Chapter 24
Ronnie used her annoyance at Demon and Gavin insisting someone needed to go on her run with her, to fuel her workout.
She was an adult, she could do things on her own.
She didn’t need a babysitter twenty-four/seven.
As she exercised and the caffeine from her pre-work out and the one cup of coffee she’d had before heading in here kicked in, her mood lightened.
By the time she finished her routine, she was no longer cranky, but she still didn’t want to go. She never did. She pushed through anyway.
“Ready to go?” she asked the boys as she walked through the living room to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.
“Sure.” Demon stood, doing a few stretches while she tipped the bottle back and took a pull.
She let herself out, not bothering to wait for Demon, but she didn’t need to, he was right behind her.
“How far you going?” Demon asked as they started out making their way through the subdivision.
“I have a route, it’s about three miles.” She glanced over at him. “Think you can keep up?” She couldn’t help the challenging tone. With a body like his, he did something to maintain it, and she didn’t think it was just lifting and moving cases of liquor.
“Bring it.”
She cocked one brow at him, then kicked up her speed to what she normally ran. Not fast but fast enough that it made conversation difficult.
Her body screamed at her to stop, but she ignored it and kept going.
She needed to be able to move and move fast when she went after someone, she reminded herself.
This wasn’t about looking better in her jeans.
Thinner thighs never seemed to happen, no matter how hard she worked out.
Her peasant stock genes kept her plump and ready for the next famine, that thankfully she’d never had to survive through, though there had been a few times when she’d survived on peanut butter sandwiches.
That hadn’t happened for a while, and running like this three times a week was part of how she kept it from happening again.
It took a good mile before her body gave up trying to convince her she was dying.
By the time they’d finished the second mile, she was doing pretty good, and she felt like she could do this all day.
Ronnie knew better but she would take the feeling while she had it.
They’d just hit the mile three mark and were almost home when a car backfired somewhere nearby.
Ronnie was used to it. She heard one coming through here frequently enough that she figured it was someone who lived in the area.
She wasn’t prepared when a weight hit her body, knocking her to the ground, then covering her.
Fighting the weight, trying to get away, was her first instinct. It wasn’t until a knee hit something soft and the weight on top of her grunted, that she realized it was Demon.
“What’s going on?” she asked, still pushing against him, trying to get free.
“Gun shots. Be still.”
She shook her head “That was an engine backfiring.” How could he mistake that for a gunshot?
“Hush, firecracker, I know a gunshot when I hear one. I want to make sure whoever it was isn’t shooting at you before we move.”
They lay there for what felt like an hour, but was probably no more than a minute or two. When the sound didn’t come again, Demon lifted his head and looked around. After several seconds, he pushed himself up off her then held out a hand.
“Come on, let’s go back to the house. I want to get out of the street first thing, then we’ll figure out what’s going on.”
Ronnie put her hand in his and let him pull her to her feet. She rolled her neck, then her shoulders, then started toward home. Her legs didn’t like it but since they were less than a quarter mile from the house, she would survive.
She forced herself to keep moving with silent promises of more coffee and something to eat once they got home.
Twenty minutes later, she was entering the code into the lock on her front door, Demon pressed so close behind her she could feel the heat from his body.
“I know you want inside,” she said as she hit the enter button, “but you can give me a little room.” She opened the door and stepped inside.
“I was covering your back.”
“I’m still not sure that was a gunshot. I hear backfires through there all the time.” She stepped inside and headed for the kitchen.
“That was a gunshot. And it wasn’t some random one either.
” He caught her shoulder, spinning her around to face him.
“You must not have seen the way the dirt kicked up a few feet from you. Whoever was out there was aiming for you. Not to kill you, but a hit like that would have stopped you, slowed you down enough that they could capture you. Once they had you, they would likely have drugged you and smuggled you out of the country.”
She blinked up at him, the hair on her arms stood on end as the world seemed to slow. Ronnie stared up at him, not sure what to think. Someone was really out to get her. Whether or not her father sent them, she had no way of knowing right now, but she had to admit there was someone looking for her.
Before this, she’d gone along with what Gavin and Demon had said, but she hadn’t believed it. Not really. Now she had no choice but to believe.
Ronnie stared at Demon, her chest grew tight, and it became hard to breathe. She struggled to get enough air. It felt like there was a steel band around her chest.
Her throat seemed to be closing.
The world began to spin.
"Look at me. Focus right here," Demon pointed to his own face. "You're hyperventilating, you need to slow you breathing."
Ronnie shook her head. She couldn’t be hyperventilating. She could barely breathe at all.
"Ronnie!" Demon's sharp tone, along with the name she didn't think he'd ever used, pulled her attention back to him.
"Breathe with me. Match your breaths to mine.” He had his hands on both her shoulders and held her steady as she struggled to match her inhales and exhales to his.
"What's going on?" She heard her brother's words, but they're meaning didn’t register, not right away.
"Give us a minute," Damon said without breaking eye contact with her. "Come on, breathe in, hold. Breathe out."
By the time the world stopped spinning and the band around her chest had eased, she felt almost normal.
Well as normal as it was possible to feel when you'd been shot at and someone was trying to kidnap you so you could be sold into sexual slavery.
"Okay now?" Demon asked once she was able to breathe normally once more.
Ronnie nodded. "Thank you."
"No problem." He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, then released her and turned to where Gavin watched them from the bar where he sat with his coffee cap and a laptop open on the counter.
"Something happened.” Gavin’s words were a statement, not a question.
"Justa bit,” Damon said.