The Gathering (Darkness Rising 1)

"You forgot to mention that the guys you robbed tracked you down."

"What?" He blinked in genuine surprise.

"Is your real name Rafe Santiago?"

"No, but it's one of the aliases my mom used."

Aliases?

The guy yelled again. "That's a limited-time offer, kid. The longer you take to come out, the more you're going to piss me off. You have two minutes. Starting now."

Rafe took a deep breath. "I'll handle this. Get back to town."

"Like hell. Where's Annie?"

"She took off an hour ago. That's why I'm late."

For a guy who worried about his sister so much, he didn't seem to keep a very close eye on her. Soon, this guy was going to tire of looking for me and continue down the path, hoping it led him to their cabin. If Annie was there, she wouldn't know enough to run.

"Distract him," I whispered. "I'll get help."

I started to crawl away.

Rafe grabbed my leg. "If the town finds out about Annie, we'll have to leave." He met my gaze. "I don't want to leave."

"Do you want to die?"

He didn't answer, just put his hand against the back of my head and pulled me into a kiss that made my head swim. Rough and deep and desperate.

He wouldn't look at me after that, just turned his gaze forward and said, "Get help. I'll distract him."

I took off crawling. I'd gone about twenty feet when the guy yelled, "Fine. You don't want to help me? I'll find Rafe myself, and when I'm done with him, I'm coming back for you. No one disrespects me like that, especially not a little ..."

He let loose a string of racial epithets, which I'm sure he thought would wound me to the core or at least piss me off enough to give myself away. I kept crawling.

"You looking for me?" Rafe yelled.

The woods went silent. I held still.

"Rafael?" the guy called after a moment.

"That's me. And who are you?"

I rose, staying hunched over, and moved as fast as I dared toward the path.

"You don't know me," the guy called, "but I've been paid to bring you back to the Jacksons."

Rafe laughed. "Bring me back? Right."

"You think I'm going to kill you? Oh, no. The Jacksons want to do that themselves, sending a message to every other punk who tries to rip them off. The only question, Rafael, is whether you come along willingly or you make me go after your girlfriend and your sister first. The Jacksons don't want them." He let out a nasty laugh. "But I think I could find some use for them."

"And if I turn myself in, you'll leave them alone?" Rafe's voice had moved farther in the opposite direction, drawing the guy away from me.

"That's the plan."

The guy didn't seem to be following Rafe, but that was fine. He'd made contact with his target. I was safe. I reached the path and--

A bullet flew over my head. I ran.