Cross My Hart and Hope to Die

Chapter 10

My body froze, refusing to move. I wish that I could say, in that moment, I became a badass, but I didn't. The feeling of having an egg cracked over your head while the yolk dripped down washed over me. I squeezed my eyes shut, but he was still there, laughing.

"This is too perfect." There was a hard glint in his eyes that hadn't been there before. "What happened, Atalia, did you finally get thrown out, too?"

I hadn't heard that name in awhile, since I only gave my new group my last name, but hearing the syllables leave his mouth made bile rise to the back of my throat.

"Cat got your tongue, whore? What should I do with you?" Anger furrowed his face when I still didn't speak. "Answer me or I'll raise my voice and call out. Trust me, these guys are way worse than I am." The laugh that followed was bitter.

Stall him. Do something, Hart. Don't just stand there like a fool.

I opened my mouth to speak, but still nothing came out. This wasn't me. This scared, trembling girl wasn't me. I had overcome worse, far worse in my life. Hell, if I could live through a scratch from a biter when most women died from just breathing in the air around them, then I could get through this.

Just as I was finally about to say something, Ethan's eyebrows almost disappeared into his forehead. "It was you. You're the girl that is with those two guys." Anger descended on his features again, his hands clenching by his side as if they'd like nothing more than to wrap around my neck. "I should have known it was you, you fucking whore."

"Just now figured it out, huh?" There. My voice. It finally decided to return, and return strong. It portrayed confidence I didn't feel. Ethan's face grew red with my comment, but I didn't give him the chance to reply. "How did you manage to survive?"

It gave him pause. He recovered and smirked at me. "Oh, it's not just me. Tucker is here, too." I thought I was done being shocked, guess not. "The groups found him after he left. Of course, he doesn't have the respect that I do, because when I... left, I found them. I told them about the bar. Everyone else is dead." He puffed out his chest. My heart dropped to my gut, and I suddenly forgot how to breathe.

Wait. "You snuck up on them at the bar and killed them?" If he said yes, then I would know he's lying.

Instead, he just smiled smugly. "Although, I would love to keep you for myself, we have a certain respect and trust in our group. Ernie will share you once he's done." More like he was afraid of Ernie and the other men.

Ethan took a step towards me. Cerberus chose at that moment to lunge from the darkness and sink his puppy teeth into Ethan's ankle. Good dog. Ethan yelped, and I knew it was only a matter of time before others found us. He lifted his leg to kick the dog off, but I swung my bat without thinking, sinking the nails into his other leg.

As he doubled over in pain, I grabbed the back of his head and brought it down to meet my knee. I could hear and feel the crunching of his bones. I let go as he fell to the ground. Not even a small part of me cared if a biter found him and finished the job. Ryder would probably be disappointed in me. I scooped up Cerberus and took off, weaving through the trees. It was time to rescue my people.

After finding the pup a safe place to hide, I reached the trees that were closest to the vehicles and eyed a nice BMW that had a blinking light near the driver's side window. Perfect. I scooped up a handful of gravel from the driveway. Better to have a handful of ammunition and have some hit than one and miss. There was only one guard out front and one out back.

I had lost track of the time after Ethan found me, so I didn't know how long until the ones who left came back. I reared my arm back and chucked the rocks towards the Beamer as hard as I could. Just as I had wanted, the alarm went off, also causing four others to go off.