Pawn (The Pawn Duet #2) - T.M. Frazier Page 0,60

pull my truck into the center of the lawn. I enter without knocking and drag Betty’s boyfriend out into the yard by his hair while Betty screams from the porch. “You do not fucking hit kids,” I roar as I land my fist into his face. “You will never fucking touch her again!” I rain down punch after punch, going blind from rage, taking out everything from my childhood out on this terrible excuse for a fucking man.

When I finally come to, I find a pair of cuffs that aren’t mine around my wrists, in a place that I’ve been before and recognize immediately.

The back of a squad car.

“You’re free to go. Your sister sprung you.” The officer says, opening the cell door.

My sister?

At first, I think that the officer is confused or that whoever is here lied to them and said they were my sister to gain access to me, but then, she appears at the end of the hallway, and the truth I wasn’t able to see before this very moment becomes all too clear. It comes in the form of five foot, seven inches of piercings and bright orange hair.

My sister?

Thorne…is my sister.

Holy shit.

I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. The way she makes the same expressions I do. Her terrible temper. The reason for the fact that I’ve never once thought about trying to fuck her. Plus, I trusted her from the moment I met her when everyone else in my life has had to earn that trust. It’s because I recognized and felt a familiarity with her from the very first moment, but I never understood that feeling until right the fuck now.

“You…it’s true,” I say, not able to form the right words. I have so many questions and can’t pick the right one from my brain.

Thorne looks surprised and relieved, knowing exactly what I’m referring to without having to ask. She nods. “Yeah. It’s true.”

I place my hands on her shoulders and search her eyes that are the same color as mine. “Why didn’t you…why haven’t you told me?”

Her eyes gloss over. “You never asked?” She laughs nervously and sniffles.

“Seriously, Thorne. Why? How?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she says, shaking her head and stepping out of my hold.

I follow her out of the police station. “Like hell it doesn’t,” I argue

“That’s not what I mean. It matters, but it doesn’t matter right now. This conversation can wait. Right now, don’t you have somewhere to be?”

I can’t argue with her on that one. “We’re having that conversation,” I promise her, although it sounds more like a warning.

Thorne’s smile is a sad one. “I know. And you should know that I’m holding you to that.” But I hear something else. Something she’s not saying, but I hear louder than her actual words.

Don’t die tonight.

15

Mickey

The plan has been discussed and gone over a million times, but a baseball-sized worry is rotting in my stomach as the party begins and the clock ticks on.

It’s almost time.

To calm myself I shove my hand into my back pocket containing one of Pike’s cuffs. Feeling the rusted metal against my fingertips renews my strength for what’s to come.

However, all the preparation in the world can’t prepare me for Darius taking the stage or what he says next. “Fellow members of The Order of The Fourth Reich, I have a very special guest for you, tonight,” Darius announces.

Horror fills my guts as the girl I was trying to recruit, Emma, the one Pike gave money to and offered a job, steps to the side of Darius, looking to her feet and fidgeting with her hands.

Darius wraps an arm around her, pressing her against his side. “This is Emma. She told me some very interesting things earlier today.” Darius' eyes find mine and gleam with understanding. Instantly, I know tonight isn’t going to go on as planned. He raises his voice. “We have a traitor among us!”

Suddenly, my arms are pinned behind my back. I struggle and kick, but it’s no use. I’m trapped. I blow the hair from my face and stare Darius in his hate-filled eyes as he steps off the stage and struts toward me. “I will give you credit, Michaela. You’ve hidden your betrayal quite well.” He spits in my face.

I jerk my head to the side, attempting to wipe his poisonous drool from my temple. “Fuck you,” I seethe.

My eyes land on Emma, who is frozen still on the stage. She glances up and mouths I’m sorry before