Broken Promises (The Brianna Lane Series) by Belinda Boring Read Free Book Online Page A

Whatever it is, don’t let it win. Can you hold it together until we can get home?”
    “Why fight it? I feel so powerful right now.” He clasped my wrist, and with his other hand, pulled me tightly to him. There was nothing sexy about the move—the slamming action hurt me as I hit his hard body.
    My cell phone rang, reminding me I’d taken it off vibrate. Wrenching myself from his painful embrace, I gave him a warning glare to back off. His eyes were chocolate brown again. Seizing the moment, I began weaving through the crowds as people started to file out of the individual theaters. Something told me it was only a matter of time before there would be more mayhem.
    I answered my phone, and I heard my grandmother calling my name. She sounded like I felt—panicked. “Brianna, Brianna, answer me please!” I could barely hear her over the escalating noise. With people leaving the theatre, the craziness was spreading—fights breaking out in different parts of the building.
    “Grandma, I’m having a hard time hearing you. I know you’ve been trying to reach me, but can I call you back? It’s a little wild here at the moment,” I yelled into the receiver.
    “That’s why I phoned. Tell me what’s happening where you are.”
    “You wouldn’t believe it even if I told you. People are acting really strange and violent. Whatever it is, Quinn’s been affected by it, and I need to take him home.” A lump formed in my throat as I fought back tears. The stress of the evening was starting to take its toll.
    “So it begins,” my grandmother said.
    “What begins?” I asked, pausing for a second. The sinking feeling had returned, and I didn’t like how it made me feel. My heart raced and my stomach knotted in fear.
    “Where do I even start, Brianna? There’s just so much you haven’t been told.” I hated that she sounded so tired.
    I started to ask what was on her mind, but was interrupted when a woman banged into me. I hadn’t expected it and Quinn kept me from falling.
    “Watch where you’re going,” the woman growled, ignoring my attempt to apologize. She continued walking, but abruptly turned around and planted herself right in my path.
    “I said watch where you’re going.” She was so close I could feel her hot breath on my face.
    “Okay,” I replied, stepping around her. I lifted the phone to my ear, returning to the conversation with my grandmother. I barely had time to speak before I was flying forward again. The woman had pushed me.
    There was no doubt her eyes were blue—a common theme in this nightmarish evening. I knew I needed to handle the situation cautiously. “I’m sorry I bumped into you. I’ll be careful next time.” It grated on my frazzled nerves—catering to her rudeness, but it was a necessary evil. I had more important things to focus on.
    I heard her draw breath as if to continue her angry tirade, but something else must have caught her attention because she began ranting in a different direction. Slipping away with renewed determination, I refused to keep standing there as a target for others. Working through the crowd again, Quinn knotted his hands into my shirt, keeping his head down as he followed. He must’ve figured if he didn’t look at anyone, it wouldn’t trigger him off again.
    “Look, Grandma, I’ll call you when I get home, promise. I love you.”
    “Wait, don’t hang up! They’re coming and you need to . . .” Her sentence was lost as I hung up. I was tempted to call back and ask what she meant, but time was of the essence. I pocketed my phone, and in a sprint, finally made it through the doors and out into the cold night air. My mind scrambled to interpret what I was seeing and only one explanation presented itself.
    We were in the midst of the Apocalypse.
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    People were everywhere. I didn’t know where they’d all come from, but in every direction I could see crowds approaching the theatre. The noise was almost deafening with