Page 92 of Dark OZ

The metal detector beeped, lighting up red as I slid through it. I knew that Crowe was probably still following my movements on the cameras. I needed to be quick. It wouldn’t be long before all the eyes that were looking for me found where I’d disappeared to.

I looked carefully out of the doorway. There was a large parking lot behind the building that afforded little cover, but it didn’t look like anyone was there. I’d have to cross that before making it to the road beyond.

Deciding that I didn’t have time to debate the validity of what I was doing. I sprinted as fast as I could down the stairs. Staying in the bank was as good as a death sentence. At least outside, I had a fighting chance.

There was no sound of stray bullets hitting cars and pavement, only the slap of my bare feet painfully tearing across the blacktop. I ignored the burn on my soles, definitely not thinking about how Danny’s hands had worked the ache from their muscles or the look of pure betrayal in his eyes when I bolted. I didn’t need him and his magic backstabbing fingers.

I jumped over a low concrete barrier. My toes had barely brushed the sidewalk when a heavy weight barreled into me. We landed hard on the pavement, my vision swimming from the impact. Pain flared brightly along my entire body, followed by a wet burn where the stone had split open my shoulder.

Groaning, I swung an elbow back, trying to leverage some space between me and the wall of muscle pinning me in place. I expected to see Crowe’s satisfied expression I already had my argument on the tip of my tongue. My elbow sank into a fleshy stomach, definitely not the hard planks of Crowe’s abs, and panic had me twisting violently.

The man pinning my legs beneath him wasn’t any of my boys, but one from my past that I knew all too well.

“Albert. Let me go.”

“No can do, honeypot. The price on your pretty head is just too sweet. Em promised me Henry’s position when I bring you home.”

Ignoring my clawing hands and swinging feet, he twisted my body so that I was on my stomach. Albert was a mid-ranking enforcer at The Farm, sadistic as they come. He was the kind of man who made up for his tiny dick by trying to make everyone around him feel small too.

He spent years being the one to deliver me to whomever I had the pleasure of keeping company for the night. If I fought or tried to run, it was Albert who brought me back, kicking and screaming. Not that it mattered in the middle of the desert, there was nowhere to run to. Eventually, I stopped fighting and channeled my energy into more productive ways of striking back. Albert loved to joke about how sweet I must be and how good I must take it for it to make Em so much money. One time the man leaving me tipped Albert on the way out. I’d never gotten over the smug as fuck way he smiled at me after.

“Get the fuck off of me, you dumb ogre.” His entire weight sank onto my lower back. A hard knee pressed between my shoulder blades, forcing me to scream. Despite the flaring pain, I bucked and writhed, doing everything I could to throw him off. It was useless.

“Shh, sweet baby, lay still, and maybe I can make this good for you. I bet you’re the kind of girl who likes to be choked.”

His hands slid up my sides, getting a rough handful of boob before closing around my throat. I managed to scream one final time before my airway closed off. I mouthed a thousand soundless curses at him.

My arms were pinned beneath me, his weight crushing them into the pavement and restricting my movement. I stretched my fingers, trying to reach for the dagger necklace. My nails were just able to brush the surface. One more inch that was all I needed.

Pressure built behind my eyes, followed by a grey haze around the edges. The harder he squeezed, the more the tension in my limbs went slack. The allure to give up the struggle and give in to the pull of darkness sucked me down.

Albert laughed, spreading my legs and grinding his erection into my ass because apparently choking a woman to death did it for the sick fucker. He yanked back on my neck, forcing me to arch my spine and plastering his disgusting mouth over mine.

He tasted like old tobacco and cabbage, making me want to vomit. I bit down, sinking my teeth as hard as I could into his lower lip. Blood poured from the wound and down my chin. He howled, tightening his grip on my neck but also shifting just enough that my fingers circled the chain.

I yanked hard. The ruby blade slipped free, landing in the palm of my hand. I wrapped my fingers around the tiny handle and jabbed up. The knife slashed across Albert’s forearm, but he didn’t relent. I did it again and again.

“You fucking bitch!” Albert knocked my hand away, the necklace skittering out of reach, and then he smacked my head against the cement. Tears pricked at my darkening vision. I bucked and squirmed. My torn skirt riding up with each movement, exposing my barely clad ass to the cold air. To my horror, I realized he’d freed his tiny cock, and it was worming its way between my legs.

Just as the world started turning black, Albert’s weight fell off of me, landing with a wet sounding thud against the pavement. The entire right side of Albert’s head was blown away, torn bits of brain matter hung over the edges of his skull, and one sightless brown eye stared back at me.

I screamed, or I tried to. My vocal cords refused to work, but my entire body cried out in terror. Warm blood seeped beneath my hand, forcing my awareness back. I scrambled to my feet, backing several feet away from his corpse and willing my brain to catch up to the terrifying visage. His pants were still half down, lying in a pool of dirty blood.

Screaming every obscenity I could think of, I kicked him over and over. “Snail dicked! Sleaze bag! Motherfucker!” Even if he was already dead, that waste of oxygen had tried to rape me while killing me. I kicked him again, in the dick, hoping he felt it down in hell. “I hope they shove your tiny dick right up your honeypot.”

“Thea!”

My head swiveled madly in the direction of my name, searching the street to see who had shot Albert. It didn’t take me long to spot my savior. Crowe was sprinting at full speed down the road.

“Fuck,” I cursed. If Crowe managed to make it to me, I didn’t know that I would have the strength to resist him. Too much of me wanted to believe that Crowe had nothing to do with this. His shock sounded so genuine. I wanted to believe he cared for me. It was probably that same naive part of my heart that had allowed me to be betrayed to begin with.

None of that changed the fact that maybe Danny, anddefinitelyNick, had set me up. Nick even apologized. I highly doubted that he ever did anything without his brotherbeing aware of it.

No, this stunk of Danny. He would take the coward’s way out and make some other hit team do the work for him. Danny was expecting the Wizard to give him exactly what he wanted, and Em would have been the perfect way to dispose of me after my usefulness had run its course. Shit, there was even a paycheck in it for him.

If I was honest with myself, I’d known this was coming all along. Instead of listening to my instincts, I foolishly wanted to believe that there was something more behind Danny’s green eyes. I’d passed up my chance for independence and told the Wizard to locate Danny’s sisters. Fucking hell, I was a gullible idiot. One sad story, and I rolled over, spread my legs, and let him take everything. I was damn lucky that knife he was swinging hadn’t landed in my back.

Well, joke was on him. I had the key, which meant I had the emerald. I’d figure out a way to kill Westin. I’d take down Em, and then I was coming back to deliver exactly what they deserved.

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