Page 71 of Coerced

Seeing a ball of orange coming at me, I threw up a shield as hard as diamond. I didn’t wanna be controlled. I didn’t wanna be calmed.

“Breathe, buddy.” He came closer. “Slow and easy.”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t think the same thing! All of you did!”

Flames licked up and down my arms, telling me my control was nearly gone, so I turned and walked away.

“You can’t leave. You’re our team leader!” he called out. “What do we do with this dead body?”

“Ask Rome! I quit!”

“You can’t quit in the middle of a mission!”

“This isn’t a mission anymore!” I bellowed. “It’s a complete cluster!”

I slashed a hand through the air and accidentally exploded the Christmas tree next to me.

Crap. I reallyamgonna hurt someone.

So I ran, my legs and arms pumping like pistons, and got away from there.

What I’d suspected from the beginning was true. They were only friends with me out of pity. I had pity friends and a pity girlfriend. They let me tag along and included me in stuff because they pitied me. Wasn’t like they reallywantedto be my friend.

Maybe they saw it as the right thing to do, to be nice to the scarred freak no one else would bother with. Probably was some kind of effing virtue.

Or, a new thought dawned on me, they didn’t want me to twist like Cole Fanishell or Reilly Argaud and have to fight me a few years down the road.

Okay,Gemmaain’t capable of thinking that way, but Jax and John definitely are. It’s whatIwould think.

Running even faster, I ignored the branches and thorns tearing at me and let my feet go where they wanted. It didn’t matter where I ended up or if I ran into whatever had killed that old woman or if something happened to me. It hadn’t mattered to anyone for years.

Why would it matter now?

#

Gemma

“What do I do? What do I do?WHAT DO I DO?!”

I ended on a scream and ground my fists into my forehead.

Bent double under the unbearable pain in my chest, I was vaguely aware of Gigi leaning down and talking to me, then someone touched my arm and I felt Jax’s power flow into me.

“Easy, Gemma. Calm down. He’ll be back after he blows off some steam. Then you can make it right.”

“I don’t know if I can make this right.” Tears coursed down my cheeks. “Did you see hisface? Did you see hiseyes? If I’d stabbed him in the heart, I couldn’t have done more damage!”

Tara and Maddy joined the huddle around me, trying to offer comfort.

“We have to make it right.” John sounded upset. “We all jumped to the same conclusion.”

“And it hurt him.” Gigi sniffed. “I mean, ithurthim.”

“Why didn’t you say anything, Rome?” Chance’s voice was quiet, but I heard it. “You could have stopped them before things escalated.”

I looked over at Rome, who hadn’t spoken or moved since I’d found them. The big warrior wore a look of disgust on his face, and I cowered a little as he glared at me. Swiping my tears away with the back of my hand, I straightened up and faced the music.

“Didn’t have a chance to say anything. Kerry and I were trying to find an ID on the body so we could plan what to do with it whenshecame running up.” He threw down the backpack he was holding and stood. “He rolled the woman over and I said he shouldn’t have done that. Meaning, if we decide to call in the human authorities, they’ll know he moved the body. You know how they worship science, especially forensics. Next thing I know, everyone’s yelling about Kerry murdering a human.”

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