Free Witness Protection (The Witness Series) by Bec Botefuhr Page A

bring back beer.”
    Ryder snorts and winks at me. “Deal.”
    “See you Ari.” Nate grins.
    “B ehave .” Ryder says to me, stroking his palm. I feel my cheeks swell with heat.
    The two men leave and I eat my breakfast and chat to James Clancy . Half an hour later, when the pool finally opens, James Clancy and I walk down. I am so looking forward to the cool water, the outdoor breeze. I am just dropping my towel when a high pitched scre am echoes through the complex. James Clancy pulls out his gun and grips my arm, shoving me behind him.
    “What is it?” I ask.
    The scream echoes again, and we run towards the sound. One scream turns into many and we follow the sound around the back of the complex to the old dumpsters and there, hanging on a tree, is a young, dead girl. I scream, and James shoves me behind him again.
    “Don’t look, get low.”
    “MOVE OFF, I AM A POLICE OFFICER!” He yells to the crowd .
    I am on my knees trying hard not to lose breakfast. My heart is thudding, sweat is coursing down my forehead in thick beads. I can’t breathe, he has been this close. He left that body, in our complex.
    “Ari, call Ryder and Nate, call them, ” James Clancy says gently. “I have called other back up, we need to clear this area.”
    I hear women sobbing around me, people gagging, others throwing up. Some are just standing there, bug eyed and gaping. I glance up, stupid I know, but I do. I see her, upside down and covered in blood. She is naked, and her body is beaten and bruised . Her throat is open and gushing and all her blood as travel led out and over her face. It is stuck in her hair, but there is no missing she is blonde. I look away and wail loudly, so close, too much.
    “Mam, get that woman’s phone and call either a Nate or Ryder, please.” James Clancy asks a woman standing beside me .
    “Miss, can I have your phone.”
    The older woman kneels beside me, I am shaking violently.
    “Miss?”
    I don’t answer her, I can’t. I can’t breathe. She gently reaches down and grips the phone in my hands and pry’s it out. I let her, I have no energy not t o. I can hear her conversation, but it isn’t sinking in.
    “Hello, is this Ryder?”
    Silence.
    “A police officer asked me to call you and said to come back to the apartment. There is this woman hanging from a tree and ..”
    Silence.
    “Yes.”
    Silence, the woman looks down at me. “Is your name Ari?”
    “Y-y-yes.” I croak.
    “Yes, a girl named Ari is sitting beside me.”
    Silence.
    “Ok.”
    She hangs up and hands the phone to me, I take it back in my vice like grip. I hear scurry and police cars pull up but I don’t move, I can’t move, even if I wanted to. Her face, her dead, lifeless eyes, I can’t get them from my mind. It hurts, it is burnt in and it hurts.
    “Hey, hey.”
    I feel warm arms go around me, comfort. I smell the cologne and know it’s Nate. He pulls me close to his chest and whispers soothing words in my ear. I hear more voices, but I feel just a touch better now.
    “Hey, you are ok.”
    “He…he… knows where I am.”
    “We got it, we got you, he won’t get to you.”
    “He got in!” I cry. “He could have been watching and shot me down like a bird.”
    “He doesn’t want to shoot you, if that is what he wanted he would have done it. He wants a game, he wants to play. Come on.”
    He pulls me to my feet and I see Ryder talking frantically with James Clancy. H e looks over at me and his aqua ey es are pained, for me. I nestle further into Nate’s shirt and just focus on breathing in his scent.
    “I am taking her out of the way, she doesn’t need to see that.” Nate tells the two men.
    “Yeah, we got it.”
    I feel another arm touch my shoulder and I am turned to face Ryder.
    “You ok?”
    “No.” I whisper.
    “We won’t let anything happen to you.”
    “I keep hearing that, and yet…he got so close.”
    “Take her up Nate, we will come up and talk with her soon.”
    Ryder strokes my cheek