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him. For some reason he needed that contact with his sister, right up to the very end. Facing death does strange things to a man. Dad couldn't stare St Peter in the face without his sister for moral support.
    "Mum's not too happy with you lot," Tyler added and the rest of the bullies nodded their heads enthusiastically.
    "But she ain't real happy with cowboy boots here," Bailey threw in, his beady eyes glaring at me from under a backward baseball cap. I held his stare, held my ground, and waited for him to be the first to look away. Maybe that's why they hated me so much, because no matter what they did, no matter how many times they pushed my face in the dirt, I always stood up to them.
    Even now, knowing what was coming, I was not the first to look away.
    Tyler grabbed Dad's wheelchair and headed for the back door, Levi pushed Bailey and Leo towards me, while the youngest of the Russell boys, Ryder, cut off any escape I might have had at my back. I was surrounded, out numbered, out sized and I didn't give a flying fuck.
    "Grab her!" Levi instructed from his safe vantage point at the back of the group.
    I ducked under Bailey's uncoordinated and lazily outstretched arm, spun around and kicked out at Leo's shins. I was aiming for his groin, but the guitar over my back hampered my movements. I cursed having the darn thing around my shoulders, all the while positioning myself to protect my Martin from any harm.
    "You're just gonna piss us off, Eva," Levi announced, still from several feet away.
    "Come over here and say that, coward," I shot back, swinging an arm up to deflect Leo's strike and receiving an horrific shard of pain down to my wrist when I connected with his forearm.
    "You know you'll just make it that much more painful. Girls like you need to be taught a lesson."
    "How would you know, loser. Had any girls lately that you didn't need to drug first?"
    That little comment made Bailey chuckle, but earned a kick in the back of my knees - I was guessing from Ryder - that made me stumble to the hard ground. I felt the skin on my knees tear and clenched my teeth to stop from crying out.
    I was up and swinging before the sting had even registered, landing a decent blow to the side of Leo's head, spinning to confront Bailey and managing a solid punch in his gut, that doubled him over. It was at this point things usually went bad. I'd always land a blow or two, a kick here and punch there. If I was lucky, I'd get a decent scrape of my nails down someone's cheek, leaving a message behind when all was said and done. But four against one was not fair and any moment now Tyler would return from depositing Dad in the flat.
    And even if it was just me against Levi, he had to have had at least fifty odd kilos on me, not to mention a foot and a half in height. Still, I never gave in. I always fought as though I would come out on top. Always. I never stopped until I was on the ground and some arsehole was sitting on me. Usually Levi, because although he'd never land a blow himself, he'd always be the one to claim victory and rub the loss in my face hard.
    I felt a tug on my back, which at first didn't register, I kept swing and kicking out at anyone who came too close to my front and sides. I caught Bailey again, this time a beauty in the nuts that would have had him down for the count and left only three - until Tyler returned. With renewed energy at my victory hit, I swung around to confront whoever was still tugging on my back, in the process unhooking my guitar over my shoulder and handing them the one thing that would get me to stop.
    Ryder stood there holding my Martin, an evil, satisfied grin on his face.
    "Hold her!," Levi shouted, racing towards the spoils of the fight, to claim them as his own no doubt.
    Tyler, back from depositing Dad, got to me first yanking me down to my already abused and aching knees on the ground, with Leo offering support in the shape of an arm around my neck from behind. I didn't struggle, I should