Page 93 of Mountain Daddy

I hit the metal floor hard. Before I can scramble away, one of them climbs in after me, grabs my ankles. I kick out, miss, try again.

“Hold her down!”

Another man pins my shoulders. His face hovers above mine, but the tattoo on his neck is all I see. A raven above a burning building. The same as above my bakery after the vandalism.

Fuck. They’re the ones who ruined my place.

Nikolai knows these guys. He killed a couple of them just hours ago.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Nikolai's enemies have come back with a vengeance.

One of the guys comes at me now, a needle in his hand.

They’re going to drug me.

I fight and kick and try to pull away, but the man holding me down? He’s too strong.

My eyes blast open. I shake my head.

“Please, please, please,” I cry. “No. No. Don’t.”

They chuckle. The needle coming closer.

I hear one of them say. “Let’s go get her boy next. I took down the car plate number he went off in.”

NO! NOT CHLEO.

With whatever little fight I have left in me, I scream into the van. Pray Nikolai can hear. “NIKOLAI! THEY’RE GOING TO ROSA’S. THEY KNOW ABOUT CHLEO. THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE HI-”

The needle plunges into my neck before I can finish. Fire spreads through my veins. The world tilts sideways.

The last thing I hear is Nikolai's voice, distant and tinny through the phone speaker.

“Lilly? Lilly, where are you?”

Then darkness swallows me whole.

22

NIKOLAI

Iwas still scrubbing blood from my shirt when the call connected.

A scream.

Her scream.

I’m already in the car. Driving towards the bakery. Listening to every assault she suffers. Preparing to make round two of kills for the day.

“NIKOLAI! THEY’RE GOING TO ROSA’S. THEY KNOW ABOUT CHLEO. THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE HI?—”

The line goes dead.

“LILLY? ARE YOU THERE? LILLY?”

Silence.

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