Scarlet Angel Collection

5. Whiskey Breath

It"s funny how when you make up your mind, the universe has a way of yanking you right back on the path it wants you on.

It"s funny how when you make up your mind, the universe has a way of yanking you right back on the path it wants you on.* * *

Scarlett"s car slowed to a stop in front of the house she shared with Ruby. The voice of the vehicle"s computer driver made her look up from her commpad. “Destination arrived. Choose alternate parking location.”

She looked up to see a red minivan in her usual spot and sighed. Dammit, Cash. She thought it was annoying. He thought it was funny. He would even jokingly claim that he was there first.

Dammit, Cash.“Just park against the curb.”

The car pulled up to the curb. Across the street, she noticed a vehicle she"d not seen before. The mostly primer-grey sedan was once a creamy yellow but now threatened to leave chunks of rust on the asphalt. With its squared design, she guessed it to be at least thirty years old, probably even before autodrive was standard.

Given the strange events at Universal Dynamic and her conversation with Rishabh, the unfamiliar car made her wary. Scarlett looked down one side of the street then the other. The late afternoon shadows toyed with her imagination, hinting at men in dark suits lurking in the dark spots.

Her heart rate quickened. Panic crept in at the edges of her mind until she caught herself. She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. I"m being paranoid. It probably belongs to a friend of the neighbors.

I"m being paranoid. It probably belongs to a friend of the neighbors.Inside the house, everything was quiet. Quieter than usual. There was a news vid playing and no chatter from the kitchen, where Ruby and Cash usually talked. Her keys jingled and she silenced them.

“Ruby? Cash? Hello?”

Scarlett stepped deeper into the living room. A million thoughts ran through her mind. Ruby had grown fragile in the five years Scarlett had known her. If no one was there, maybe they were at the hospital.

Finally, Cash"s voice came from the other room. “In the kitchen, Scarlett.”

Fear gripped her chest. Something was wrong. There was slight quiver in his voice, despite his attempt at sounding upbeat. She also noticed that he used her full first name instead of her nickname, Scar.

An image of the beat-up car across the street flashed in her mind. What the hell is going on?

What the hell is going on?If something was wrong but Cash was trying to hide it, then they must be in real trouble. She kept her own voice light and casual to play along. “Oh, okay. Be there in a sec. Just want to put my purse down.”

She let her handbag slide from her shoulder and land on the couch cushion. Scarlett glanced around for anything she could use as a weapon. Her eyes locked onto a fire poker with a wicked hook. Her feet glided across the wood floor without a sound as she retrieved the weapon.

Scarlett considered kicking the door in but she needed to know what was going on inside first. She approached the swinging door and peeked through the tiny gap. Ruby sat on a tall stool with her hands behind her back. To the older woman"s right, Scarlett saw Cash"s shoulder. His arms were also pulled back.

She angled to see more of the room when something blocked her view. Scarlett flung her arm up just as the door burst open. The corner of the swinging door smashed into her forearm and threw her backward.

Her back slammed to the floor. She rolled with the impact and bounded back up. Five years of self-defense training kicked in and she crouched to lunge at her attacker.

The large figure filled her field of view. The barrel of a small gun aimed at her face made her heart skip a beat and she froze.

Her vision followed the gun back to the hand, along the arm and up to her attacker"s face. The man"s unshaven cheeks were pockmarked with scars and sores from years of fighting and drug use. But it was his voice that turned her heart cold. “Hello, Jillian.”

The moment the scratchy words grated from his lips, Scarlett knew who he was. This was the man who had tried to kill her five years ago.

Vertigo swept over Scarlett and her knees gave out. She felt herself falling and heard the man"s words echo in her mind. His voice triggered a cascade of terror-filled memories from that night. The pain, the penetration, his weight on top of her… But most of all, she remembered the man"s rancid whiskey-breath.

“You.” The words choked in her throat.

“It"s been a few years, ain"t it. You"s done pretty good, considerin" yer "spose t"be dead.”

Scarlett struggled to find her voice. Fear paralyzed her throat and dried her mouth. Finally, she choked out a few words. “What… what do you want?”

The man lunged forward and grabbed her blouse, lifting her back to her feet. Forgotten, the fire-poker fell to the floor with a clang. “What I want? What I want?” The man shouted at her, his voice growing in pitch. “I want"cha dead! Yer s"posed t"die five years ago. Now, if I don" fix that, they"s gonna" kill me. And ain"t nobody killin" me!”

The powerful fist flung Scarlett to the side and over the couch. She sailed through the air, her arms flailing. Her body slammed into the floor, hard. Her ears rang from the impact and her head swam.

The man landed next to her with a loud thump and seized her hair. He yanked her up and slammed her into the mirror hanging on the wall. The mirror and the wall behind it fractured, sending glass and drywall dust onto the console table below.

Scarlett struggled to breathe as the man spoke, but the impact knocked the wind from her lungs. “Now, I"m gonna" finish the job, just like I started.”

The man shoved his pistol into his waistband. His hand closed around her neck and held her against the wall. Powerful fingers gripped her throat and cut off the trickle of air she had been able to get.

Scarlett knew what came next. The memory of the last time he choked her flashed in her mind. This time there would be no second chance; he would make sure she was dead.

She reached for the man"s face, but his arms were longer than hers. Just like before, her arms thrashed about, reaching for anything. Her chest shook with convulsions, trying desperately to get air. She looked into the man"s eyes and felt the sick pleasure and rage that filled them.

Her vision blurred from the tears and her lungs burned. All she could think about was what would happen to Cash and Ruby when he was done with her.

Darkness crept in on the edges of her vision until she could only see the man"s face. But the blackness did not stop. It continued to swallow the world. In that last moment before everything was gone, something inside Scarlett snapped.

She refused to be the victim again. Scarlett had no idea why this man wanted her dead, but that did not matter anymore. As she felt her consciousness begin to fade, she also felt a fire ignite in her chest.

Scarlett"s fingers closed on the brass shaft of a candlestick sitting on the table. She swung her hand up hard and felt the impact of her weapon against the side of the man"s head.

In the black of near unconsciousness, the grip on her throat disappeared. The candlestick slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor. A second later, she followed.

Scarlett landed on her hands and knees and gasped for air. Pain ripped through her chest as the oxygen-starved muscles struggled for every molecule. Her neck burned with each breath she took in and every cough she hacked out.

She struggled against the void. All she could hear was the pounding of her own heart, the ragged sounds of her labored breaths and the dry hacking of her coughs. After a few minutes, her heart slowed and her breathing became almost normal. Between coughs, she heard Cash"s and Ruby"s muffled shouts from the other room.

A fresh round of agony tore through her throat when she spoke “It"s okay… I"m okay, I think.”

She opened her eyes and blinked away tears. A few feet away, she saw her assailant lying on the ground with his eyes closed.

Scarlett climbed to her feet and was gripped by a new kind of terror. Surrounding the man"s head was a growing pool of blood.