Page 57 of Heart Like Yours
The taste of blood fills my mouth. Tilting my head to the side, I spit it out and straighten as best I can in the chair. Brandon creeps up behind Tracy, eyes bouncing between us like he can’t decide if he should intervene or not.
“I’ve met the men she raised. Excuse me if I don’t believe you for character reference.”
“Why you little?—”
“Tracy, she’s taunting you.” Brandon glares at me over her shoulder. “Which is rich coming from the person tied to a chair.”
Tracy doesn’t move, standing in front of me and fuming as she glares.
“Babe, go cool down. You thought of everything to get us here. No point in losing our cool over a brat like her.”
Her jaw clenches, but she gives in. Whirling around, she storms past Brandon. “I’ll go find some duct tape or something to keep her mouth shut.”
Once she’s gone, I relax slightly, keeping an eye on Brandon the entire time.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask quietly.
He tears his gaze from where Tracy disappeared.
“Because the two of you need to be knocked off your high horse. You think you’re so much better than the rest of us.”
I shake my head, wondering how he could possibly see things like this. Neither Garrett nor I have ever thought we’re above anyone. When it comes to Brandon specifically, I even tried to help him more than I should have.
“How did you meet Tracy?” I ask, rolling my wrists and trying to see if there’s any give in the rope holding my hands together.
Brandon sneers at me. “She found me just before you two wrongfully fired me.”
I blink. Then blink again. “B-Brandon, you weren’t doing your job.”
“I was doing enough!” he shouts and I slam my mouth shut, realizing I’m walking a very thin line by questioning him.
He shakes his head, pacing the small length of the room and muttering under his breath.
I store all the information away and stay silent. It’s clear that Tracy is just using him, but I’m not about to point that out when I have nowhere to go.
Glass shatters in the distance and Brandon freezes, staring out the door.
“Tracy?” he calls out. When she doesn’t answer, he doesn’t even spare me a second glance and leaves the room, slamming the door shut behind me.
My heart pounds in my chest as I listen for any signs as to what’s going on.
I’m so focused on the door and what’s ahead of me, that I’m not expecting the window over my shoulder to be kicked in. I bite back a scream, swallowing it down and curling forward as best as I can to avoid the glass hitting my face.
I look back just as bright green eyes and blond hair pop up. “Oh good, I picked the right window.”
All I can do is gape at the giant man who crawls through the window. His buff shoulder gets caught and he just huffs in annoyance before slipping his hand up and breaking the frame. He drops in with ease after that, standing to his feet with more grace than I would have expected from a man of his size. I stare up at him as he looks around with a nod.
“This place is a dump,” he says in disgust and moves behind me. Before I can ask what the hell is going on, he’s cut the rope from my hands.
The man frowns, sparing me a quick glance before unzipping his black sweater and tossing it at me. “Some people have no fucking manners.”
I catch the sweater, looking between it and him before finally speaking.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Parker. G-man is waiting for the all clear,” he says and I can only assume he’s talking about Garrett. He pulls something round from his cargo pants pocket and holds it up. “Now how about we have some fun and get you out of here?”
GARRETT