Free Light Unshaken (Unveiled #2) by Crystal Walton

veins.
    The tallest guy advanced straight for me with a smile taunting me to try to outrun him. A stocky one flanked his left side at a lag.
    Riley’s keys dug into my palm, his absence cutting deeper.
    I stumbled backward with nowhere to run, no way to steady my heart rate. My pulse out-thundered the crude banter rebounding from guy to guy closing in on me. I yelled for A. J., even if he couldn’t hear me.
    My heels scraped into the brick wall. I couldn’t wait for him. My mind raced. The fog rising off the pavement clouded any memory of the self-defense class I took two years ago.
    The guy closest to me made the first move.
    Adrenaline surged. My reflexes kicked in. I stomped the assailant’s foot, bent his arm backward, and maneuvered out of his hold. I kneed the second one in the groin and sprang for Riley’s car. Someone yanked my arms and pushed me into the wall.
    My hope of escaping crashed onto the concrete with the contents of my purse.
    The tall one straightened, still wheezing from my knee’s impact. He stormed up to me. Hot, cigarette-tainted breath poured into my face and onto the ring of sweat soaking the top of my shirt.
    “A. J,” I screamed again.
    A hand covered my mouth and shoved the back of my head harder into the bricks.
    “T, let’s bail,” a third kid called from a significant distance behind the other two.
    The apparent leader jetted around with a clenched fist in the air. “Go up to Twenty-Third Street, and make sure we don’t get no unexpected guests.” His voice held authority. The kind I doubted anyone in his crew would test.
    Staring at me, the kid didn’t move at first. The look on his face blended into the darkness stretching behind him. My eyes screamed for him to intervene.
    “Dee!” the leader shouted this time.
    The kid flinched. Without a word, he jogged backward, turned, and ran in the opposite direction. Away from the center and away from his chance to help me.
    The leader grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. The intent in his gaze seeped through my clothes and crawled over my skin. One flex of power, and he could rob Riley and me of everything we’d been saving for each other.
    Tears burned.
    His dark eyes smoldered above a sinister smirk. Glancing at his friend, he ran his finger under my necklace. “Looks like senorita gots more than one pearl to give us.”
    I spit in his face with all the vehemence I had in me. Seething, he wiped his cheek with his sleeve. I tried to break free, but he blocked my arms. The corner of his ring cut into my chin and ignited another scream for help. He pounded my shoulders, crashing my whole body into the wall. I reached for the back of my head. The scene swirled. Coarse bricks scraped through my shirt as I slid down the building. Balance lost.
    Consciousness drifted. A third figure emerged. Had that kid come back? Muffled voices trailed the hazy shapes scuffling around me. A wounded yelp followed a sharp snap . Someone dropped to the ground. Noises raged. Movements blurred. A second person fell a foot away.
    In the darkness, it turned quiet. Too quiet.
    Just as someone knelt in front of me, everything went black.

chapter TeN
    Broken
    My body, limp and weighted, hung above someone’s footsteps. My lashes fluttered open. Tops of buildings swayed from side to side next to the clouds. A wave of nausea pulled my eyes shut. I tightened my clasp around my carrier’s shirt, no strength to resist.
    He lowered me into a car and leaned over to fasten my seatbelt.
    I pulled him close enough for his face to come into focus. “A. J.” Relief swelled. My hand slid from his cheek down his cotton shirt.
    His chest rose and fell above a pounding heart. He lifted my hands from his body and set them in my lap. “You’re safe now. Try to be still. I’m getting you out of here.” Though his words soothed, his voice pulsed with adrenaline.
    The driver’s door opened and closed. He shifted the car into gear and gunned it down the abandoned