Page 6 of Splintered Memories
“Damn, I’m so sorry.” Lark had recently found out she was pregnant and as happy as I was for her, she sounded rough. “Do you need anything?”
“No, I’ll be okay. Reid is home.”
A smile pulled at my lip. Reid Ramsey was her fiancé, one of the rare good guys out there. I had no doubt he was taking great care of her. “All right, well, keep me updated on how you’re doing.”
“I will. Talk to you later.”
We hung up, and I stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of my brother’s building, still looking down at my phone to check my notifications. I opened my email when I suddenly collided into a solid wall of muscle.
I gasped, bouncing back and almost losing my footing.
“Whoa, there,” said a deep voice. A steady hand gripped my elbow, helping me regain my purchase.
I blinked up into a pair of light-gray eyes that gleamed in the sun.
August Ramsey left one hand lingering on my arm as the other balanced a large, pink box of donuts from the bakery. “Hey, Emy,” he said, voice bright as he gave me a boyish grin.
My heart shifted in my chest without my permission.
“How are you?”
I scowled, pulling away from him until my back pressed up against the brick building behind me. My skin tingled where his fingers had slipped from my arm. My scowl deepened.
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped, my hand curling tighter around my phone.
August’s grin faltered. “Huh?” He tilted his head to the side, inspecting me with those eyes that always seemed to see more than they should.
I hadn’t known August Ramsey long. The thing about becoming friends with Lark was that she was thoroughly involved with theRamsey family. In turn, I was also sort of involved with the Ramseys. Including, unfortunately, the insufferable August.
“Don’t call me Emy,” I clarified, annoyed.
I didn’t know why it bothered me when he called me by my nickname, but it did. A lot of things about August annoyed me, from the first moment I met him at his family’s Christmas party and he pinned me with that easygoing smile and perfect white teeth. He hadn’t left me alone much of that night, flirting shamelessly like he was a prize. I didn’t trust people who thought too much of themselves.
“Oh, sorry.” He cupped the back of his neck with a hand.
My cheeks heated, and I looked away. I didn’t know what it was, but August just…put me on edge. I sensed warning bells from the first time I made eye contact with him.
August might have a flawless reputation around Ember Hollow—the treasured son of the Ramsey clan, the Marine who gallantly came back home after being injured in the line of duty to start a security company—but I wasn’t falling for it. It didn’t matter how his reputation painted him; no one who flirted like him often had good intentions.
Either that, or I was more broken and messed up than I realized.
“Are you all right, Emersyn?” August sounded concerned.
I refused to look back at him. My heart raced, fluttering against my ribs in a way that had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. I nodded, pressing my lips together because somewhere in the back of my mind I was fully aware that I was being irrational. August had done nothing but be flirtatious with me at a Christmas party three months ago. He had been kind to me otherwise, but I hated the way I felt when he was near, like I was out of control.
I cleared my throat, my face feeling like it was as red as my hair as I attempted to stuff my phone back in my pocket.
Of course, I managed to completely miss my pocket and sent my phone clattering onto the concrete sidewalk.
With a frustrated huff, I quickly bent down to retrieve it…and that’s when a few things happened all at once.
The moment my upper body tilted forward, a sharp crack reverberated around us, the sound so loud that it split my ears. As I tried to figure out what the hell had made such a noise, something heavy hit me, knocking me to the side.
The next thing I knew, my back slammed against the ground as a solid, warm body lay on top of me. A pair of strong arms wrapped around my torso, caging me in.
“Stay down,” August’s voice echoed in my ear, both steady and breathless. One of his hands covered my head as the rest of his body pinned me against the sidewalk, covering every inch of my skin with his. “We’re under fire.”
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