Page 104 of The Last Dance You Saved
As my mouth went dry and my palms turned sweaty, I stared numbly at her dark-brown hair that had been colored a deep burgundy and cut into an extra-short pixie. Her tall, muscular frame was clad in a red tank, black leather pants, and low-heeled, knee-high boots.
I might have mistaken her for any of the shop owners on Main Street if I hadn’t seen the look in her eyes. Rage and hate burned in them. A willingness to pull that trigger and end my life along with the life of the teen in my charge.
Goosebumps broke out over my body. I’d seen that look before. I’d seen it at the same time I’d faced another loaded weapon.
My throat tried to close, and blood rushed through my ears.
A millisecond too late, I tried to shove the door closed, but Theresa easily blocked it with a booted foot.
My first instinct was to scream at Fallon to run, to get the hell out via the front door, but I bit my tongue, hoping Theresa hadn’t seen us come in together.
“Why are you here? What do you want?” I forced myself to ask, hoping I sounded sure and unmoved rather than panicked and afraid.
“To start with, we’ll take the diamonds. And then we’ll see what else we can do to you that will torture Rafe Asshole Marquess when he finds you and knows he’s the reason it happened.”
“Hey, Sadie, is that an actual jukebox…” Fallon’s voice drained away as she stepped into the hallway, and Theresa’s gun shifted in her direction.
“Don’t hurt her!” I cried out, leaping between them. “Please, there’s no need. I’ll give you the jewelry. We just have to wait for the bank to open,” I told her, my voice shaking with the effort to stay calm.
“Nice try,” a dark voice from behind Theresa said. Adam emerged from the sunlight outside into the darkened hallway. He had a baseball hat tucked over his hair that he’d bleached a hideous white, and he wore a fake mustache that was equally bad. “Too bad you already told me you kept them in the safe here at the bar.”
He shut and locked the door behind him.
Sweat trailed down my back, and my lungs forgot to breathe as my brain screamed at me to move. To do something. Anything. But just like that day with Chainsaw, my feet felt like lead weights.
“Grab my niece,” Adam told Theresa.
As she started past me, my body finally obeyed my mind’s desperate plea, and I stuck out a foot, trying to trip her. She righted herself, and Adam lunged at me, swinging his fist. It collided with my cheek, and stars burst behind my eyes. I went reeling toward the wall, barely sticking my hands out to keep myself from slamming headfirst into it.
Fallon’s flight instincts finally took over, and she turned to run, but Theresa was faster. She grabbed her by her braids and yanked Fallon backward, shoving the gun into her temple with a thud I could hear across the hall.
Adrenaline and fear mixed as dark memories tried to resurface and shut me down further.
I saw it all again. Chainsaw pointing his gun at me and then at Mila as an utter sense of uselessness sank into my veins, every molecule turning into solid rock until I could do nothing. I hadn’t been able to keep my niece safe.
I fought back those frantic, hopeless thoughts and forced air into my lungs. “Please stop. Don’t hurt her.”
Adam stepped up behind me, twisting my arm so painfully I had to bite my lip to stop from crying out in agony. What had Gia said I should do when a larger opponent had me like this? Why couldn’t I think of the answer? Why couldn’t I react?
Theresa’s eyes glinted as she watched the agony cross my face. She had Fallon in a clawlike grip, but it was Adam’s hard words that made the fear inside me swell to a whole new level.
“You screwed everything up, Sadie. You. I had everything under control until you sent that damn letter about the diamonds. Then, Spence started asking questions, hoping and digging into things he’d let rest his entire life. I was forced to speed up the movement of my money, and it raised his goddamn alarms. You started us on this downward spiral. And then you had to drag Rafe into it, whoring and stealing from us and the Puzos, just like your great-grandmother. But we can end all of it today. Right every damn sin. Every damn curse.”
Damn it, I had to do something. I had to move. I had to slap back before I lived through the same horror of what had happened three years ago with Mila. I’d be shot. Worse, Fallon might be shot.
Nausea rolled.
God… God…Think, Sadie, think.
As Adam shoved me toward the office, my gaze landed on the camera in the upper corner of the hall, and a brief, temporary sense of relief washed over me. The bar’s outside cameras were tied to the same systems as the ones at the ranch. Someone would have seen Theresa and her gun. They’d have seen her with a man and known it was Adam, even if he’d tried to disguise himself.
I just had to give us time for the cavalry to arrive. For my brothers to show up.
I sounded as breathless and scared as I felt, voice wavering as I told them, “I don’t have the jewelry here anymore. I moved it after I came back from California. You’ll have to wait until the bank opens.”
Adam’s voice was dark and ominous when he said, “Liar. We can add liar to your list of sins.”
I shook my head, and he hit me again, this time open-handed in a way that would leave the shape of his palm on my cheek and had me biting my tongue. My head spun. Spots drifted across my vision, and my stomach flipped once more. But I dug my nails into my palm, forcing myself not to pass out. I wouldn’t lose consciousness again. Not like last time.
