Blood and Honor Read Online Free PDF Page B

this. Get yourself on a plane to BFE. Change your name. Change what you look like. Just go. Now!”
    He stalked from the small bunk they shared, slamming the door as he went.
    It was the last time she ever saw him.
    Mickey remembered how she sat there for a few minutes in total shock, unwilling to leave…unwilling to believe things were over. Deep down, she knew Dizzy was right. The best thing to do was to disappear and leave nothing behind. She had to start over and forget her name, her family, her past. Most of her past was a hell she didn’t care to think about anyway. Any trace of her would be deadly to the ones she loved.
    But…things had been good—so good.
    With Dizzy and his crew, she was known only as Micks, and her past couldn’t touch her. In fact, as the weeks went by, it was easy to pretend that none of it had ever happened.
    Dizzy was one of the only men in her life who had ever protected her. He didn’t pressure her for sex. He had her back—like he understood how damaged she was inside, and why.
    Perhaps he had his own demons to conquer.
    But, he never got a chance to tell her about them. Mickey swept in like a nuclear bomb, leaving destruction in her wake, just like she always did. When Danny “Dizzy” Delgado’s name came up in the obituary section of the Darling paper, Mickey was thousands of miles away, but the impact of his death rattled her so much she felt like she was standing on the man’s grave.
    Because it was her fault. More blood to add to her stained hands.
    She left, like he told her to, and just like that her brief reprieve was over. It was like she had been living in a dream, one where she wasn’t the girl she had been. Now, she wasn’t sure who she was anymore…
    Before she disappeared, Mickey considered the fact that her trail of destruction would lead to Rhee. She made that ill-fated phone call, but it was too late. The car came out of nowhere, and she caught flash of steel glinting from the rear window. She was already running, the receiver of the pay phone left dangling, her sister’s voice echoing behind her as she ducked into the bus station.
    Things just kept going from bad to worse. Mickey couldn’t go to the cops. She was a fucking murderer. They would find out what she did and she would probably get the death penalty. She couldn’t put Rhee or anyone else in danger.
    Plus, she didn’t want Rhee to know what she did.
    Mickey remembered her final thoughts as she hopped the first bus out of town, on the road to nowhere. She needed a destination. If she made it to the airport, there was only one place she could envision herself going.
    Hell, if I’m going to die, it’s going to be somewhere warm.
    ***
    “Are you okay, honey? Anything hurt you?”
    Mickey sat up groggily, the faded memories clogging her brain. She put her head in her hands and realized that the low, keening noise was coming from her own mouth.
    “I-I’m fine,” she croaked, willing her eyes to focus on the face that swam in front of her.
    It all came rushing back to her then. The diner. The kindly waitress. The newspaper…
    Him.
    Mickey shot to her feet and immediately hugged the wall as a wave of dizziness threatened to sweep her legs out from underneath her. Oh, fuck. This isn’t good…
    “Oh my! Please, honey, sit down! You’re not…not pregnant are you?”
    Mickey managed a wan smile and shook her head violently.
    The seemingly innocuous question unlocked a floodgate of emotion, and Mickey’s fragile emotional walls crumbled into dust. One sob tore from her throat, and then another. Somehow, she was lying on the faded tile floor, her body wracked with sobs, knowing that all the while a stranger watched her with concern. A warm hand smoothed down her back but for once, she didn’t reject the contact. Instead, she turned into the older woman’s body and allowed herself to be held.
    She was nowhere near cried out, but Mickey Blake wasn’t about to let her vulnerability show—at least,