Scarlet Angel Read Online Free PDF Page A

going on inside first. She approached the
swinging door and peeked through the tiny gap. Ruby sat on a tall
stool with her hands behind her back. To the older woman’s right,
Scarlett saw Cash’s shoulder. His arms were also pulled back.
    She angled to see more of the room when something
blocked her view. Scarlett flung her arm up just as the door burst
open. The corner of the swinging door smashed into her forearm and
threw her backward.
    Her back slammed to the floor. She rolled with the
impact and bounded back up. Five years of self-defense training
kicked in and she crouched to lunge at her attacker.
    The large figure filled her field of view. The
barrel of a small gun aimed at her face made her heart skip a beat
and she froze.
    Her vision followed the gun back to the hand, along
the arm and up to her attacker’s face. The man’s unshaven cheeks
were pockmarked with scars and sores from years of fighting and
drug use. But it was his voice that turned her heart cold. “Hello,
Jillian.”
    The moment the scratchy words grated from his lips,
Scarlett knew who he was. This was the man who had tried to kill
her five years ago.
    Vertigo swept over Scarlett and her knees gave out.
She felt herself falling and heard the man’s words echo in her
mind. His voice triggered a cascade of terror-filled memories from
that night. The pain, the penetration, his weight on top of her...
But most of all, she remembered the man’s rancid
whiskey-breath.
    “ You.” The words choked in her
throat.
    “ It’s been a few years, ain’t it.
You’s done pretty good, considerin’ yer ‘spose t’be
dead.”
    Scarlett struggled to find her voice. Fear paralyzed
her throat and dried her mouth. Finally she choked out a few words.
“What... what do you want?”
    The man lunged forward and grabbed her blouse,
lifting her back to her feet. Forgotten, the fire-poker fell to the
floor with a clang. “What I want? What I want?” The man shouted at
her, his voice growing in pitch. “I want’cha dead! Yer s’posed
t’die five years ago. Now, if I don’ fix that, they’s gonna’ kill
me. And ain’t nobody killin’ me!”
    The powerful fist flung Scarlett to the side and
over the couch. She sailed through the air, her arms flailing. Her
body slammed into the floor, hard. Her ears rang from the impact
and her head swam.
    The man landed next to her with a loud thump and
seized her hair. He yanked her up and slammed her into the mirror
hanging on the wall. The mirror and the wall behind it fractured,
sending glass and drywall dust onto the console table below.
    Scarlett struggled to breathe as the man spoke, but
the impact knocked the wind from her lungs. “Now, I’m gonna’ finish
the job, just like I started.”
    The man shoved his pistol into his waistband. His
hand closed around her neck and held her against the wall. Powerful
fingers gripped her throat and cut off the trickle of air she had
been able to get.
    Scarlett knew what came next. The memory of the last
time he choked her flashed in her mind. This time there would be no
second chance; he would make sure she was dead.
    She reached for the man’s face, but his arms were
longer than hers. Just like before, her arms thrashed about,
reaching for anything. Her chest shook with convulsions, trying
desperately to get air. She looked into the man’s eyes and felt the
sick pleasure and rage that filled them.
    Her vision blurred from the tears and her lungs
burned. All she could think about was what would happen to Cash and
Ruby when he was done with her.
    Darkness crept in on the edges of her vision until
she could only see the man’s face. But the blackness did not stop.
It continued to swallow the world. In that last moment before
everything was gone, something inside Scarlett snapped.
    She refused to be the victim again. Scarlett had no
idea why this man wanted her dead, but that did not matter anymore.
As she felt her consciousness begin to fade, she also felt a fire
ignite in