Unwritten Rules (Rules 1)

Tanner’s guys don’t flinch. One of them leaves the room and comes back with a baseball bat. I see it, and in this moment, I know… miracles don’t exist.

The first man pins my body down with all his strength while the second holds the bat up in the air. I can’t move my arms. All I can do is scream and wiggle. How ironic that even when my arms are free, they’re not.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Haze screams, fighting to get out of his chair. “I’ll kill you. I swear to God.”

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“Enjoy the show” is the last thing I hear Blake say before his guy takes a powerful swing at my leg and I scream in the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt.

I don’t shed a tear. Somehow, I know my misery is what they want and I’ll be dead before I give it to them.

In that moment, as I hear Haze shouting at the top of his lungs to get them to stop, I wonder if my life has been what I wanted it to be. I see myself growing up in Canada without a father and wonder if he’ll show up to my funeral. I remember every little moment I wasted being sad. I think of every single person who told me to stay away from Haze, and I wonder how different things would be… if I had just listened.

“That’s enough,” Blake says.

“You’re dead. Dead, you got it?” Haze shouts.

Through the tears I hold back, I look at the traitor standing tall in front of me. He’s smiling.

“I hate to cut this short, but Tanner’s going to want to see results, and well… I’m getting bored.”

He gets something out of his pocket.

A gun.

This is it Winter, you’re going to die.

He points it at me. “Any last words?”

My eyes darken. Unbidden, a voice plays in my head on a loop. And that voice… is Haze’s. “Do you want to be a damsel in distress? No? Then prove it.”

I’m not dying today.

“Yes.”

I pause.

“You were right, Haze. One move makes all the difference.”

Blake frowns, “What?”

From there, the events unravel so quickly the traitor can barely keep up. He doesn’t expect my hands to be free, which gives me the advantage. I use the technique Haze taught me to disarm someone by chopping at his wrist with one hand and pushing the barrel of the gun in the opposite direction with the other. Blake’s face drops as his gun crashes to the ground several feet away from him.

He’s trying to pick it up when another gun goes off in a deafening noise. At first, I think that one of Tanner’s guy fired at me, but I’m still here when, clearly, I should be dead and bleeding out on the floor.

The shriek of pain that follows explains everything.

Blake’s lying on the ground, his leg covered in blood as he bawls his eyes out.

“Here comes the rescue squad,” a voice screams as people rush inside the building from every possible entrance.

But it’s not just anyone.

That voice belongs to Will.

The East Side is here.

“Winter!” Kendrick’s voice rings in my ear, and I’m overwhelmed by a thousand emotions. The numerous fighters Kendrick brought easily manage to get Owen and Man Number Two under control. Too bad Tanner’s not around to witness his evil plan fail. Will unties me and sets Haze free after he steals the key to the handcuffs from a knocked out Owen.