His to Steal

Ch. 2: Ambush

She shrugs, tossing her braids over her shoulder and slumping in her seat, finally able to relax after watching over me all night. "That doesn't change the fact that you're a damn piano prodigy."

My cheeks heat and I stare out the window as the car rolls down the alley. "Do you think I got the part? In the orchestra?"

I couldn't convince my father to let me go to college, but last week, I convinced him to let me audition for a spot in the orchestra for Moulin Rouge!. I should be hearing something soon. If I don't get it, I will be crushed, but I have a good feeling about it.

Something tells me that convincing my father to give me this little ounce of freedom is the start of something new for me.

"No doubt in my mind, babe. There is no way they'd give that part to anyone except you. They'd be out of their minds to not want you," she says, reaching over and squeezing my knee. "You know I'm right. I always am, am I not?"

She is.

Dominique is three years older than me. She knows even more than I do how cruel this world is.

I convinced my father to hire her as my bodyguard when she graduated, and I was still in high school. Her father is a Soldier in the Ring, so obviously, that's where she was headed next. She was going to be sent overseas, but we needed her to stay here.

I needed her here.

I begged my father for weeks to hire her. He kept telling me he couldn't, that it wasn't up to him to question the Second's call. But when he saw how broken I was over losing the only other person I had in my corner after I was abandoned three years ago by someone I thought loved me...he finally relented and talked to the Second.

She was hired as my bodyguard the very next day.

Sounds like a win, but really, both of us are still trapped.

She always says we'll get out of here one day, but I've been burned enough to realize that one day is just another empty promise of a day that will never come.

Until this audition. Now, I have the smallest kernel of hope planted in my chest.

The sudden squealing of tires behind us startles me from my thoughts and I jerk my head in Dom's direction. She's now on high alert, craning her neck to see out the dark window.

"Dom, what the hell is—"

The screeching sound stops.

It's quiet for a long, painful moment.

"Is everything o—"

A loud crunch cuts through the silence as a car rams into us from behind.

I fly forward in my seat, only spared from banging my head by Dom's arm stretching across my chest.

"What the fuck?" Dominique mutters, ripping her gun from the holster on her side.

"What's going on?" I ask, voice trembling, even though I know she has just about as much idea as I do, which is zero.

"I don't know, Sutton. Just get down, okay?"

"But—"

"Don't argue right now, please. Slide down in your seat and lean over into the middle, yeah?"

I do as she says without another word because that note of panic in her voice is rare; Dominique has been blindsided.

And by the tone of Henry's voice, so has he. My father's driver is usually right on top of things, and if he had any clue there was potential trouble, he wouldn't have taken this route.