Losing Me, Finding You (32 page)

“Thought about what?”

“The six senses.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“No, really,” she says, turning to face me and hiking her bag up onto her shoulder. “You've got 'em all, don't you?”

“I don't know what the hell you're talking about.”

“Wow, one week and the infamous Austin Sparks has got it bad for a little preacher's daughter from down South. I like it. It'd make a good book, don't you think?” I ignore her and keep walking, flipping her the bird and making sure she sees it.

A few seconds later, something hits me square in the back and I go down hard.

I fall asleep but only for a little while, waking up when the wind shifts and starts to pelt the rain against my window, each droplet like a tiny stone that rings throughout the quiet room and makes me shiver. I'm actually glad that it woke me because I was having another bad dream, one where a faceless girl was being held down by men in leather jackets.

I didn't like it all. Not one little bit.

I climb out of bed with an uneasy feeling in my stomach, not that angsty ache that Austin gives me, but something else. I pick up my pants from the floor and slip them on, moving across the room and pausing next to a glass fronted liquor cabinet with several bottles of wine inside. Each one has a price tag hanging from its neck, so I go through them until I find the cheapest one, not wanting to impose on Austin but desperate to get rid of this feeling. It just sprung up out of nowhere and I don't like it. After all, the worst kinds of trouble are the ones you don't see coming until they're right behind you.

I set my bottle down on a table near the window and almost collapse to the floor in embarrassment when I see an
ass
print on the foggy glass. I move forward quickly and smudge it away with my fingers, snatching the ice bucket as I pass and heading out in search of the ice machine I spotted earlier. I noticed it because I thought it looked odd, this big piece of stainless steel against the old school trimmings and decorations. I kind of wish the owners would get rid of it.

I'm in the hallway scooping cubes when I see them. A group of men in leather jackets with a big, black bird emblem on the back of them. The words
Bested by Crows
jump out at me as I angle myself carefully behind the wall near the ice machine. I don't know why, but my heart is pumping hard and fast and there's a little bell ringing in the back of my head telling me not to move. I remember Gaine's warning with a shiver and watch as the men move down the hallway checking room numbers until they find the one they're looking for.

Mine.

They glance up and down the hallway, and I narrowly miss being seen, tucking myself against the wall and staring straight ahead at the sign across from me.
Please do not stick your bucket in the machine. There is a metal scooper provided for your convenience.
The tame words help keep me calm while I wait, turning to look only after the sound of clinking chains and rustling leather is gone.

Immediately, I drop my bucket to the floor and move across the hall as quick as I can, my bare feet whispering silently over the burgundy carpeting. I lift my fist up and tap gently at the door, not wanting to make too much noise.
Hurry, hurry, hurry,
I think as bile rises in my throat and the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.
It'll only take them a moment to realize that there's nobody there. I'm sure they're after Austin, but what happens if they walk into the hallway and see me here?
I pound a little harder. And if they are after Austin, I need to call him as soon as I can and warn him. Unfortunately, my cell phone is back in the room.

The door wrenches open and I find myself face to face with Mireya Sawyer. Her dark eyes narrow and her full lips twist into a sneer.

“What is it, Cross?” she snaps and then pauses when she sees the look on my face. “Is it Austin?” I glance over my shoulder and see my door opening at the end of the hall. I turn back to Mireya and push my way inside her room. Luckily, she doesn't fight me and steps aside, closing the door quickly behind me and hooking the chain. I may not like the woman, but she has instincts, and she's tough.

When I see Melissa standing beside the patio doors, I'm even more relieved.

“What the fuck is going on?” Mireya demands, but I notice she doesn't yell. She keeps her voice even and looks me straight in the eye.

“There's a group of men in the hallway,” I begin, my voice breathy. I'm having a hard time keeping my pulse under control. “With colors.” I gesture at my back, but of course, Melissa and Mireya are pros, and they don't need an explanation. I suck in a big breath and hurry on, knowing somehow that they're coming. Those men are coming. “Bested by Crows. They broke into my room when I was at the ice machine.”

Mireya's gaze snaps past mine and locks onto Melissa. Her face is starting to crinkle with worry, putting little lines between her dark brows. When I glance over my shoulder at Mel, I can see that her face is blanched. They have some idea of what's going on, even if I don't.

“He actually went through with it,” Melissa scoffs, shaking her blonde head from side to side like she can't bear to believe the truth that I've somehow revealed to her. “He … I … ” She stops talking and just stands there limply, blue eyes wide and disbelieving.

“What?” Mireya asks, starting to sweat. When I look at her, I see that her hands are shaking and her eyes are glossy and far away. “What does Kent want with Walker, Melissa? You came all the way over here to tell me, so fucking spit it out!”

Walker.

My mind clicks with Austin's story. He hadn't specified the MC that Mireya was with, but he did mention that name. Walker. The man that Mireya was married to, the one that held her down while she was raped by the people she was supposed to trust most in the world. My heart breaks in two for her. For all of us. If they did that to her then, what are they going to do to us now?

Obviously, I can put two and two together and figure it out. Bested by Crows are the enemies here. My eyes swing over to the phone. Should I call 911? I wait patiently, trusting that Melissa and Mireya will tell me what to do. This is their world after all; they've grown up here and I'm just learning to walk.

“Kent … he … ” Melissa swallows hard and steps forward, a picturesque beauty with her long, long legs and her skinny waist and her full breasts, but in her face, she looks like a small child. There's basic, primal fear there and it's translating right across the room into Mireya's eyes. “I don't think Austin and Kimmi are coming back alive tonight.”

Pain radiates out from my spine and quickly travels up my skull, giving me a sudden headache that I have to fight against as I struggle to figure out who or what is crushing me into the mud, trying to drown me in the muck and the reeds. For some reason, my first thought is of Amy and how she might cry if I died here tonight, how much that would hurt her. I don't even think about my own well being. I have been taken by that woman and I don't even know it yet.

Rage spikes through me, and I let loose, allowing those primal instincts of mine to surge forward and take hold.

I have a knife in my front pocket, one that's placed just so, easy to wiggle out and flick open, to swing back and plunge into the thigh of the man that's on top of me. His scream pierces the air and carries across the relatively flat ground until it's swallowed up by the sound of fresh rain and a bit of thunder that's rumbling in the distance. Whoever this guy is though, he's a pro and doesn't go down easy. Instead, he swings something at the back of my head and puts stars in my eyes and a fresh spurt of fury in my blood that drives my blade into his body a second time. I hit something soft, and the man grunts, finally releasing the pressure on my back enough that I can roll over, gasping for air and spitting mud and bugs and who knows what the fuck else.

Immediately, I look around for Kimmi and panic when I see two men circling a flattened spot of reeds not far off from me. Behind them, more people are coming, appearing out of the shadows like ghosts. I don't know how many there are, but the odds don't look too good for us right now.

“You sons o' bitches,” I snarl as I use the power in my legs to propel myself forward, slamming straight into the gut of the crumpled man that I stabbed. He's groaning and clutching his side, so maybe he's down and out, but Austin Sparks doesn't take chances.

I pull my fist back, letting power coil in the muscles of my arms, and then I let him have it, punching him hard enough that his eyes roll into the back of his head and he passes out. I'm not gonna kill anybody, but I sure as shit ain't letting him come after me again.

I struggle to my feet with mud sucking at my shoes and dripping down the sides of my face and end up being knocked back down again by another man, one who's twice as heavy as the last. And he has a knife, too, a big, long, serrated one that he holds so awkwardly in his hand that it makes me sick.

I push myself to my knees just in time to see him swinging his arm towards me.

I flip my knife around in my fingers and rise to meet him.

My entire body goes rigid.

“What?” I can't tell if that word comes from me or Mireya or both of us.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Okay, that one was definitely Mireya. She throws a glare at me, just for good measure and then marches right over to Melissa, taking her by the wrist and pulling her forward so hard that she lets out a little yelp. Her blue eyes look like marbles, round and shiny and surprisingly enough, sad. She looks melancholy. “Explain. Now,” Mireya barks as she drags a cell phone from her pocket and dials a number. She switches it to speakerphone and we all listen as it goes straight to Austin's voice mail.

“I was supposed to go with them, but Kent said he'd changed his mind. I thought he meant that he'd changed his mind about everything, but I think he just meant for me. He'd changed his mind for me. He doesn't want me dead; he wants me to suffer.” Melissa lets these words spill from her lips like a fountain, drenching the room in panic and confusion.
This is not good.
Mireya ignores her and dials another number. Same problem, only with Kimmi's voice coming through instead of Austin's.

“You're talking like a friggin' crazy person, Diamond. Spell it out.”

“They rob banks, Sawyer, did you know that?” Melissa continues, not even pausing to take a single breath. “They rob banks, always have. That's where we get our money from. I was supposed to join them, but I think that Kent only asked me to do that to get rid of me. First, the cops and now this … ”

I stand there in stunned silence while Mireya starts to shout again.

“Melissa, what's going to happen to Austin and Kimmi?”

Austin is a bank robber. My first image is of him in a black mask with a pistol in one hand and a bag with a big, green money sign on it in the other. That, of course, is completely ridiculous and entirely illogical, but I can't seem to sweep it away. It just sticks there while my pulse races harder and my hands get sweaty.

My father, maybe, would pass judgment on Austin, call him a sinner and a thief, but to me, this bit of information only helps me to understand who that sandy haired stranger is and why he does what he does, even if my imagery is a little bit off.