Read Online The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout - Free Book Online Page B

gasped out. “When I threw my weight back, he slipped and fell, but I didn’t get very far.” I dragged in a deep breath, forcing my eyes wide. He…” Horror seized me, and again, I was struck by the stupidity of this. “It’s too soon. I don’t want to do this.”
    Jensen held on. “Ella—”
    “Let me go.” I jerked forward, but he held on. Panic crawled up my throat. “I’m not ready for this. Please. I don’t want to—”
    “It’s okay. You’re safe here. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, voice low. “You know that, Ella. You probably still know me better than most.”
    No. I didn’t know him anymore. I stopped knowing him years ago, but I stilled, realizing only then how much I was struggling against him.
    His cheek was pressed against my temple. “You’re safe here.”
    My chest rose sharply once more and I whispered, “I know.”
    “I’m just here to help you and I’m going to. Okay? You want that right?”
    I nodded as his words sunk in, and I forced my breathing to slow. I came here for a reason. Freaking out was not helping me at all. As my heart slowed, the heat returned to my face.
    “How are you hanging in there?”
    “Now or…?” I bit down on my lower lip.
    He shifted his head and his breath was warm against my ear. “You’re okay now. I can tell.”
    “How?”
    “Your breathing has changed,” he explained, and boy, that’s how close we were. He could feel the patterns in my breathing. Holy snickers. “What about the other stuff?”
    The other stuff….
    My fingers twitched around my cell and keys. “Do you know how many times I’ve been asked that today?”
    “Well, you’ve just been asked once more.”
    The corners of my lips twitched, and I started to say what I’d been saying to everyone. Maybe even change it up with ‘all right,’ but that’s not what came out of my mouth. “Not that great.”
    “I can imagine.” The muscles in his arms flexed again. “Maybe this will help.”
    “Maybe,” I murmured.
    His chest rose against my back. “All right, first things first. You can always trick the assailant. Pretend to be weak. Fake a faint.”
    “What?” That just made no sense.
    “If you’re grabbed and your attacker things you’re weak when you’re not, you have the upper hand—the element of surprise, especially when you have a weapon in your hand. You probably did Saturday night. Did you know that? It’s your keys.”
    My keys? “I dropped them.”
    “You don’t want to do that. Look at them. You have… holy crap, how many keys do you have on that thing? Jesus. Like twenty?”
    I rolled my eyes as I flushed. “Not that many. Geez.”
    “I think you have a key for every house on Rosemont Avenue,” he said, chuckling, and the blush deepened even further. It was something I tried not to think about—that he only lived three blocks down from my house, moved right back into the house he’d grown up in—that I’d grown up in. When he moved away, his parents had rented it out, but I still looked for him every time I drove past his house. “Anyway, move the keys so that the jagged parts are sticking up between your fingers.” When I did as he asked, I could hear the smile in his voice when he spoke next. “See. You got yourself a hell of a weapon now. Slam those keys into any flesh and you may just get the upper hand, but you’ve got to get free first.”
    Staring at the jagged key edges, I tried to picture myself shoving them into someone’s face. Before Saturday night, I never would’ve thought I could do something like that. The only thing I could hurt easily were bugs. With an icky sinking feeling, I realized I could easily do that now.
    Saturday night had irrevocably changed me.
    “There’s a couple of ways to break this kind of hold that doesn’t involve throwing your weight around. That doesn’t always work. The first one is going to be the easiest and something people don’t think of,” he explained. “All you have to