Page 2 of Stryker
Dad.What did he do?
I struggled to stay on my feet as fresh fear washed through me. Lifting my chin an inch, I glared at the guy. “Seriously, I have no idea who you’re looking for. I’m Jane Seymour.” The lie left my lips easily, and I was proud of myself for a second.
Until the guy reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He touched the screen, and a short video clip of myself at work introducing myself to the new girl began playing.
“So, Kat Hudson, you’re not really Jane Seymour, are you?”
Mute with terror, I glared at him.
“I’m going to make this easy on you.” He stepped closer to me. “See, usually we take women and sell them. You’d fetch us a pretty penny, but your dear old dad said you’re clever. Clever is bad in this line of work.” He touched his index and middle finger to his temple. “Causes too many headaches.”
He stopped in front of me, his dark eyes sweeping over my face, down my body, and back up to meet my gaze again. “Pity. But it is what it is. You have my word we’ll make it quick.”
“Make it quick?” The words almost strangled me and reduced my voice to a whisper.
“You don’t know, do you?” He studied me almost sadly. “See, your dad owes some very powerful people a substantial sum of money. It’s been made clear he’s not going to pay it back, so we need collateral. Usually, we’d leverage a little thing like you to pay off the debt, but see, we can’t take that risk.”
“So you’re going to kill me?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. But then again, I wasn’t that surprised. I knew my father’s ugly habits and bad secrets would only lead us deeper into trouble. I’d been right.
“And your momma’s next.” The guy pulled a gun out of the back of his pants.
I closed my eyes. This was it. The end. Game over. I expected to feel relieved. Instead, I felt cheated. This wasn’t how my life was supposed to go. And I couldn’t die now, I had to stay alive and protect Mom!
Sudden heat surrounded me as if the sun had broken through the clouds to shine down on me. I opened my eyes to a massive wall of some kind. A red and black wall. A…scaledwall?
Thepop, pop, popof gunfire echoed in my brain and I flinched. But nothing touched me. Instead, the weird wallmoved. And I finally figured out that the wall wasn’t a wall at all.
It was a dragon.
Serpent-like red eyes locked on me as the thing whipped around faster than my eyes could even track. Once more, I closed my eyes. This was what happened when you died? Hallucinations?
Shouts and cries filled my ears and when I opened my eyes again, the men were no longer standing. I was face to face with a massive red and black dragon that could squish me like a grape under one of its talon-pointed toes.
One of the guys rolled over and lifted his gun.
“Watch out!” I threw myself at the dragon and it scooped me up in a claw.
Suddenly, the ground fell away and we were flying off and toward the outskirts of town. As the city limits gave way to lush greenery and trees, the dragon landed near a river and set me carefully on my feet.
I watched it in shock as it took on a very human shape. A masculine shape.
After a few moments, a man stood before me. He had jet black hair and rusty red-brown eyes and towered over me.
I backed up a step as he advanced on me. My heart galloped in my chest and my mouth went drier than a stone in my mouth. This dragon had just turned into the most handsome man I’d ever seen with magma swirling dangerously in his eyes. I stared at him, wondering what the heck was going on. Was I dead? Was this some weird hallucination?
What was going on?
My hands ran down my sides and up my ribs, searching for blood, holes, pain. I had to have been shot. Blood loss would make me hallucinate, right? But I found nothing.
I stared at him, confused. I’d been shot at. They’d been aiming to kill me. But he’d shown up and took every bullet.
But he didn’t look wounded. No, he looked… good. Really good.
“What…are you?” I breathed the question while tilting my head and studying him.
His eyes narrowed.
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