Read Online Darkest Before Dawn (A Guardian's Diary Book 1) by Amelia Hutchins - Free Book Online

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    I stepped from the building to survey the damage. The car they’d driven here in was toast. Pieces of the leader were scattered on the ground. I looked up to the top of the building to find the three candy skull masks still staring down at me. I turned my head as mister sexy walked back up to me, his axe still dripping blood.
    “Get your girls, and get out of here. This group has more people, and I’m willing to bet they are on their way here,” he said as he stepped over the body pieces and walked up until he was nose to nose with me. He lifted the mask with no warning, exposing my lips again. His thumb trailed over where a single droplet of blood remained from being hit. “Be careful, there are bad men out on your streets, my fierce Valkyrie.”
    “Why did you help me?” I asked, because this wasn’t the first time. I’d have been puppy chow earlier, and he had plenty of time to attack me between his men and Greta getting there.
    “Is it wrong to help people?” he asked, surprised by my question.
    “If you expect something for it, it is.”
    “Have I demanded anything from you?” he countered as he stepped closer. I pretended not to be intimidated, but I was. I whistled for the girls, and watched him as he continued until he was inches from me.
    “You will, and when you do, remember, I have nothing to give you.”
    “And what if I only want your name?” he asked softly.
    “Emma, you want us to head back?” Greta asked as they walked out from the building and joined us.
    I shook my head. “Well, I guess you have it now.”
    “Emma.” He tested my name on his tongue and for some reason; it rolled through my vagina and bounced off my rib cage before hitting my nipples and turning them hard. I may have been a virgin still, but my body belonged to a slut! Moisture pooled between my thighs, and the only thing he’d done, was say my name. “I guess I’ll have to think of something else you can owe me,” he smiled and walked off, leaving all the girls drooling in his wake.
    “He has got some friggin’ nerve!” I snapped.
    “Look at that ass!” Greta said.
    “Um, if I have to choose between going back to the shelter, and him, I’m choosing him.” Jillian whipped her hair back, which was her signature move for flirting—it had been since first grade.
    “Momma wants some!” Kaylah chimed in.
    I tore my eyes from them, back at him just in time for him to look back and wink at me. “Get in the hummer,” I growled.
    “I’d give him a hummer,” Jillian laughed.
    I shook my head; yup, it was official. I had a land, it was called Hussy, and I was its queen.

Chapter 5

    I spent the next day handing out care packages to the families that lived deep in the woods. I’d brought the ATV, since most lived in places cars and my bike wouldn’t reach. I was at my last stop for the day, and the sun had already begun to set for the night. I rounded the bend and turned off the ATV, but even from the distance I had parked away from my destination, I could tell that something seemed off.
    If I’d been smarter, I would have run. Really, my brain was playing that annoying eighties song asking: should I stay or should I go now. Yup, I was a dork that way. I had theme music for every kind of situation. If the Jaws music started playing, I was seriously out of here.
    I rounded the corner of the cabin, and stopped cold. Blood! Danger! I was torn, because I knew this family. I’d gone to school with Karen, and she’d just had a baby. I could hear whimpered cries from inside, but the amount of blood that was dried and caked on the porch told me someone had died…gruesomely.
    I strained my reserve and my spine, which was bent and twisted and wanted to run away, and pulled out one of my knives. I crept slowly up to the door, and listened. The whimpering noises were faint and other than that, the house was silent. I turned and peeked my head inside, only to gag as the smell of death hung putrid in the stale