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But no, I really didn’t think it was a wo wasn’t all curvy and pretty like every other wo I’d ever seen,was atrocious if she was in a hurry

Placing the paper beneath , I put the necklace around my neck and tucked the medallion under my shirt As soon as the cool metal settled over my heart, a sudden calm settled over ht Daddy had coan to fade

I covered the medallion with my hand “I don’t knoho you are, G, but thank you,” I whispered

Three months later…

My heart was pounding against , even for only a et me

“Help Please, so as fast as I could But I wasn’t athletic likeI enjoyed, even if it was one of Mos to do when she was stressed She often tried to get Mila and ularly, but I was all too happy to watch them run around the block fro

But I was running forto survive this

Daddy had calo to and from school on our own if anted Today, Mila had ridden home with a friend They’d asked me to come with them, but it was a pretty day out and I wanted to enjoy the sun and the slightly cool breeze, so I’d decided to walk It wasn’t far, just under two

But it seeht than a van had pulled up beside s was so sers stuck out like a sore thuers

“Hey, beautiful,” the driver had greeted as he rolled down hisand leaned his arm out His eyes were bloodshot, and the s His hair was dirty and shaggy, curling at the ends When he grinned, I saw his teeth were stained yellow and, in a few places, a dark brown The second guy, I couldn’t see clearly fro to the driver “You need a ride somewhere?”

Automatically, I had covered theI now did whenever I felt scared Holding on to it always cal for the sudden shot of fear I felt looking at the guys in the van

“I’ my phone as I walked, I started to textover the keys, I heard two doors opening and sla shut behind me

A voice in the back ofit would only weighaftermy phone in one hand like a lifeline

Finally, I saw s faster, but there was that dang crack in the sidewalk Mo across the concrete scraped the skin off my palms and , I kneas bleeding, and I could feel pieces of dirt and rock lodged in the torn skin

Tears blinded et to rinned The second guy was right there beside the driver His hair was even greasier than the driver’s, if that were possible He had a gold cap over one of his top front teeth, and with the way his eyes were looking at me, all I wanted was to hide

Fear had nausea roiling into defend h, and I tried to scoot back away froly

This tihbors were still at work, the other kids e still at school for whatever practice they had Maverick was no doubt walking River hoone with them I should have…

The sound of screeching tires had the two h my tears, I saw the door of a nondescript black car open and a guy get out, dressed in black pants, with the hood of his shirt pulled up over his head He was larger-than-life, taller than er that oozed from him reminded me of both men, yet I wasn’t scared of hi over ed toward the two men

They were too stunned by his sudden appearance to ht in front ofasphalt echoed in uy punched the one he was on top of over and over in the face, yelling at him in what sounded like Italian

I desperately blinked backwas real That hen uy with the gold tooth He was staring straight at

Cautiously, I kicked out ed him, but he didn’t move, didn’t so much as blink, and I realized he was…dead

My terrified screa on the guy on the ground who see to drop it down like an anvil on the driver’s face again

The newcoot my first look at his face There, over his left eyebroas a scar that went down to his cheek, and throughhoas still able to see out of that eye—or if he even could

Seeing the fear onhis lips to my temple, and I felt oddly comforted “You’re safe now”