Tore Up (Mississippi Smoke Series Book 1)

My eyes flew open as my heart slammed against my chest rapidly. It was dark in the room, but the unease that I wasn’t alone felt like icy fingers crawling up my neck. The moon was still high in the sky, which meant I hadn’t been asleep for long.

Had I locked the door? I tried to remember, but when Nick had left me here, I hadn’t been thinking clearly.

I tried to tell myself I’d had a bad dream and that was all this was, but the hairs on my arms were standing up.

Something moved in the corner, and I opened my mouth to scream, not sure that anyone would hear me if I did. The figure was in front of me before the first sound tore from my throat. There was a flash of something shiny as the figure—who had to be a man because of his height and build—lowered himself until his eyes met mine. The sight of the blade in his hand silenced me as I stared at it, then back at him.

He had a knife.

There was a man in my bedroom with a knife. Oh God.

“I-I d-don’t have any m-money.” I stuttered out the words.

Had he not noticed he’d broken into an empty house? Not to mention, it wasn’t the kind of house that looked like it would have anything valuable in it.

The man’s mouth turned up into a sadistic smirk as his light eyes glared at me with pure hatred. I didn’t know this man. I didn’t have enemies. This had to be some serial killer or a random psycho.

“Not here for money,” he replied in a deep voice that would be appealing—if he wasn’t in my bedroom in the dark with a knife.

Was he going to kill me for sport? Or rape me, then kill me?

I had to think. What did one say to a psychopath to get them to change their mind?

I didn’t have a weapon in this house, which I realized now was very poor planning on my part. That and the not making sure I’d locked the door.

“Where is your brother?” he asked.

My brother? Ares? What had Ares done?

I knew he hadn’t been hanging out with good guys this past year. Okay, fine. They were borderline criminals. He’d been high more than once when he came home. I couldn’t imagine Ares had done anything to warrant this though. I’d told him those guys were going to get him in trouble. He’d laughed at me and rolled his eyes.

“Which one?” I asked him, although I knew good and well this was not about Alvin or Dennis.

“You’ve got more than one?” he asked me.

My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and I could see a little better. I did a quick study of his face to see if he was familiar. Chiseled face, sharp jawline, short and scruffy facial hair, his dark hair wavy and layered. A bandanna was narrowly folded and tied around his head, like Rambo. Deep-set eyes that were a lighter color than just mere brown. It was too dark to tell exactly. Tattoos decorated his muscular arms and the hand that was currently caressing the blade of his knife.

Fantastic. I was going to be murdered by a man I’d have considered hot in any other circumstance.

“How many brothers do you have?” he bit out, snapping my focus back to the situation rather than his wide shoulders.

I blinked. “Three,” I replied. “But I doubt the ten-year-old or six-year-old pissed you off. Although I can tell you that I’ve had my moments with them. They can be annoying.”

What was I doing? Rambling on like an idiot. This was panic. That was what it was.

“The oldest brother. Where is he?” the man demanded.

The deadly gleam in his eyes made me shiver.

Ares, what have you done?

“I don’t know,” I told him honestly.

I mean, I did know he was at boot camp, but I wasn’t sure where that was. I thought I had been told, and if given time, I could have remembered, but that was before this man had shown up in my room with a deadly weapon.

“Don’t fucking lie to me, bitch,” he warned, then grabbed my hair with one hand, jerking my head back, and placed the sharp blade to my neck.

I did not want to die this way. I thought I’d have preferred a gun. A bullet seemed less painful. My hand went to my stomach as realization hit me. I’d been trying not to think about it. Pushing it off because I had no idea what I was going to do. But being faced with death—the fact that if he killed me, he would also be killing the baby inside me—turned up my terror to a new level.

“I’m not lying,” I said. “Did you notice this house is empty? I am the only one here, and everything else is gone.”

He didn’t release me; if anything, his grip on my hair went from uncomfortable to painful.

“Where is your family?”

What was the answer that would keep me alive? If I knew what Ares had done, then maybe I could fix this.

“They left. My stepmom took all my siblings and left while I was at work,” I told him.

He was silent for a few seconds, and I wondered if I’d said the wrong thing. Made myself a liability, and now, he was going to slice my throat.

Why was a guy who looked like this one going around killing people? He even smelled good. It was an odd thing to notice, but he was very close to me and it was hard to miss.

“Your older brother went with them?” he asked me.

I thought for a second, then decided to go with the truth. “No. He left back in June for basic training.”

“What day?” he snarled, sounding like he was ready to end me.

“Uh, I’m not sure. I think,” I stammered. But I did know. He had left the morning after Crosby was supposed to meet me and never came.

“You think?”

I swallowed and felt the sting of the blade when my throat constricted. “Yes. It’s been a rough week, okay? And you’ve got a knife at my throat.”

He yanked my hair, and the bite from the knife broke skin. A tear ran down my face, and I was afraid to breathe.

“What day did he fucking leave?”

“It was two months ago,” I whispered. “He left on a, uh … Saturday morning.”

I knew the date because I’d been looking at a calendar all that week. Counting how many days late my period was. Praying it came.

“June 22.”

The man lowered his face until it was inches from mine. “You have twenty-four hours to find him. If you try and run, I’ll kill you, then find your family and kill them too. Do you understand me?”

Lucifer. This must be how the Devil appeared. Beautiful and evil.

“Yes,” I replied.

Twenty-four hours didn’t give me much time, but I could find Nicco, his best friend, and ask him what Ares had done. I’d have to tell this man the truth about where he was. It wasn’t like he could go to boot camp and kill Ares there. He was under the Army’s protection. However, the rest of my siblings and I would have no safety net. This man could kill us.

“Clock starts ticking now,” he said as he let my hair go and the blade was taken from my neck.

I wanted to weep in relief, but stayed silent.

The man stood up. He had to be over Ares’s six foot and Crosby’s six foot two. He was definitely more fiercely built. He didn’t need a weapon to look intimidating.

I held the sheet up to my chest and waited for him to leave. I wouldn’t be going back to sleep, but I was going to go lock the door and check all the windows.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked him.

He narrowed his gaze, but in the darkness, with him that far away, I couldn’t make out his expression.

“You don’t know?”

Why would I know? Did I look like I knew?

I shook my head.

He didn’t say anything at first, but instead stared at me. As if he could see into my soul and read my secrets. I was trembling. I might be going into shock. I wasn’t sure what that felt like, but I was cold. So very cold for it to be late August in Mississippi.

“I don’t make threats I don’t keep. Find him,” the man said, then turned and headed out the door.

Was this about drugs? Had Ares gotten involved with some dealer? That man didn’t look anything like what I thought a drug lord would look like, but what did I know about the criminal world? Besides, it had been dark in here. He could have something wrong with him in the light. Maybe he had bad teeth, and I hadn’t paid attention.

The door to the house slammed closed, and I jumped up to go run and lock it. Once the bolt clicked into place, I let out a gasp, then a sob as what had just happened sank in. I’d almost died. I reached up and touched my neck, then turned to go look in the bathroom mirror. Before I got there, I knew that the warm, sticky feeling was blood, but when I saw the mark where the knife had been, my knees went weak.

Oh God. This man wanted to kill me.

I grabbed the sink, trying to overcome the wave of nausea. It hit me hard, and I barely made it to the toilet before what little food I had in me came back up, along with the water I’d drunk earlier. I continued until I was dry-heaving.

My legs went out from under me, and I sank to the floor.

There was the briefest of moments when I’d thought, Why not let him do it?

No one would care. But it wasn’t just me anymore. I was responsible for another life. That was the only thing keeping me going. I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t just give up at this point if it wasn’t for the baby.

The next thing was, I had to decide the best way to handle the man hell-bent on murdering me if I didn’t tell him where to find Ares. I knew I was going to have to tell him, but I also wasn’t sure staying here was a good idea. Being alone would make it easier for him to just kill me anyway.

I reached up and flushed the toilet, then rested my forehead against the tiled wall beside me. If only Crosby would come back, I knew he’d help me, even if he didn’t want the baby. Believing the same guy who had sworn he loved me but would just ghost me like this was hard. I wasn’t going to demand anything from him, but if I just had someone who cared, I wouldn’t be so alone.