I winced as I looked at the bruises on my side. Cramps gripped my stomach like a fist—like his fist, the bastard who’d done this to me. The ache drove deeper the longer I stayed still. I bit down on a moan as I shifted on the bed, earning a stabbing glare from the nurse before she strode to the office at the far end of the infirmary.
They’d had a doctor come. He’d checked my bruises and my face. His cold eyes were emotionless as he probed the split on my lip, then left. That was this morning, yet they’d left me here…and Vivienne and I had this sinking feeling it was for a reason.
There were no classes.
No visits from old men who pawed my body and shoved their cock against my ass…and no visits from stepbrothers who watched it unfold and then left, like it didn’t matter. Like I didn’t matter. I snuggled into the pillow and closed my eyes. White hair and cruel hands loomed behind my eyes, and panic ignited in my chest. But it was Caleb’s cold stare that hurt me more. I turned over, curling my knees to my chest, and swallowed the pain.
“Wake up.”
I opened my eyes and turned my head as Vivienne rounded the bottom of the bed. “What?”
She scanned the rest of the infirmary, finding only empty beds and the biting stench of antiseptic, then yanked the sheet back from my body. They’d given me cotton boxers to wear. White, of course, the same as the replacement negligee I wore. They were worried that the white-haired bastard they called Tig had raped me…
He almost had.
Viv leaned in, staring at me intently. “You don’t look so well.” She lifted her head, jerked her gaze toward the office at the end of the room. “Right?”
“What are you talking about?” I hissed.
Viv stepped closer. “You want out of this fucking place, then you’re sick…right the hell now, got it?”
Panic rushed through me. There was desperation in her eyes…a reckless determination. She cast a glance toward the cabinets that ran the length of the infirmary, her gaze stopping on the stainless steel shine of one nearby.
I followed her focus, then froze. The tranquilizer gun sat near the edge, within easy reach. My insides clenched at the sight. It was the same gun they’d used on me the first night they brought me here…and would use again.
I unleashed a moan at the sight. A small nod of her head, and Viv took a step backwards. My moan grew louder before I clutched my belly. I knew now. It was now or never…now…or be fucking sold.
“That’s it,” Viv whispered.
I deepened my moan and clutched my belly, drawing the nurse’s gaze from across the room. “Please, help me.”
Viv stepped backwards, moving toward the counter as the nurse rushed forward, unwinding the stethoscope from her neck. “What’s wrong?”
“My stomach.” I whimpered and glanced to Viv. “Something is really wrong. My heart is racing.”
The nurse pushed me back against the pillow. Cold metal from the stethoscope pressed against my skin. Confusion furrowed the nurse’s brow as she opened her mouth to speak…but the words never came out. Vivienne lunged, grabbed the tranquilizer gun, and turned.
The nurse was too slow, her focus fixed on the panicked thudding of my heart. Viv grabbed the gun and turned, then strode up behind her, grabbed her around the neck with one hand, and pressed the gun to the other side.
Pfft.
The shot was almost silent. There was a second when the nurse’s eyes widened. She fought for a moment, but I knew from experience it was useless. All she was doing was driving the drug harder through her system. I kicked out from under the bed sheets and lunged upright. “Vivienne! What the fuck are you doing?”
I threw a panicked gaze at the doorway—any moment the guard would come.
The nurse kicked and bucked, her mouth opening wide as she tried to scream for help. But there was no sound…just a hiss of air, until her eyes slowly rolled backwards, showing the whites, and her entire body slumped and was still.
“Finally.” Vivienne sucked in hard breaths and dropped the nurse to the floor.
We were dead…we were so fucking dead. I looked from the nurse to Viv. “What the fuck have you done?”
She was slow, stumbling as she rose, then snatched the nurse’s access card from the belt loop at her waist. “Like I said, Ryth. We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
Terror and desperation detonated through me as she staggered a step forward, grabbed my hand, and yanked me toward the door. We were moving before I knew it, slipping out of the infirmary with panicked looks behind us.
My pulse thundered, drowning out everything else around me. There was no way I’d hear the guards’ steps if they came. Viv grabbed my hand and pulled me after her as we raced to the first set of locked doors.
She slammed the access card against the scanner and shoved through the doors.
We were through in an instant, and lunging toward the next set. My bare feet slapped against the floor until they stung. “Where are we going?”
“I told you.” She forced the words through clenched teeth. “The fuck outta here.”
Still, I yanked on her hold. “Viv…Viv!”
She stopped, turning to me with wide, panic-stricken eyes. “What?”
“Where the fuck are we going?”
Her chest rose, then fell. “Out of here.”
I risked a glance over my shoulder. “How?”
“I have a plan. Trust me.”
“I’m all for getting out of here, but if they catch us…if they catch us, Tig will be the least of our worries.”
“They’re not gonna catch us.”
I winced at the words. Trust was hard to come by for me, especially now. But I let her grab my hand again and yank me toward the next set of doors. “Tell me this, why the fuck do you want out so bad, and don’t give me any bullshit about liking what that man does to you! What’s got you so freaked out…Viv, tell me.”
Viv stopped, and for the first time, I saw true fear in her eyes. “I have my reasons, okay? Let’s just say I want nothing to do with what’s about to go down.”
What’s about to go down?
The words rose in my head, but I didn’t get a chance to speak them. I shoved forward, racing to what looked like an access door to the outside. Steel barred our way.
“What’s about to go down?” The words punched through gasping breaths.
She pressed the nurse’s card against the sensor, waiting for the light to change from red to green. “Nothing good.” But the sensor didn’t change. That red light still flashed.
My mother…my father…my brothers. We were all caught up with this. “Tell me…tell me now.”
“Murder, arson. An entire range of shit I want to be far away from. I overheard London talking on the phone the last time he took me out of this place.”
“Wait…he takes you out of here?”
She turned and met my gaze. “Yes. That’s beside the point, Ryth. Something bad is about to happen,” she insisted, glancing behind us. “Something even worse than this. They had a man abducted from prison, for Christ’s sake, and that’s just the start of it. There’s a war between the man who runs this place and someone else.” She shoved the card against the scanner again and again. “Now, come on!”
Crimson blinked…taunting us. Shock tore through me.
“Abducted,” I whispered. “What do you mean, abducted?”
Boom! The door vibrated with a thud…from the other side. I flinched and stumbled backwards, terror racing through me. This was wrong…this was all wrong. She had someone out there…someone who was about to get us killed.
I took another step backwards, desperation burning inside me. Turn back…turn back now, before it’s too late.
“SPREAD OUT!” The roar came from behind us. “I WANT THAT BITCH FOUND!”
Fear spread through me like poison. Vivienne glanced back at the sound as a thud! came from the other side of the door.
“Who is that?” I whispered. “Vivienne…who the fuck is that?”
I wanted to get away from this, to fall to my knees as the guards rushed us and pray I was killed in the onslaught. But deep inside, that savage part of me still fought that white-haired guard who’d attacked me. She still screamed and punched and kicked, clawing at his eyes like someone possessed. She still fought to return to those who loved me.
THUD!
Vivienne stepped back and grasped my hand as she stared at the door. “Get ready.”
But I couldn’t move.
Viv jerked her gaze my way. Worry flared. She spun and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Snap out of it, Ryth! You want out of here, right? Then this is our only way.”
“Who…” the word slipped free. Man abducted from prison…man abducted from prison. It was all I could hear in my head. “Who was the man, Viv?”
But before she could answer, the door burst open…and Caleb was there, his chest bare under his unbuttoned jacket. His dark hazel eyes were wide and fixed on me. “What the fuck is going on here?” I whispered.
Misery carved through his gaze as he glanced behind us and stepped forward. “There’s no time to explain, just hurry.”
But the pain of betrayal was a bitch, kicking through my chest. I wrenched my hand out of his grasp. “Get the fuck off me, Caleb.”
Behind us, the heavy thud of footsteps sounded. Caleb lunged, grabbed my hand again, and wrenched me against him. “We don’t have time for this, Ryth.”
I fought his hold. “Get the fuck off me, Caleb!”
He unleashed a desperate roar and hauled me over his shoulder. “Kick and scream all you want, little sister,” he snarled. “But you’re coming with me.”
He turned and lunged, carrying me out into the night, where the back doors of a limousine waited.
Boom! Gunshots rang out, splintering the door jamb behind us…and I didn’t care about fighting him anymore…I cared about saving his life.
“Let me down, Caleb!”
He didn’t answer, just shoved me through the open door of the limousine. “Get in, Vivienne.”
Secrets and lies glinted in her gaze as her focus fixed on me. She jumped in after me and yanked the door closed with a slam!
Caleb was already gone, racing around the rear of the car until he all but threw himself behind the wheel. Glass exploded behind us with a BOOM! I let out a scream and ducked, throwing my arms over my head as the limousine shot forward.
Boom! Boom! Bullets smacked the rear of the car. Still, that desperation to know why Vivienne was willing to risk her life for me surfaced again. I jerked around and grabbed her shoulders as she crouched on the floor. “Tell me!” I roared as the limousine’s engine howled and we skidded sideways, hurtling toward the bank of trees up ahead. “The man they took from prison…what was his name?”
Her eyes were huge. Her desperation had nowhere to go as the limousine’s engine screamed. Lights flared through the darkness, heading for us. Everything happened in a blur. One second, we were both huddled on the floor, the next we were in the air.
Glass shattered again.
Metal shrieked as they hit the limousine from the side. We tumbled, flipping over. My arms flew out and smashed into the ceiling. My head followed with a crack, then we crashed back down…and there I stayed, dazed, numb, swallowed by the darkness. Pain throbbed in the back of my head, making me moan. Until, with a shriek of steel, the door beside me was yanked open.
“Come on,” Caleb grunted, reaching in to pull me out.
Vivienne lay against the seat…but she wasn’t moving.
“Vivienne,” I moaned as Caleb pulled me from the wreckage. Headlights blinded me.
“Leave her,” Caleb snarled, trying to yank me away.
But I couldn’t, not after all she’d done. I jerked my hand from his. “No. We can’t leave her.”
Caleb spun to face me. Headlights of the oncoming vehicle splashed over the blood covering him.
“Oh, Jesus…Oh, Jesus,” I stumbled forward.
“We have to go,” he moaned, wincing, and I knew we were in serious trouble.
I flung myself backwards, reached through the door, and grabbed her am. “Viv!” I forced her name through gritted teeth. “Get the fuck up now!”
She let out a wounded sound, then opened her eyes.
“We have to MOVE!” I roared as those headlights became blinding, turning the ruined limousine into a whitewashed blur.
She seemed to understand. Kicking her feet against the seat as I yanked, she fell backwards out the door. She hit the ground with a thud, then turned over and lunged upwards..
“Come on!” Caleb cried as he raised his arm. The darkness blurred before a boom! The gun kicked in his hand, hitting something behind us. A roar followed, pained and brutal. And in stunned shock, I realized this is what he’d planned all along.
He’d always been coming for me.
He took a step, grabbed my hand, and pulled me forward. We ran, heading for the trees in the distance.
“Get to that fence, Ryth!” Caleb screamed, dragging me along. “DO YOU HEAR ME? GET TO THAT GODDAMN FENCE!”
Get to the fence…get to the fence.
Steel glinted through the trees…and behind it came the small beam of a flashlight shining from the darkness. We’re coming, princess. Hold on, we’re coming…Nick’s words pushed through the agony in my head. Hope exploded. I punched my bare feet into the ground, driving myself forward.
“Go.” Caleb pushed me forward. “Go, Ryth…go!”
I charged forward, slapping away branches in my way as that glint of steel came closer.
Crack!
The shot exploded behind us and a thud hit the ground. I tore a panicked gaze over my shoulder, finding Caleb on the ground. A punishing wave of fear slammed into me. I stopped, my breaths burning like fire in my chest as Viv tore past me.
“Go!” I screamed. “I’m right behind you!”
I lunged for Caleb, grabbed his arm, slung it over my shoulders, and yanked him to his feet. “RUN, RYTH!” he bellowed, shoving me away as, through the darkness, the blur of white came. Heavy steps sounded like thunder as Tig came roaring through the trees.
And Caleb stiffened, holding himself still.
He lifted the gun, desperation shining brightly in his eyes.
And opened fire.
Crack. Crack. CRACK!
The guard dropped, hitting the ground hard. Caleb wasted no time, grabbing my arm and shoving me forward. He’d been trying to buy me time. Enough to get to the fence. Dark blurs cut through the trees all around us as we were swarmed by the guards from the compound.
I ran…terror roaring through me.
Viv unleashed a scream, the sound shrill and terrified. “Get the fuck off me!”
Panic moved through me. We weren’t going to make it…we weren’t going to make it…
“Move!” Caleb drove his hand against my back, propelling me forward. Crack! The gun kicked in his hand. Bullets smacked into trees all around us. Through the blur, I caught sight of Vivienne as they hauled her away, kicking and thrashing like a wildcat.
“Let fucking GO NOW!”
Her white negligee was stark in the darkness…until it was gone. Her screams faded, and the sounds of that fucking brutal struggle. Tears blurred my eyes as dark shapes shifted behind the fence.
“Princess!” Nick roared. “Over here!”
I ran to him, thrusting my fists and feet through the air, driving me forward. Steel glinted under the shine of torchlight. There was a hole in the fence…all I had to do was make it.
“NO!” Caleb roared behind me as I ducked my head and threw myself through that hole, leaving me to stumble, my feet skidding until I hit something hard.
Something warm.
Something that wrapped powerful arms around me.
“I have you, princess…I have you.”
Caleb roared and grunted. The blur of pale hair was above him until, from the corner of my eye…movement came. Tobias leaped through the air and slammed into the bastard who’d tried to rape me, unleashing a sound that was terrifying as he descended, violent and brutal.
“In the car, Ryth…” Nick whispered. “You don’t want to see this.”
