Free Between the Cracks and Burning Doors: Book 2 of The Extraction List Series by Renee N. Meland Page B

father’s face, my father’s voice.
    With my one free hand, I grabbed his nose and twisted it as hard as I could. The sound of it snapping hit me between the noises of the warehouse and the other wounded men.
    I heard the clacking of the woman’s stilettos as she ran. The man released me and his hands fell across his own eyes. Blood slid down the sides of his hands.
    Despite his deep wound, the second man was still breathing. He sat there, bleeding to death, using his last breaths to beg for his life. “Please, please I don’t even know these guys. I don’t even know her. I just needed money. That’s all.”
    He looked at me. The bags under his eyes told a story of a guy just trying to survive. If the world weren’t so fucked up, he probably would have had a desk job somewhere, delightfully nine to five, with plenty of time to make his kids mac and cheese for dinner. I went over to the first man and pulled off the shirt he was wearing; it had blood all over it but the sleeves would still work as a tourniquet. The wounded man jumped as I lunged toward him. “I need to tighten this.”
    I looped the shirt around his leg above the wound and tied it as firmly as I could. “This will slow down the bleeding.” Or at least that was how it worked on TV.
    The one thing you could still count on in our town was the fire department. Fires burn whether the economy died or not, so as I pulled the fire alarm at the warehouse, the man smiled a week, blood-loss induced smile.
    I nodded and disappeared.
     
    As I ran from the warehouse, the lightheadedness returned with a vengeance. My heart pounded its hateful, powerful rhythm in my ears as I fought the urge to wretch. I ran away from the image of my father’s lifeless body, ducked through side streets to escape the man with bloody holes where his eyes used to be. In my visions, he stared at me with his deep gaping sockets while the hot red liquid seeped from his skull. I tried to wipe the sweat from my brow but the sweat from my palm just replaced it.
    I couldn’t remember where Maureen’s house was. Every street looked the same. I heard sirens in the distance. Or maybe it was just an echo in my head. Either way, every time I thought I was close I hit another alley with a brick wall closing me in.
    I knew I had to get to her. She was the only one who would understand. Even with all of her beautiful damage, her heart had beaten once. She had felt the crack of dried blood on her silky white skin.
    Somehow, I found my way to her porch. The wind had picked up and my sweat-drenched clothes made me shiver. When she opened the door, we didn’t speak. I just looked at her, and she put her arm around me and guided me upstairs to her bedroom.
    As soon as her door shut, I kissed her. I grabbed her face in my blood-soaked hands and pulled it toward me. She ignored the stickiness of her cheeks and leaned close to me, wrapping her arms around me tight.
    We fell on top of her red satin comforter. A wave of pillows exploded onto the floor with the impact.
    I was mad with fear and lust. Every brush against her flesh set my skin on fire, like needles breaking through me that I never wanted to stop.
    I had to have all of her, all at once. I wanted my mouth on her everywhere at the same time. I didn’t want to feel anything but her; I needed to forget about the blood and the children and the lies. She held me so close that I wanted to melt into her body; and when she pulled me inside her, it felt like I had.
    She became gentle, slow. I rested my hands just above the small of her back as I let her take control.
    I came hard, with the unrestrained explosiveness that accompanies a young man’s first time. My body convulsed with spasms but her eyes never left mine. When I was done, she leaned under my arm and rested her head on my chest. “You killed again, didn’t you?”
    I turned to look at her. “No, but I could have.”
     
    The sun came up faster than I wanted it to. For a moment, I wished