Blaze (The Stark Affair Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dislodged a ton of teeth too.
    I probably would have killed him if I hadn’t
been pulled off him.
    And I probably would have gone to jail if it
weren’t for Mike.
    The other cops take Angel away, and Mike
forcibly yanks me into the room with the crying baby.
    Grabbing my shoulders, he looks me in the eye.
    “Pull yourself together, Officer Martinez- Vallejos !”
    I can barely hear him over the rushing of blood
in my ears and the baby crying.
    “I’m going to kill him, Mike,” I say, putting
my hand on my gun.
    He slaps my face.
    “No you’re not! I’m not going to let you go to
prison because of someone like him! Now, you listen to me. Here’s what we’re
going to do. None of that happened out there. None of it! He resisted arrest
and we had to force him to the ground. That’s what happened. Nothing else.”
    “But Mike—”
    “Shut the fuck up! Now take that baby in your
arms and carry her out for all the people videoing this on their cell phones.
You’re the good guy. Save that baby!”
    The blurriness clears a little as Mike reaches
into the crib and picks up the little girl. He hands her to me.
    Strength finds me again as I take the baby in
my arms. God, she looks just like Wanda.
    “Now we’re going to walk out there, our heads
held high. Do it for the baby, for Wanda.”
    “Okay,” I say.
    Sure enough, there are several cell phones in
the hands of gathered spectators as we emerge from the apartment. Several more
cruisers have shown up, including an ambulance.
    On the way down the steps, I break protocol. We’re
not supposed to touch or disturb a dead body, but I can’t help myself.
    Crying baby in my arms, I sit next to Wanda. I
bring the baby’s head over to her mother’s cheek and lightly touch her head to
it.
    Then I get back up and continue descending the
stairs.
    I’m crying now. Two EMTs approach me to take the baby. I hand her to them and they go to the ambulance.
    Next thing I know Mike’s arm is around me,
leading me to our cruiser. He opens the passenger door and pushes me in. Then
he gets in the driver’s side and shuts the door.
    He grabs my hands and puts his arm around me,
pulling me into him.
    I lose it. I cry uncontrollably.
    “It’s okay, Sofe ,”
Mike says. “You’re going to be okay.”

 
    * *
*

 
    “Where
are you?” says Colton Stark.
    I
shake my head. “Huh?”
    “You
drifted away. You weren’t here.”
    I
loosen my grip on him and move away. “No, I’m here.”
    We’re
heading out into the darkness now, the lights of Key Biscayne on our left.
    He
takes us out and around, heading north. The glittering lights of South Beach
are directly ahead of us.
    Abruptly,
Colton Stark turns me around and pushes me into the passenger seat. He straps
me in. Then he sits and straps himself in.
    I
grip the hand rests because I sense what’s coming.
    He
fires the Mercs and guns us forward. Soon we’re
outside the mile markers and into the deep ocean.
    Holy
fuck! I didn’t think a boat could go this fast. We must be doing sixty,
bouncing hard against the waves heading for the Bahamas.
    He
turns and smiles at me.
    His
smile washes away my thoughts.
    Then
he makes a big wide slow circle and guns it back in a straight line toward
Miami.
    I
feel an adrenaline rush as we speed toward the horizon, almost completely
filling my vision with its long line of condos stretching all the way up the
coast.
    Then,
just as abruptly, he slows down and kills the engine.
    We’re
stopped about a mile out, South Beach with its arsenal of neon glitter lighting
up the sky ahead of us. The only sound is the gentle lapping of the water all
around, the vast stretch of the city filling our peripheral vision in both
directions.
    “I’m
addicted to speed,” he says. “Not the drug. Actual speed.”
    “Couldn’t
tell.”
    The
boat bobs gently on the water. It’s much calmer out here. Strange.
    “I
like the view from here,” he says. “Just far enough away from the vileness of
it all,