Knock Down, Drag Out / Book One

Chapter One

Looking at the carnage that used to be her living room Darcy Howard had to admit, at least to herself, that her disguise of sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low over her hair wasn't as airtight as she thought it would be.

Swallowing past her suddenly dry throat, she clutched her phone tighter in her hand and interrupted her twin's ranting on the other end of the call. "He was here, Lylah. In the house."

Silence met her statement before a flurry of movement could be heard, and she could practically see her sister sitting up straighter in the break room and setting her coffee down with a thump.

"What do you mean he was in the house?" Darcy backed up until she was in a corner, her hands shaking and heart racing with the fear that he hadn't left the house and she was basically a sitting duck. "The living room is trashed. There are pictures of me on the wall. Blood all over the furniture." Darcy's voice was shrill, terror making it octaves higher than normal.

"I told you that going out was a bad idea!" Darcy rolled her eyes at her twin, thankful she could still be exasperated with her despite the unknown they were facing. "Get your ass in your room, I'm coming home. Pack a bag. We can't stay at the house anymore."

"And where do you suggest we go? It's bad enough that I had to take a leave of absence from work, we can't afford for you to do that too. Plus we don't have anyone we can go stay with, they all think I'm overreacting to this."

Darcy slowly made her way out of the corner and raced down the hallway, slamming her bedroom door behind her once she was safely in the room. She put the phone on speaker and started shoving her dresser in front of the door for good measure.

Satisfied that no one would be getting in without a struggle, she grabbed a duffel bag out of her closet and started shoving clothes in it. "I'm getting in my car right now, I'll be home in fifteen minutes." Lylah's voice echoed and Darcy knew she had put the call in through her car so she wouldn't have to hang up.

"We still don't have a place to go." Darcy sighed, moving to her dresser in front of the door so she could grab some bra's and panties from the top drawer; only to stop short when she felt something sticky coating most of them.

She swallowed hard and jerked her hand back, looking at the thick, milky substance and felt bile rise up in her throat.

"I need to borrow some of your underwear. He ruined mine." Lylah's curse colored the air blue and Darcy fought to keep from throwing up, going into the bathroom that was connected to her room to wash her hands.

"I'm on our road, I'll be there in a minute. Go to my room and grab me some things. We'll get you some new underwear after we talk to someone." Lylah ordered, and Darcy shoved the dresser out of the way enough to slip through the door with her bag.

She moved across the hallway into Lylah's room and started shoving clothes into her bag, letting out a sigh of relief when she heard a car door slam and it echo across the phone call.

She walked into the living room the same moment Lylah came through the front door, her scrubs wrinkled and hair up in a droopy ponytail. Lylah stopped short and stared at their wrecked living room before rushing over to Darcy and dragging her into a hug.

"Come on, we have an appointment to keep." Lylah murmured against her cheek, grabbing the duffel bag from Darcy's hand and walking out of the door with Darcy trailing behind her.

"Where are we going?" Darcy asked once they were settled into the car, buckled up and the radio on low for background noise. Lylah put the car in reverse and backed into the road before answering.

"Milly, the nurse on night shift in the E.R., was telling me about her niece who got into trouble like this a few years ago. She gave me the number of the guy who helped her this morning and I texted him. I wanted to see what he had to offer and this whole day just confirms that I did the right thing. His name is Maddox Reece. He's a MMA fighter, got into the professional circuit about a year ago. His rec center is on the other side of town and that's where we're meeting him."