Page 99 of Callow

I didn’t hesitate.

I held onto that thing like the lifeline it was and just… stabbed backward.

Once. Twice. Three times.

His howls filled the space as he released me and I ran again, the other guy rushing after me.

It was then I heard it.

The rumble of motorcycles.

A lot of them.

Coming closer.

I didn’t have a reason to hope it was the bikers coming to save me, since I doubted my mom even knew I was missing yet. She never got up this early on a weekend. But it would be people I could run to for help. Right?

“Help me get her,” tattoo guy snarled at his buddy.

“She stabbed me!”

“Yeah, so get her so we can make her pay for it.”

A hand reached for me and I struck out with the knife.

But he was anticipating that, slamming his fist down on my hand, knocking the knife from my grip.

I ran again, but reached toward the wall, yanking down a pool cue.

Those bikes sounded like they were right outside.

I drew in a breath to scream just as the tattoo guy lunged at me again.

I was swinging out when the door to the building flew open.

I don’t know if that distracted the tattoo guy or what, but my pool cue landed a loud smack to his face, sending him back a foot as I saw the best thing I think I’d ever seen.

Callow rushing in, gun drawn, to save me.

“Daph, run,” he yelled to me as he turned to take aim at the guy I’d stabbed.

I was running away, so I didn’t see it, but I heard the gunshots, the cries of pain, then nothing as, I imagined, Callow killed that guy.

“Get behind the counter,” Callow called to me, his voice fierce.

I caught a quick look at him as I went behind the counter like he’d demanded.

He was tucking his gun away as he grabbed tattoo guy by the throat.

There was a dark, chilling look in Callow’s eyes then that had a shiver moving down my spine even as I dropped down to my knees behind the counter.

With the threats more or less neutralized, the adrenaline had no outlet, making me start to shake uncontrollably as the sounds of fists hitting flesh filled the room.

There were other voices in the space then, but I was feeling oddly numb and detached as I sat there, rocking back and forth, trying to think past my racing heart, the tight feeling around my throat.

I don’t know how long I sat there like that.

But it was Callow’s voice that seemed to penetrate through the fog I found myself trapped in.