Read House of V (Unraveled Series) for Free Online Page B

let out a small groan as he kicked it away and wound my body
around. I followed his lead and broke out of his weak grip until the man in the
cowboy hat stood a few feet in front of me.
    “You bitch. What are you going to
do?” the man asked in clear, unaccented English. His stoic face broke into a
cocky grin.
    I was right, American.
    “What do you want me to do?” I
asked, my eyes burning into him.
    “Snivel and cry like all the other
women do,” he answered as he finally pulled his hand up from his bleeding leg
then wiped it on his jacket.
    “I don’t cry.” I shrugged my
shoulders, knowing this would piss him off.
    “You haven’t met me before,” he
snarled.
    I swallowed the laugh that was
bubbling in my throat. He didn’t know who was standing in front of him. “Must
be my lucky night,” I answered instead.
    “You’ve got a mouth on you. You’re
ruining my fun for the evening,” he warned.
    I shrugged my shoulders again,
eyeing the blade four feet to my right before moving my stare back on him. He
had to be just over six feet, maybe one-hundred-eighty pounds. His eyes were
set in a shadowed, hard face, his skin pulled tight except for the slight sag
under his eyes. He tipped the cowboy hat down with a flick of his hand before
his arms shot at me.
    I lunged underneath him, rolling to
my blade to snag it up in one quick swoop. I sprung back up to my feet and
swiped through the air again, but missed. Shit. I never missed. I kicked my leg
forward and connected with his groin, making him stagger back for a few steps,
giving me room. I glanced to the right, the only way out, before I looked back
to see him raise his hands in the air. A white flag of
surrender. I gripped my knife tighter, ready to attack, ready to slice
through his neck.
    “All right, all
right. I’m done,” the cowboy sputtered with a cough. “Just go before I
change my mind, you little bitch.”
    The words rang in my ears, my head
cocking to the side as I studied the cowboy. Change his mind? It wasn’t about him; he was lucky that I was going to
change my mind. I hesitated, the
sound of laughter ringing on the other side of the alley. I counted to five, my
mantra slow and steady, as I took one last look at the cowboy, now holding his
leg and tending to his foot, before I disappeared down the alley and jogged to
the street. I tucked the knife inside my jacket sleeve as I met the small group
of four women glowing and chattering in the night, oblivious to the danger only
thirty feet away.
    “There’s some asshole drunk in the
alley. I’d watch out for him. Looks a little rapey if
you ask me,” I said as I walked past them. I heard their footsteps continue and
one of the girls say “what” in Norwegian. I had fallen into English so quick
with the cowboy that I slipped up with the women.
    Be unnoticeable.
    I glanced down the street, my eyes
scanning for the red flats of the woman from the alley, but I didn’t find the
red flats or the woman. She was gone. Good, at least she made it out. I turned
on the street, headed back to the lot where Ryan’s truck was parked.
    Leaned up against the door, Ryan
stood with his legs crossed in front of him and his hands stuffed inside his
pockets. His truck sat directly beneath a light post, the glare shining down on
his face that softened when he saw me.
    Seeing his face made me realize
that I shouldn’t have come back. I should’ve run the other way. He was better
off without me. Most people were. Elizabeth… Ethan… The list could go on and
on.
    “We should go,” I said as I walked
up to him. The cowboy was just down the road, and I didn’t want to take any
chances. I needed to get Ryan out of here.
    “Where did you go?” Ryan scrambled
to his feet.
    “The bathroom,” I lied as I grabbed
the handle of the passenger side door. His hand caught mine, turning me toward
him.
    “So going to the bathroom equates
to us leaving?” Ryan searched my face.
    There it was again. Those