The oven timer I set for my cake beeps, and I ignore the dogs while I search for oven mitts or dish towels to handle the hot pan. As I open the oven a loud noise pops behind me. I turn with the cake pan in my hands watching the glass of the back patio door shatter and a goon in a suit points his gun at me as She-Ra lunges for him, going straight for his arm with the weapon.
“Call off your animal,” he barks as he struggles to keep standing.
As she’s been trained to do, she defends me. Gnawing her teeth on his arm and he goes down. The gun goes off again and I hear Hound’s precious dog whimper. Blood seeps onto the linoleum as she drops to the floor with a heavy thud at the same time I drop my cake at my feet. The glass of the pan shatters as the man walks toward me, blood dripping from his forearm. His boots crunching in the glass and tracking blood across the floor.
I should run or scream, but I’m frozen in place, struck immobile by shock. My ears ring and rage boils in my veins. He fucking shot She-Ra. I reach behind me feeling along the counter for the butcher’s block, producing a knife.
“Mr. Sanchez requires your attendance.”
I brandish the knife and point it toward him. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
“Have it your way.” He pulls out a phone and hits a button. “Yeah, boss. She needs persuaded.” He turns the screen toward me, and I watch as Rosie comes into focus. They have her bound to a chair and gagged. “You come willingly and maybe she’ll live. You prove difficult and we’ll pick your friends off one by one.”
“You expect me to take your word for it? How do I know that isn’t old feed?”
“You don’t.”
I need to stall long enough for Hound to arrive and…my pulse spikes. And then he goes to war with Carlos Sanchez. I’ll go willingly and maybe Carlos will listen to reason and make a deal with my brother. There has to be something the man wants other than me. It’s not as though I’m some great prize.
I won’t let Rosie die for me. Carlos Sanchez wants me, and he intends to collect. For this asshole’s sake he better pray the dog lives or so help him Hound will cut off his balls and fry them for the others. I drop my hand to my side but don’t drop the knife.
“Smart choice. Let’s go. Out the back.”
I nod and he motions for me to go first. I stick him in the side with the knife and he grunts then backhands me across the mouth splitting my bottom lip.
“You stupid cunt.”
I spit blood onto the floor as he digs the knife out of his side like it is nothing.
“Boss said to deliver you breathing. Don’t be stupid.”
My heart shatters as I step over She-Ra. Her tongues hanging out of her mouth, breathing labored. Fuck. I bite back my tears and pray. She better not die because of this piece of shit. I’ll kill him one way or another.
The goon shoves me into the back of an SUV with the windows tinted so dark it must be illegal. He climbs in next to me like a super soldier completely ignoring the hunk of his arm that’s been ripped open by She-Ra and the wound in his side. I want to gouge his eyes out.
“You got a phone on you?”
I shake my head. I’d left it on the dresser when I changed clothes. Hound has no way of tracking me, but he’ll know exactly who has me. His words from earlier replay in my mind.
“You deserve to be happy with me, darlin’. Life doesn’t wait. It just happens. Gotta live in the moment and stop worrying about what ifs and focus on the sure thing.”
I close my eyes and don’t even attempt to fight my tears. Today I had a taste of something beautiful. Something pure and true. I had a taste of life with Hound, and it tasted sweet. So damn sweet it makes my teeth ache to think about. I lay my head back on the seat replaying every touch. Every kiss. Every promise.
I knew that allowing myself to believe. To fall was dangerous. To think redemption could be possible for a soul as blackened as mine.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
“I can’t start something beautiful with you built on secrets and lies. This will always hang between us otherwise. It’ll eat us. You’ll always wonder what I kept from you, and I’ll always regret not speaking up.”
My heart clenches tight in my chest slamming against my ribcage like a battering ram.
I crave Hound’s touch. His kiss. Just one more kiss then I could accept my doomed fate. What we were given isn’t enough. I’ve always known I was on borrowed time.
Coulda. Shoulda. Woulda.
Story of my life.
“Boss isn’t too pleased you ran.”
“Yeah well, I’m none too happy with him myself at the present. What did the prick think I’d do when he framed me for murder? Come to heel? Come running and beg him to save me?”
“Among other things,” the asshole says on a groan.
Ah he does feel pain. I fiddle with my seat belt and elbow him near where I stabbed him just to be a bitch. “Oops. My bad.”
He shoots me a dirty look.
“Behave or I’ll bind and gag you.” Something about the way he looks at me as he says it gives me a shiver. It’s an expression and tone that says he’ll enjoy every second of it.