Chapter 9: Close Your Eyes

The bigger one grabbed the collar of my jacket and yanked.

A seam ripped at my shoulder.

I drove my heel down on his foot as hard as I could.

He howled and let go of one arm, and I swung my elbow back into something soft.

"Hold her!" Blaire shouted. "God, you're useless. Hold her down!"

The second one caught my hair and forced me to my knees on the wet boards.

Blaire stepped in close with her phone.

"Smile, Ohio."

The boathouse door blew open so hard it cracked against the wall.

Rain came in sideways.

A man stood in the doorway, soaked through, in a long black coat.

He was wearing a mask.

Gold and black, with a dark red stone between the eyes.

I knew that mask.

I'd seen it on my phone screen every week for two years.

"How dare you," he said, "lay a hand on my pup."

His voice was perfectly quiet.

"You're dead."

The man holding my hair laughed, and it came out wrong.

Blaire backed up a step.

"Who the hell are you? Get away from me. Get him!"

The bigger man went at him.

Master didn't back up.

He caught the man's arm, turned with it, and put him face first into a post so hard the whole boathouse shook.

The man went down and stayed down, groaning.

The second one let go of my hair.

When I looked up, he had a pistol in his hand.

"Back off, man. I swear to God."

Master walked straight at him.

"No!" I screamed.

The gun went off.

The sound was enormous under the broken roof.

Blaire screamed.

Master had the man's wrist in both hands, the barrel pointing past his own body at the dark.

He twisted, and the gun clattered onto the dock.

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