Chapter 1 #2
Kylie scraped for another inhale. The guy—who she still hadn’t gotten a good look at even though she was certain she recognized his voice—paced behind her, remaining silent.
Although she’d only been in the office once before, she knew the only way out was the way they’d come in.
Her eyes searched the smoke-stained, dinged-up wall in front of her, mentally counting off how many steps it would take to make a break for it.
But even on the snowball’s chance that she’d get lucky enough to try, she couldn’t outrun a bullet, and her captor had proven his trigger-happy tendencies once already tonight.
He’d shoot her to shut her up. She couldn’t risk it.
If she wanted to get out of this alive, she was going to have to disable the man first. Tall freaking order, since not only did he, hello, have a gun pointed at her vital bits, but she couldn’t even see him to figure out his weak spots.
Not that he seemed to have any.
Growing frantic, Kylie forced herself to keep looking for something, God, anything that would give her an advantage, and her gaze landed on a small mirror propped up against a stack of ledgers on the filing cabinet.
Vince’s coke habit might not have done him any favors when he’d been alive, but his penchant for blow—or more specifically, a smooth, flat surface off of which to snort it—might just have saved Kylie’s ass in the here and now.
She squinted, taking in every detail she could as the man moved into her line of sight in the glass.
Recognition slammed into her as she took in the brick-end chin, the barely-there neck, the body like a World War II tank and the flat, lifeless stare that had always reminded her of a shark, poised to go in for the kill.
Xavier Fagan. Sweet baby Jesus, the X Man was notorious for being as dirty as he was slick, getting away with every drug-related crime under the sun.
Including murder, apparently.
The jagged scar that slashed half the distance between Xavier’s left temple and his stubble-covered cheek twitched as his lips bent in a sneer, and Kylie realized a beat too late that those dead, menacing eyes were locked on hers in the mirror.
“Just what the fuck do you think you’re looking at?”
She clutched. There was no way she could pop off with the “nothing” on her tongue and get away with it as the truth, but emphasizing the fact that she’d been doing the polar opposite of what he’d told her to seemed like an epically stupid plan.
The second thing you need to do when shit goes sideways is find an exit strategy, came Kellan’s voice in her head, and Kylie spoke without hesitation.
“I really meant what I said,” she told Xavier, lasering her stare back to the wall in front of her. “All I do is tend bar. If you’re here for what’s in the register, go ahead and take it.”
“The register.” Xavier sneered as if she’d been joking, but she pressed, desperate.
“You can have all the money, the liquor, whatever you want. I don’t want any trouble.”
“Yeah, you look like a regular Girl Scout.” The heavy soles of Xavier’s boots echoed as he eliminated the space between them, the stench of sweat and something else she didn’t want to contemplate pushing all the way to Kylie’s lungs.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught his slow, slimy gaze as he took in her skintight jeans and the ridiculously low-cut, midriff-baring T-shirt Vince had insisted would double her tips.
Xavier reached out, the heavily inked tattoos covering his arm from shirtsleeve to wrist rippling with the flex of his muscles.
Two meaty fingers hooked around the bright magenta streak in her otherwise black ponytail for another merciless yank.
“So, what if I take the money and run? You gonna call the cops as soon as I hit the door, Pinky?”
“N-no,” she stuttered, although it was a lie. There was a huge difference between turning a blind eye to your boss’s drug habit and not blowing the whistle when some thug turned the guy’s brain into finger paint.
Unfortunately, Xavier saw right through her indiscretion.
“Nice try, but it wouldn’t matter if you did.
I’ve got half the force in my back pocket anyway.
Local, state. Fuck, I buy Feds like Christmas presents.
Still…I don’t leave loose ends dangling in the breeze.
” He stepped in toward her until the cement wall of his chest brushed her shoulder blades, his breath coming faster against the back of Kylie’s neck.
“But before I tie them up, maybe I’ll tie you up. ”
Innuendo dripped from his words, turning her palms cold and slick, and no, no, no. This couldn’t go south. She was tough. She just needed a way out, like Kellan always said.
“I won’t tell anyone you were here,” Kylie whispered, hating the thread of terror wobbling through the words. “I promise. I swear.”
Xavier pressed his mouth against her ear, letting her feel his evil smile on her skin. “Believe me, honey. I know you won’t. When I’m done with you, you won’t be able to say a thing.”
He ran the edge of the gun over her neck, skimming the cool steel against the spot where her shoulder met her throat before replacing it with the clammy press of his tongue. Something loosened, ugly and forceful, in Kylie’s belly, and she gripped her hands into fists at her sides.
If all else fails, find the most vulnerable spot and come out swinging.
Time slowed like a rubber band stretching out before her. Pure instinct had Kylie gathering all her strength in the very center of her chest, letting it collect and build and burn. With a definitive snap, her will burst upward…
And she slammed her head into Xavier’s nose with all her might.
“Ah! You bitch.” The force of the contact made him stumble back, and Kylie didn’t wait to take advantage of his loosened grip.
She spun around with every intention to run.
But Xavier was already regrouping, his massive body coiling tighter as he hunched forward at the waist to catch the blood running down his face, and she didn’t think.
Just moved.
Her foot came off the floor, connecting with Xavier’s chin in a sickening crunch. His torso whipped back, hanging upright for just a split second before he fell into a heavy heap on the concrete in front of her.
Go. Go go go go go!
The command pumped through Kylie’s brain, slamming against her throat with every heartbeat as she ran up the stairs two at a time.
She barreled through the kitchen and into the front of the house, slowing from warp speed only long enough to make a hasty grab for the purse she’d left on top of the bar.
Clutching the black leather to her chest, Kylie flung herself through The Corner Tavern’s front door, not stopping until she reached the driver’s side of her Mustang.
“Oh, come on.” She cursed, fumbling through the depths of her bag while keeping her eyes locked on the entrance to the bar.
Relief sailed through her when finally, finally, her fingers closed over her key fob, her tires spitting gravel a mere ten seconds later as she tore out of the parking lot at conservatively ninety-five miles an hour.
“Okay. Okay. You’re tough. You got away. You’re okay. It’s okay,” Kylie babbled, forcing herself to breathe even though each inhale was thoroughly soaked in fear.
She had to call the cops. Better yet, she had to go to the police station herself. Yeah, she’d witnessed a horrific murder—don’t think about it, don’t think about it—but if she was in the police station, surrounded by cameras and cops, she’d be safe.
Kylie dumped the contents of her purse on the passenger seat, and for Chrissake, how hard was it to find one little cell phone? Mashing her foot even harder over the accelerator, she snatched up her iPhone, tapping the screen to life with a shaky jolt of her thumb.
…it wouldn’t matter if you did. I’ve got half the force in my back pocket anyway…I buy Feds like Christmas presents…
Oh. God. Xavier might’ve just been talking shit. After all, he didn’t strike Kylie as a trustworthy kind of guy. Then again, he did strike her as a dangerous-as-hell kind of guy, who dealt drugs and shot people in the face and threatened to rape and murder innocent bartenders.
Tempted as she was to call in everyone right down to the National Guard, one wrong step could land her in the middle of God’s country with a murderer who was likely furious at having been kicked in the teeth and left bleeding all over his own crime scene.
Getting away a second time wouldn’t be an option. She had to make sure Xavier didn’t find her. As much as she hated admitting that she was in over her head, the stakes were too high for her not to face the hard-nosed reality staring her in the face.
She had to find someone to help her. Someone she knew. Someone she trusted with her life.
Kylie scrolled through her contacts, the white noise of her own heartbeat pressing against her ears as she pushed the send icon below the only number she knew by heart.
“Please…please…please answer…”
“It’s four o’clock in the morning here on the East Coast. This had better be a doozy.”
She fought the urge to laugh, along with the even stronger urge to cry. “Kellan? It’s me. I’m, uh—I’m in a little trouble. How fast can you get to Wyoming?”