate. My breath catches as someone comes from behind the gunman, jumps on his back, and pulls the ski mask off his face. I’m frozen as I stare in horror. The gunman shrugs off the man, turns, and shoots him several times.

I jerk my gaze toward the door to find the other robber dead behind me. His partner shot him.

When I glance back at the gunman, he’s doing something with his rifle. Reloading it? I’m flat on my stomach, and I twist my head to look around. No one is moving. All I see is blood. There’s no more screaming. No crying. Not a single word or sound—except for the sirens getting louder.

The gunman scans the room. He sees me. We make eye contact. I stop breathing. I’m staring right at him. I don’t know how injured I am. Adrenaline is pumping so hard through my veins. I don’t know what part of my body was shot. I only know I can’t move more than my head.

Dark eyes stare at me. They narrow. He grins a wicked grin that chills me to the bone. He will kill me. He has no choice. I’ve seen him. I can identify him. When he smiles, I find myself staring at crooked teeth. He has on a black tank top. There’s a tattoo running down one side of his face and a sleeve on his arm. His hair is dark and cropped short. His jaw is square.

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