NOOO!
I screamed the word, but the sound was muffled. Sweat and salt and savagery smashed my lips against my mouth as I was dragged from the loading dock and forced into the rear of the truck.
“Scream and I’ll make this trip fucking hell for you.” The guttural snarl came in my ear.
I bucked, fighting as he spun and dragged me all the way to the front of the cargo hold.
“All of you get in there.” The commands were barked.
I thrashed, drove down my fists into his thighs, and tried to reach up to claw his face. But the hold over my mouth didn’t move. Instead, it crushed against my face harder, covering my nose until I couldn’t breathe.
RIVEN!
RIVVVEEEENNN!
The Daughters were pushed into the truck after me, filling the front as the doors to the loading dock opened and Kane, Thomas, and Walker stepped out.
“So close, right?” Coulter’s guard snarled in my ear.
I screamed, but the sound was muffled under the truck’s engine noise.
“That’s the last of them.” Someone called from outside.
“Wait!” The faint, familiar roar came as the doors swung closed. “You’re making a fucking mistake.”
I saw him then, hurling himself upwards from the side of the loading dock to stumble toward the others.
Desperation roared at the sight of him. I lunged forward, kicking and bucking, screaming his name. But the guard’s hold was like a steel band wrapped around my face and my body, smothering my howls and binding me against him.
Kane and Thomas rushed toward the edge of the dock, searching the faces of the Daughters in the truck for mine. But they couldn’t see me. They couldn’t…see…me.
Darkness descended, cleaving across the heads of the Daughters in front of me until there was nothing but blackness, and the truck’s doors locked with a thud.
“No!” I bucked, dislodging his hand from my nose. “No!”
“You think you have it bad now?” The bastard grunted in my ear. “Just you fucking wait.”
The truck lurched forward. I stumbled with the movement, trying to keep my balance.
“Watch this.” The guard shoved me forward, barging me through the others as the truck picked up pace.
I stumbled forward then sideways, careening into the others until I slammed against the rear door of the truck. Through the vented metal slats, I caught glimpses of the carnage unfolding.
Most of our guards were dead.
Riven lifted his gaze as a gun was pressed against his head.
That emptiness found me now as it had last night.
It wasn’t real. None of this…was…real.
I waited for the blinding bright light inside my head to find me now as it had last night as I watched Riven fall to his knees.
“You think you’ve had the worst of us?” Those cold, sickening words breathed into my ear. “It’s only just started. Harmon doesn’t care if your mind’s shattered. Lots of men like to hold women like you down. Men like me.”
He thrust his hardening cock against me, punching my hips against the hated steel door. The bite of agony came, but I didn’t care. All I saw was the loading dock growing further away.
Bang.
I flinched, almost hearing the sound as Walker slumped forward to the ground next to Riven.
There was no escaping this.
Not anymore.
Maybe there never had been?
My body shuddered as that hollow emptiness grew. Fate whispered in my ear, telling me all the sickening things he was going to do to me.
I closed my eyes.
Closed my heart.
Closed everything.
The truck swayed, throwing all of us sideways as we turned hard. Tires squealed and as I shoved against the door, finding my feet, I caught sight of the towering fence line of The Order.
We were out.
We were out. I clenched my fists and swallowed the scream in the back of my throat. We were out and all I wanted was to be back there. The last vision of Riven burned inside my mind. Did I really want to watch him as the gun kicked in Coulter’s hand and his life was over?
A cry tore free as the fence line blurred amongst the crowded forest, then faded away. I stared as The Order slipped from view until there was nothing but the road stretching out behind us and the forest at our side.
The panicked cries of the other Daughters pushed in.
“Shut the fuck up.” Another guard grunted and slowly I became aware there was more than one.
Three of them stood hidden in the shadows. Three wolves amongst a flock of sheep.
And I was the most vulnerable one of them all.
I lifted my gaze to the slanted metal slats, staring at the road.
There had never been any Hale.
Never any black site.
Never any revenge or sister to save.
My shoulders curled as agony throbbed, stabbing me from the inside.
Viv…
Ryth.
A quake tore free.
Oh, Ryth.
My sisters would never know what had happened to me. There’d be no body to find, no Priest to torture. There’d be nothing but the fading memory of a sister they’d never known.
You weren’t there!
Vivienne’s screams haunted me as the truck rolled and bounced, the engine gunning as we raced toward a brand new hell. It felt like it now. Heat radiated from the metal of the truck. Beads of sweat gathered across my brow. My breaths turned to panic.
Riven.
Kane…
Thomas.
They would be dead by now. All because of me. I should never have stepped in front of his car. Never followed them. Never met with The Teacher, never watched London almost kill the Priest.
Then maybe none of us would be here.
A faint dark blur caught my focus as the truck raced to its destination. The longer I stared, the sharper the blurs became. It was two vehicles, hauling ass toward us, a tan Humvee and some kind of black four-wheel drive behind it.
Sunlight glinted off the Humvee’s windshield, the reflected light finding me through the slats of the door as it hurtled closer and closer…and closer.
“What the fuck?” The guard behind me muttered.
The faint sound of a roaring engine followed. The vehicles were getting closer now, so close I could see a hulking shape behind the wheel.
VRROOOM…
As the Humvee swung into the lane beside us, the top of it opened up. A man rose, dragging a massive gun with him.
BOOM!
BOOM.
BOOMBOOMBOOM!
I jumped at the deafening gunshots. Bullets pierced the side of the truck, spearing blinding light inside to fall across the faces of the terrified Daughters.
Only .50 cal bullets did that. The words raced through my head. These weren’t just any guns…nor were they just any men. They moved like…soldiers.
BOOM!
The truck swerved violently, throwing me to the side. I slammed against something before I was thrown backwards. Tires squealed. The crack of gunshots rang all around us.
“FUCK!” A guard amongst us roared. “Who the fuck ARE they?”
I couldn’t see them. I couldn’t see anything at all. I grabbed the Daughter in front of me and held on.
The truck swerved once more, only this time even harder, bouncing us before I felt the tires lift from the road. But then we were slowing…and slowing…and slowing until the squeal of brakes sounded and we came to a jarring stop.
There was nothing for a second.
No sound.
No breaths, just an agonizing silence.
“Get read—” One guard started as the rear door of the truck flew open.
Daughters screamed. I screamed with them, throwing my hands over my head as shadows appeared.
Crack.
Crack.
CRACK!
I jumped with each sound. The piercing wails filled my ears.
Until there was that emptiness, that crushing heaviness of nothing.
“Get them out.” A deep rumble came from somewhere.
I dared to lift my gaze.
“You’re safe now.” Another murmured as he helped one of the Daughters to stand. “You’re safe.”
Safe.
What did that word even mean anymore?
I scanned the towering men who stood inside the rear of the truck, unable to see their faces…until I realized why.
They wore masks.
Every single one of them.
My gaze went to the one who didn’t move. To the one I was sure gave the commands and as two more of his men moved in, pulling the women all around me to their feet, he fixed those unflinching eyes on me.
The guard who held me prisoner moaned and turned his head. My eyes widened and my body froze. The soldiers snapped to attention, one leveling his gun at this guard’s head.
“No.” The leader murmured, watching my every reaction. “We take him with us.”
They moved instantly, wrenching his gun away, and dragged him forward. I couldn’t help but stare as he was shoved from the end of the truck and onto the hard pavement.
Still, the soldiers gently lifted more of us to our feet and helped us out, until one reached for my hand.
“No.” The commander ordered. “She’s with me.”
He was a mountain cramped inside the metal box of the truck. A man who seemed to suck all the air from my lungs as he stepped closer. I stared up at him, desperately trying to map the face behind the mask. All I saw was violence. All I saw was rage…and a flicker of something deeper…something that seemed like hunger.
He held his massive .50 cal rifle toward the roof and reached out with his other hand for mine.
The gloves he wore were dirty and worn. Thick fingers waited.
“Who the fuck are you?” I whispered and slowly met his gaze.
Sparks detonated in his eyes as he answered. “My brothers call me Hunter…I guess you can too.”
