Hope Unbroken (Unveiled Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

laughter mushroomed. “I’ll be sure to try that,” he said, repeating the same thing I’d said when he’d tried that adage on me months ago.
    Bass from a passing car rocked into the stillness and filled his pause. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
    He couldn’t be giving up already. Quitting wasn’t in his DNA. There had to be more to the story. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    The commotion in the background died down. He must’ve stepped outside. “Three months, Emma. That’s all we have left.”
    I patted behind me for the car and slumped against it again. Three months before they closed the doors to the center. And to my heart.
    The memory of Dee urging me to be courageous rose to the surface with a reminder I couldn’t ignore. I had no other choice but to fight.

chapter Four
    Unfinished
    A night in my own bed hadn’t released the strain in my shoulders the way it should’ve. I shut the door to Riley’s Civic, massaged the crook of my neck, and faced the brick building that’d been a second home for me this last semester. There had to be a way to keep the center open. It meant too much. To me. The kids. This neighborhood.
    I cast a glance down both sides of the street. A BMW with tinted windows sat a block away between two beat-up clunkers, looking like a shiny silver dollar in a pile of grungy pennies. I almost headed over to check if the driver was lost, but something told me not to.
    A noise stirred from the opposite end of the road, but I didn’t see anyone. A few strides toward the center, my cell’s abrupt ring stopped me. I dug the phone from my purse and stared at the screen. Whose number was that? The rustling from behind me grew closer. Without answering the call, I pocketed my phone and kept walking.
    Halfway across the street, I picked up my pace. An eerie whistle sailed toward me. Heavy footsteps followed. Dark memories from the night Tito’d attacked me on this same corner cropped up without warning. Clutching my purse strap and any shred of courage, I skirted around the building. A glimpse of a hefty man wearing a ball cap trailed behind me.
    I pressed my back against the bricks, yanked open my purse, and wrangled out the pepper spray that Trey’d made me swear to keep on hand. I clasped it with two sweaty palms. The footsteps drew nearer, the whistle louder. Breathe. Pepper spray at the ready, I pushed off the wall at the same time the man rounded the corner.
    He dropped whatever he’d been carrying. “Whoa.” He tugged on his earphones and raised his hands. “Easy, miss.”
    “Who are you?” I kept my finger on the trigger.
    He didn’t move. “My name’s Max. I’m just doing my job.”
    The BMW squealed past us and stirred up a cloud of burnt rubber and exhaust.
    I flicked my chin at him. “What job?”
    He directed my gaze toward the ground and bent in slow motion. With continued caution, he picked up the paper, eased back to his feet, and held it out to me.
    A “For Rent” sign?
    He lowered his arms at the same time I lowered the spray. “Sorry, miss. I gotta post this on your door. Then I’ll be outta your way.”
    “We still have three months.” Didn’t we?
    He shrugged. “Just following orders.”
    I would have liked to tell him what he could do with his orders.
    I followed beside him, still gripping my spray can. Something felt . . . off. He jimmied a roll of tape from his jeans pocket as I stalled by the door. “Who was in that silver BMW?”
    He tore off a piece of tape with his teeth. “What BMW?”
    “You didn’t notice that peel out a minute ago?”
    He hung the roll on his wrist and leveled out the sign, like he was mounting an art piece on the wall. “Figured it was some kids.”
    “In a beamer?” Did he have a clue where he was?
    “Didn’t get a good look at the car. Just heard ‘em tires.” He secured the sign with a final piece of tape and dusted off his hand as if he’d finished a day’s hard work. “Alrighty, that’ll