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CHAPTER ONE
MAGGIE
The shrill sound of sirens screamed through the night air and woke me from what could have only been a blackout. When I lifted my head, the pain searing through my head and neck overwhelmed me, so I immediately dropped it back on the cold floor. My eyes wouldn’t open; I knew that without trying. I’d actually felt them swelling shut with each blow.
Loud pounding on the door, not far from where I lay, caused panic to move through me. Shifting my body back, I tried to force myself into a small ball, hoping to hide. Maybe he wouldn’t see me if he was the one who’d come back and was beating on the door. The pounding became louder, but I didn’t call out, needing for my own peace of mind to stay quiet and protect myself with my silence. Car doors slammed, and my body twitched with each new noise, bracing for what may be coming, hoping to black out and avoid any more pain if he was back.
“Maggie!”
My name was yelled through the closed door, and vaguely recognizing the voice, I was relieved when it didn’t send a chill down my spine.
Like when he would scream it.
“Maggie, honey, if you’re near the door, move back!”
I had no idea if I was near the door, and I couldn’t remember where we were when he delivered the last blow, the one right before the darkness overtook me.
My body reacted to a loud crashing sound by jerking, and I winced from the pain, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t have even if I’d tried.
“Check the bedrooms!”
I heard shouted, but it was only a moment more until I heard his voice, and it was much closer. “I found her.”
A hand touched my face. “Maggie, honey, it’s me, Luke. You’re safe now. The ambulance is only a minute out.”
I winced again when he pushed my hair out of my eyes, although I could tell he did it gently. “Can you talk to me?”
I swallowed hard, but opened my mouth to acknowledge him even though I felt the darkness starting to pull me under again. “Luke.” I whispered.
He gently pulled my hand into his. “Yeah, sweetheart, it’s me. Do you know where Snake is?”
The darkness swam around my mind, and I welcomed it. Luke’s voice became more distant until he called my name.
“Maggie, stay with me.”
But I didn’t want to. I wanted the darkness and the peace it would bring me. My last thought before succumbing to the comforting silence was maybe he finally did it.
Maybe he finally killed me.
CHAPTER TWO
MAGGIE
‘Never trust them, baby. Never trust anyone.’
As I listened to the sound of machines beeping every few seconds, I realized I was in the hospital and somehow still alive, but lost in my dreams while my mom’s words circled my mind with the last vision of her I still had. It brought me peace, but then again, she’d always had a way about her. She was calm and simple in a world filled with violence and anger. At least that was the world I’d grown up in. But as bad as it was, I had my mom, and I loved her more than anything. I would’ve walked through fire to be with my mom, would’ve moved anywhere she wanted to go, and I did, until I couldn’t anymore.
Until the day I had to call an ambulance. The day I had to hold her hand during what felt like the longest trip we’d ever taken. The day I had to kiss her goodbye, when the cancer eating away at her finally took her life.
And in less than a week after I’d lost her, I’d run away.
I was fifteen.
I was homeless. I was hungry to the point of pain. I had no prospects, no idea how to survive alone, but it was still better than staying with my mom’s brother who was the only family I had left. Or the only family I knew about. He said he’d take me in, but during the long week after she died while we planned the funeral, I knew by the way he watched me that I’d have to pay for my place in his home and not in a way I ever would voluntarily.
I ran away the day we buried her and spent the next two years begging for money and food, moving from shelters to squatting in abandoned homes and stealing. I kept my head down so my age wouldn’t be discovered, and I made sure I was never in a position to be picked up by the police for fear they’d move me to a boarding home or, worse, back to my uncle’s.
I thought fate was finally shining down on me when I met Snake. He found me hiding behind a dumpster in the alley behind a popular restaurant while I waited in the black of night for the trash to be thrown out. I was mesmerized by him. Though he was big and strong, he was sweet to me, offering me food and shelter, and I was so damn tired. Tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of being alone.