The Rocker Who Shatters Me by Terri Anne Browning
“I-I w-want my m-m-momma.” I cried against her chest. She smelled good and her arms were warm against my back. I was still scared, but I was so happy that Jordan’s Aunt Gabs had saved me…
“I don’t think so, bitch.” The woman who had tried to steal me stepped in front of Aunt Gabs. I lifted my head just enough to peek at the mean woman. Her hood had fallen back but all I could see was that weird mark on her chin. “You aren’t messing this up for me.” She pulled something from her pocket and Aunt Gabs went completely still.
The mean woman didn’t say another word, but the next sound I heard hurt my ears. There was a loud bang and then another one and Aunt Gabs fell, taking me with her. I landed under her, my back scraped over the rough road. Her hold on me tightened, and her breathing sounded all funny. Then my pajama shirt got wet with something warm and sticky.
The mean woman laughed in a way that scared me even more than when she’d been trying to take me and when I opened my eyes, I saw her running away.
Emmie
We had the place on lock-down within three minutes.
Three minutes wasn’t soon enough.
I left Natalie in charge of reviewing the cameras that we’d placed on the inside and the outside of the door on each of our tour buses. Everyone was already gathered into search parties and I was going with them. I wanted to shut down and fall apart, but I couldn’t. Not until I had Mia back in my arms.
I didn’t know how Nik was taking the news, but I’d told the security that kept the stage secure to let him know and to get them looking on that side of the stadium. I knew that he was going to hate me, going to blame me—fuck, I blamed myself—but I couldn’t worry about that right now.
I went with Peterson, Liam, and Dallas as we took the back streets just outside of the venue. If someone had taken her that was the most likely way they would have left. Security wasn’t as tight on that end, something I was going to make sure changed in the future. My heart was pounding, even more than when I’d first felt the panic attack start to come on.
A part of my brain kept screaming: “This isn’t happening. It can’t be happening. You’re gonna wake up any second now and Mia is going to be down the hall tucked into her roost right across from Felicity.” But I knew that wasn’t true. I was in a living nightmare, the worst nightmare any parent could ever have to experience.
Dallas and Peterson were ahead of Liam and me by several yards. We were all checking down alleys and behind trash dumpsters as we rushed around, calling Mia’s name. My ears were straining, trying to listen for the smallest sound that would lead me to my missing daughter.
When Dallas let out a cry, I moved instinctively, turning from the small alley I’d just been about to go down and running in the direction I’d heard her calling out from. I saw Dallas first. She was on her knees on the ground in front of a body that wasn’t moving. Bile rose when I saw something wet on the ground around her, knowing from the way the street light shined off it that it was blood and not some mud puddle.
Peterson reached Dallas before I did and helped her turn the body over. All I could tell was that it was a woman. I didn’t so much as give her a glance as my gaze went straight to the blood-soaked little person who had been underneath the woman. Mia was sobbing as Dallas helped her to her feet, already running her nurse hands over my child to look for broken bones or anything else that could have caused the blood on her.
“It’s not hers,” Dallas said, turning her attention back to the woman who had been on top of Mia just seconds ago.
I ignored her and everything else as I fell to my knees in front of my daughter. She wrapped bloody arms around my neck, clinging to me as she sobbed over and over again. I stroked trembling hands over her from head to toe, needing to feel for myself that she was okay.
“T-that m-m-mean lady tried t-take m-me, Momma,” Mia wailed. “I-I’m s-s-sorry I-I was b-bad.”
“Oh baby. It’s okay. You’re okay. Momma’s got you now. No one is going to take you. Okay?”
“A-a-aunt Gabs s-s-saved me,” she whispered brokenly. “H-help her, Momma. Help her.”
Who the fuck was Aunt Gabs? I couldn’t place the name and finally turned my gaze on the woman who Dallas and now Peterson were trying to revive with CPR. I blinked back my relieved tears that had flooded my eyes as soon as I’d had Mia in my arms and took a closer look.
Long, dark hair. Pale skin that would have been golden if she hadn’t lost so much blood already. Blood that I was now covered in because it was all over Mia and the ground where I was sitting. When Dallas bent to breathe into the woman’s mouth, I realized who I was looking at and my entire world tilted on its axis.
“Brie,” Liam screamed her name. He sounded like a wounded bear as he fell to the ground beside her, his hands grabbing hold of one of hers. “What happened? Why is there so much blood?”
“Gunshot,” Peterson bit out as he dressed down on her chest, as he continued to do CPR. “Two to the chest.”
Gabriella Moreitti had been shot. She’d saved Mia. The woman I thought I’d hated had saved my child and by the looks of it had had no qualms against putting her own life in danger in order to do so.
I owed her everything I owned. I owed her my fucking life.
I just hoped she lived long enough to let me tell her…
TerriAnneBrowning.com
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The Rocker… Series
The Rocker Who Holds Me
The Rocker Who Savors Me
The Rocker Who Needs Me
The Rocker Who Loves Me
The Rocker Who Holds Her
The Rockers’ Babies
The Rocker Who Wants Me
The Rocker Who Cherishes Me
Angel’s Halo MC Series
Angel’s Halo
Angel’s Halo: Entangled
COMING SOON FROM TERRI ANNE BROWNING
The Rocker… Series
The Rocker Who Hates Me
Angel’s Halo MC Series
Angel’s Halo: Book 3 (Title To Be Announced)
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Terri Anne Browning, The Rocker Who Shatters Me