The Pretender - Cora Brent Page 0,50
and yelp with pain when my arm is yanked behind my back and up, to the point where my shoulder feels like it will disconnect.
Alex propels me forward, toward the tumbling mess of Frankie and Damian. A hard shove sends me sprawling and it’s only by chance and a couple of inches that I miss cutting my head open on a rusted abandoned hand trowel. My knees take the brunt of the impact but there’s no time to lick my wounds. Frankie is about to get Damian pinned in a wrestling move when Alex closes in and kicks Frankie in the ribs. Frankie can hold his own in the wrestling ring and would be a match for either one of them alone but he can’t take them both. Not now, not when he’s only fifteen and they’re years older, already the size of grown men.
Frankie’s eyes are wild when they find me. “Get out of here, Camden!” he yells an instant before a fist connects with his jaw.
“STOP!” I fly at them and I don’t know how to fight but I attack with everything I have; fists and kicks and when a hand cups my mouth I bite its fingers.
“Bitch!” Damian releases me with a push.
Alex has got Frankie face down on the ground now, his right arm up twisted all the way up behind his back so that it can be snapped if Alex feels like snapping it.
Frankie screams, “DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE TOUCH MY SISTER!”
Alex is grinning as he looks from one of us to the other. “What kind of freaky shit goes on at your house? She don’t look like your sister.”
“Let him go. Please.” I know I sound pathetic. I could shout for help. If only there were someone who might hear.
The calculating look that sweeps over Alex’s face is hideous. “I’ll let him go.”
I hold my breath, knowing there’s more to come.
And, to my horror, I’m right.
Alex jerks his head towards the empty house. “We can get in through a broken window in the back. Then we can have a party.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
His smile drops to a glare. “I told you once that I’d get you someday. That day is today.”
“Fuck you. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Damian produces a knife. “You have a choice, Miss Camden. You can come hang out with us for a little while and have some fun. Or you can go home and explain how little brother over here lost an ear.”
“Or an eye,” Alex chimes in with a shrug. “We’ll see.”
Frankie makes one last attempt to wriggle free. Alex yanks on his arm and Frankie issues a moan of agony that breaks my heart.
I won’t cry. I won’t cry.
I’ll act like I’m cooperating. I’ll go with them to the abandoned Harcourt house and somehow I’ll figure out a way to escape.
Even as I think this I know it’s untrue. Once the McGill brothers get me inside that empty house I won’t be going anywhere until they let me.
Mustering all the strength that I don’t really have I fight to keep my voice even. “Don’t hurt him and I’ll go with you.”
Alex smiles.
Damian smiles.
Frankie cries.
And Ben makes a promise. “You are both fucking DEAD.”
At first I don’t even know how to register the fact that Ben is here. It’s as if he dropped out of the sky like some kind of galactic superhero.
Damian slices wildly with the switchblade but Ben sidesteps him with ease and delivers a savage martial arts kick to the vulnerable back of Damian’s knee. Damian crumples like paper and falls to the ground. But because he’s still holding the knife and because Ben is no fool, Ben stomps on Damian’s hand with the heel of his boot. I don’t know if the crack I hear is the sound of bones breaking but I hope that it is.
Ben kicks the knife away and turns his attention to Alex, who’s still got Frankie down on the ground.
“I warned you.” Ben’s voice is low, menacing, every bit the voice of a man who means what he says and intends to carry out his threats. “I fucking warned you to stay away from her.”
And Alex McGill actually looks afraid for once. It’s a nice thing to see.
Damian tries to sit up. “My hand is broke!”
Alex complains. “We were just messing around.”
Ben takes a step closer. “Let the kid up.”
Alex takes too long to obey. Ben dishes out another brutal kick and catches Alex in the chin.