A chill ran through Hazel’s body. Panic surged through her veins. She pushed herself up and tried to run. But before she could take two steps, one of them grabbed her by the hair and yanked her backward.
“Where do you think you’re going, you little bitch?”
Third Person's POV
“Who are you? What do you want?!” Hazel warned, backing away and reaching for her phone to call the police.
But a sharp-eyed thug saw the move and slapped her hard across the face.
“You bitch, trying to call the cops?” he spat.
Fear flashed through Hazel’s eyes.
“I haven’t done anything to you. Why are you picking on me?” she demanded.
The gang members laughed, ugly grins spreading across their faces.
“You pissed off the wrong person,” one of them said. “And that person told us to teach you a lesson.”
Before she could react, a steel pipe came down and smashed into her knee. Hazel fell to the ground with a thud; the pain ripped through her so fiercely she couldn’t hold back the tears.
Without giving her a moment, pipe after pipe rained down on her like hail. Her screams of pain echoed through the alley as bones cracked beneath the blows. Yet, no one came to help.
As darkness closed in, she saw her dead mother, smiling and waving at her, as if to say it was all right.
When she came to again, she was in a hospital bed. Dominic sat nearby, with dark circles under his eyes that showed he’d been there a long time. For a rare instant, pity softened his expression. His voice was unusually gentle as he asked, “You’re awake. Do you feel okay anywhere?”
Hazel didn’t answer. She asked instead, “How long was I out?”
“Five days,” he said.
Her hand clenched into a fist at that. Five days, proof of how vicious they’d been. She reached for the phone on the table to call the police.
But Dominic grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Calling the police, of course.”
He frowned. “No need. Those thugs were arrested.”
Hazel snorted. “They were arrested, yes. But whoever hired them hasn’t been.”
Dominic raised an eyebrow. “The thugs said they were just in a bad mood and happened to run into you. They said no one ordered them to do it.”