Silence falls over me and I raise my face to the moonlight. Cool beams welcome my smile. So this is what all those girls in romance books feel. I’ve read a million different ways to fall in love with the bad boy, but I never thought I would do it myself.
Like ever. And I was okay with that, or at least I thought I was. Now I don’t want to think about what could have happened had Rage not barged into my life.
Rage. Fuck me. The epitome of badness.
The cock of a gun loading and the feel of hard metal against the base of my skull have me swallowing my emotions.
“Mija, there you are. I was about to go inside and drag you out of the junky’s bed. After I put a bullet in him for touching my property.”
Chills erupt over my body at the cool clipped tone. I raise my hands and slowly turn around. Blood drains from my face as black eyes and a stark face come into view. The full moon doesn’t hide anything—the disdain in his eyes, the gun in his hand, nor the very large knife in the other.
The smile on his face is eerie and has my feet moving in the opposite direction.
“I thought I got rid of you once and for all.”
Surprise. But I wisely keep my mouth sealed shut.
Disgust wells inside when he slides the back of his knuckles down the side of my face.
And then those same fingers dig into the sides of my mouth so brutally blood drips from my lips.
A gun at my head keeps my feet stuck to the ground. But the knife still in his hand has my body petrified from the toes up. Flashes of pain from the last time I felt cold steel enter my flesh have my chest heaving and white dots swimming in my vision.
Inhale.
Exhale.
I can’t stay here. I know this. Logic tells me to do what I need to get away and get help. But tell that to my fucking feet.
It’s the smell of his cologne and the stench of his cigar smoke filling my nostrils that finally breaks his control over me. Not the hatred in his eyes nor the ice in his fingers.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” Raw fury grips me with a steel fist. The trembling starts at my knees and works its way up my body until I’m shaking with so much wrath I can’t control what I do next.
I bare my palm and drive the heel into his nose.
The sound of cartilage giving under the brute force is nice, but I don’t stick around to see the damage firsthand.
He doesn’t expect me to fight back, so it takes him by surprise.
“Rage!” I scream with every ounce of my being as I pound the ground. Flowers crush under my feet as I haul ass.
Never underestimate the weight of a man on a mission. What is two hundred pounds of flesh quickly turns into a brick wall. My step-father barrels into me and I’m flat on the ground, sucking in flower petals instead of air before I get ten feet from him. I can’t catch my breath from the pressure on my back.
My arms and legs flail. This is it. I’m going to die in the darkness and never feel the sunlight on my face again. He’s going to kill me and my sister will suffer because I wanted fresh air.
Cortes flips me over, but frankly I would rather not see death coming. The gun is at my temple, but instead of the knife sinking into my flesh, he pulls up a phone and shows me a photo of a body burned beyond recognition.
“I want you to see what you did to my son and know why I’m taking the time to kill you.”
I twist my head and close my eyes. My efforts earn me a fist across the face. My head snaps and this time he brings it back around and forces my eyes open.
“Look,puta. Look what you did.”
I gather spit on my tongue and hurl it in his face. “Kill me already and get it over with. I’m tired of hearing you go on and on.”
Moonlight shines off metal and it happens so fast I don’t have time to scream or buck and try to throw him off me.
He takes my wrists in one of his hands and, with the other, he drives five inches of metal into my side.