“Lina, Lina. You’ve been a bad girl,” Joel murmured as he pulled me out of the trunk.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,” I cried, tears streaming down my face.
I was barely aware of his men around us. Liam was there, and Rhett was leaning against his car. The one Joel had just pulled me out of. There were a couple others I knew, but I didn’t see Caleb. Hopefully, he was smart enough to stay away.
“You didn’t mean to run away from me?” He cocked his head to the side as if trying to understand.
Fear clung to me like a second skin, and my body trembled as Joel stayed quiet, waiting for the answer we both knew I didn’t have. I’d just turned eighteen a couple of months ago, but it felt like I’d been trapped with him for a lifetime.
“Who helped you leave?” Joel asked softly, breaking the silence. “I can’t have a man I can’t trust in my circle.”
“No one,” I choked out. “I did it myself.”
His hand lashed out, and he grabbed the arm that Rhett had slammed in the trunk. Pain swarmed my body, and I screamed bloody murder when he yanked me forward. Black dots filled my vision, and I heaved, my stomach swirling with nausea.
“Who. Helped. You?” This time, he wasn’t keeping the calm and collected pretense up.
“No one,” I stuttered out. “Joel, please. It hurts. I need an X-ray. I know it’s broken.”
“Then you have a hint of how bad it hurt when I woke up to see you gone.” His hold on my arm stayed tight. “I can’t live without you, Lina.”
“I won’t leave again,” I whispered, my stomach sinking.
Liam was watching me with pity, but no matter how bad he felt for me, he’d never stick his neck out for me. He was too loyal to Joel.
“You are mine,” he hissed. “No one else’s. Were you running off to find a guy you thought could treat you better than me?”
“No,” I promised, my voice hitching. “I just—I’m not ready for all of this. I’m only eighteen.”
His eyes gleamed cruelly, and I flinched, knowing I’d said the wrong thing. “You want to date other people?”
“No,” I nearly screamed, clutching his shirt. “I love you. Just you.”
I resisted the urge to move when he brushed hair out of my face. “You are beautiful. I know every man in here would fuck you if they had the chance. If I allowed it.”
I swallowed through the lump in my throat, keeping my eyes on the floor. That was all Rhett wanted. He would have locked me away in one of his houses and kept me from Joel in exchange for sex. I’d been horrified when he offered that. But now…maybe I should have taken it.
Joel fisted my hair, and I yelped when he jerked my head up. “Go lay on that table, Lina.”
My gaze flicked to the coffee table in the middle of the room. “Why?”
“I’m going to make sure everyone knows who owns you—even if you try and leave again.”
“No, I learned my lesson. I promise,” I begged, panic clutching my heart. “I won’t leave. I’m yours.”
“Get on the table.”
“Joel, please—”
“Liam.” All Joel had to do was jerk a nod for Liam to snap to attention. I didn’t make it two steps before Liam’s arm wrapped around my waist.
“Don’t. Please.” I couldn’t see through my tears anymore, and I dug my nails into his wrist with my good hand.
“Don’t fight it. You know he gets off on it,” Liam breathed in my ear, making sure no one else could hear him. “I’m sorry, Mili.”
Liam laid me on the table, pressing my chest into the wood and keeping a hand on the back of my neck to keep me in place. One of the other men stepped forward and tied my uninjured arm to the leg of the table. He reached for my broken arm, but before I could do anything, Liam shoved the guy away.
“Don’t move that arm,” he whispered. “Or he’ll make them tie that one down too.”
I tried as hard as I could to stay still, not sure I’d be able to handle any more pain done to that arm. I could hear Joel moving closer but didn’t dare turn my head to look. I focused on my breathing, closing my eyes to try and block it all out. My heart dipped when someone lifted my shirt to reveal my lower back. But I still didn’t question it. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. Joel would finish what he was doing, whether I was silent or screaming.
And then it felt like my skin right above my ass was on fire. The pain seemed to go to my bone, and the only thing keeping me from flying off the table was Liam holding me down. As hard as I tried to stop them, tears still leaked through my closed eyelids. Until I couldn’t stand the pain anymore.
“Joel,” I choked out. “I can’t take it anymore.”
“I’m almost done, Lina.”
My blood ran cold. “Done with what?”
“Making sure if a man gets close enough to see this, they’ll know you aren’t theirs to touch.”
I swallowed a sob. “See what?”
“My name. Carved into your skin.”
“Her face is getting white, and she can’t focus,” Liam said, his grip on me gentler than before. “I think she needs to see a doctor, Joel. Now.”
“Five more minutes, and I’ll be done.”
My ears buzzed, muting the voices around me. I could tell I was about to pass out, and I welcomed it.
Darkness was always the better choice.
I snapped my eyes open, the nightmare still swallowing me whole. My heart was hammering against my ribs, and I sucked in breaths, barely realizing that I was sitting up in bed. The room was still dark, but as I looked around, a large shadow in my corner chair made my breath catch. Someone was in here, and it was too dark to even guess who it was. No one in this city knew where I was staying. Pretending I didn’t notice anything, I lay back down, stretching my arms above my head. Inching slowly, I stuck my hand under the pillow next to me, my stomach dropping when I realized my gun wasn’t there.
“You won’t find the gun. Or the knife you keep under the mattress. Sit up, Rebel. We need to talk.”
I froze when Gray’s voice filled the room. How the hell did they find me? How did they get out of the cuffs? I figured it would have taken their crew hours to find them. I had planned to be long gone by the time they’d gotten free. I just needed a couple of hours of sleep since I hadn’t gotten any in the last couple of days.
My gut twisted as I slowly sat up, turning my body until I was perched on the side of the mattress. I couldn’t see him, but there was no doubt he had some type of weapon pointed at me. Leaning forward, I flicked on my small nightstand light, hoping I had something within arm’s reach that I could use to protect myself.
“Sit back on the bed,” Gray ordered, making my eyes snap to his. He was sitting on my small chair, his elbows resting on his knees. The gun I usually kept under my pillow was in his hand, and he had it pointed to the floor. But his tension was coiled like a snake as he studied me. If I made one move, he’d have that gun to my head in a second.
I scowled. “I am sitting on the bed.”
“Scoot to the middle.”
Not breaking eye contact, I gritted my teeth, pushing myself back until I was in the middle of the mattress. Smart on his part. My bed was up against the wall, making it impossible for me to escape that way. And now I was far enough away from him that he’d see my moves coming before my ass left the mattress.
“Where’s Kade?” I asked, not revealing how shaken I was that they’d found me. “Off crying about his Jaguar?”
Anger flooded his gaze. “You have no idea what that car meant to him.”
“Probably about as much as my freedom means to me.”
“We were giving you your freedom. By getting you to leave town.”
I glared at him. “I don’t need you to give me anything.”
“Nice place.” He pretended to study my room. “How do you think the residents would feel if they knew a killer was living on the prominent south side?”
“How’d you find me?”
He smirked. “We’ve known for a while.”
My heart stuttered. “Bullshit.”
“Months,” he drawled out, lazily holding the gun. “At first, we didn’t want to spook you because we knew you’d move. And then we gave you a chance to leave town. You should have taken it.”
My eyes wandered over my things, as if I’d be able to tell where the hell they’d stuck a tracker. That was the only way they’d be able to find me. My purses? No, I always checked those. Maybe they stuck something to my Corvette. But I always parked that a block away and kept a more discreet car in the apartment garage. Gray stayed silent, looking amused at me trying to figure it out.
“Do you always have nightmares like that?” he asked, turning the conversation in a direction I had no intention of talking about. “You didn’t have them when we stayed at the hotel.”
“What do you want?” I ground out.
“I want you to come back to our house with me.”
I laughed coldly. “Not happening.”
He frowned, turning serious. “You think we’re going to let you walk away and leave us wondering if you’re going to come back and kill us?”
“I’ll kill you faster if you try to make me stay in town,” I told him sweetly, climbing to my knees. A movement he caught immediately as he straightened up.
If I could get to my nightstand drawer, I’d have a chance. Under the pile of magazines was a stun gun. He might have found my gun and knife, but I doubted he’d found my other hidden weapons. I scanned the empty nightstand, realizing the key to the Jeep I’d been driving was gone too. But I could easily hot-wire it if I could get away from Gray.
“Don’t,” he warned, standing up and aiming my own gun at me.
I tilted my head, a grin spreading across my face. “What did you think I’d do? Fall on my knees and beg you not to hurt me? Or follow you out of this building willingly? If you thought that, then you don’t know me at all, Grayson.”
A stab of guilt hit me in the gut when shock flashed through his eyes. It was a low blow, especially after he shared what his dad had done to him as a child. I shook off my moment of feeling bad and let my glare turn frigid.
“You should have tied me up when I was still sleeping. You would have had a much better chance than you do now.” As soon as I spoke the words, I frowned, wondering why they hadn’t. Fuck, they could have killed me when I was trapped in the nightmare of my past and I never would have known.
“Better be ready to pull that trigger,” I murmured, my muscles tensing as I got ready to move.
“Mili,” he grated out, his finger hesitating over the trigger.
I lunged, ripping open my nightstand, ignoring his footsteps behind me. Shoving the magazines to the side, my fingers closed around the small stun gun just as Gray got an arm around my waist. He jerked me back, but he moved too slowly. Twisting in his hold, I jammed the stun gun into his ribs, making him flinch.
His gaze dropped, and his mouth fell open. “Son of a bitch.”
“Sorry, Gray. But I’m not going with you.”
I pressed my thumb into the button, and Gray grunted, going rigid when the shock hit him. Keeping the stun gun on him, I pushed his arm off me with my free hand, shoving him to the bed before fleeing the room. I skidded to a halt in the kitchen, dropping to my knees and opening the cabinet. I grabbed my emergency backpack, taking a gun out before putting it on my shoulders and running to my front door. I stopped, taking just enough time to slip on my shoes before leaving the apartment.
My head was on a swivel, looking for Kade as I raced into the parking garage. He had to be around here somewhere because there was no way Gray had come by himself. My Jeep was where I’d parked it, and I flipped the safety off my gun as I got closer. I needed to break the window somehow so I could hot-wire it. The noise was going to attract attention, but I’d be gone before anyone showed up. Before I could raise my weapon, someone slammed into me from behind. My breath got locked in my chest when I hit the passenger door.
“I was wondering where you were,” I choked out once air returned to my lungs.
Kade pried the gun from my fingers while keeping his body against mine. “You think we didn’t see the keys in your room? It didn’t take long to figure out what car they belonged to.”
I laughed hoarsely, covering up my nerves. “How long did you two watch me sleep? A little creepy, don’t you think?”
Footsteps alerted me that soon it would be two against one, and my odds of getting away would grow slimmer. Throwing my elbow into Kade’s side, I faked twisting left, and when he moved his arm to block me, I ducked to the right while stomping on his foot. It gave me just enough leeway to slip away from him, but I was stuck between him and the car. Holding my breath, I gripped the handle on the door of the Jeep, hoping it was unlocked.
Relief shot through me when the door swung open, and I dove onto the back seat, going straight for the gun I had under the driver’s seat. Kade got a hold of my ankle, yanking me back toward him. Lifting my other leg, I threw a kick into his gut, clawing farther away from him. I fell halfway onto the floor, reaching for the gun as Kade climbed on top of me. I gripped the handle of the pistol as he put his arm around my waist, pulling me back onto the seat. He was on top of me and froze when I pressed the barrel to his forehead.
“Wow, life really comes full circle, doesn’t it?” I murmured, not looking away from his glare when Gray opened the driver’s side door and jumped inside the Jeep.
“Mili, put it down,” Gray demanded from the front seat.
I ignored him, keeping my attention on Kade. “You’re going to get the fuck off me and scoot your ass out of this car.”
He narrowed his eyes, clearly remembering those were the same words I’d told him two years ago when we were fighting in the Rolls-Royce. Back then, I hadn’t shot him because the crew had a reputation I didn’t want to mess with. And now I didn’t want to shoot him for a slew of other reasons. Was I still enraged over what he and Gray had done? Yes. But I’d gotten even by burning their cars. I planned to leave and never come back. I didn’t want them dead, even now.
“You going to shoot me?” he questioned, my hesitation not lost on him.
“Get out of my car and let me leave,” I demanded.
His lips quirked up in a smirk. “No. We gave you a chance to leave.”
“She still could,” Gray muttered.
I wanted to look toward the front, but Kade would gain the upper hand in a heartbeat if I turned my attention away from him. His eyes darkened at Gray’s words, and I tilted my head, curious about what was going on.
“You two aren’t agreeing when it comes to me, are you?” I asked, knowing I was right when Kade’s jaw muscle ticked. “Gray wants to let me go, and you don’t?”
“It doesn’t matter. He lost the vote.”
Kade’s answer was met with strained silence, and it was clear he hadn’t meant to say that. My grip on the gun tightened when he shifted slightly. I shook my head in warning, not ready to let him move. I might not want to kill them, but I sure as fuck wasn’t letting them keep me from leaving.
“Vote?” I purred. “How does a vote work with only you two? Or did Vic and Juan pull rank? I’m sure they aren’t happy with me either.”
Neither answered. I was missing something, but getting the truth out of them wasn’t happening. My heart pounded as I considered my options to get out of this. With both of them here, I couldn’t make a mistake.
“Get off me, Kade,” I ordered, my voice cold. “Like I told you two years ago, I’ll choose my freedom over anything.”
“The only way that’s happening is if you shoot me.”
My stomach flipped when the Jeep roared to life, and panic flooded through me. Gray began driving slowly through the parking garage, and my finger hovered over the trigger, my indecision eating me up and pissing me off all at the same time.
“Let me go,” I said again, despising that I sounded like I was begging.
“Put the gun down.” Kade’s eyes bored into mine, and I bit the inside of my cheek.
Taking a deep breath, I pulled the gun from his head, moving it down and slamming it into his shoulder. Before I could talk myself out of it, I pulled the trigger, bracing myself for the kickback.
But there was none. All the gun did was click.
Kade’s eyes bulged, and my heart lurched as we both stayed frozen. I shifted the gun slightly, cursing inwardly when I realized how light it was. There were no fucking bullets in it. Something I should have known the second I picked it up.
“You fucking shot me,” Kade growled, his hand snatching my wrist.
“No,” I said slowly. “Not technically. Since the damn thing is empty.”
“Because I found it while Gray was in the apartment with you,” he hissed, his eyes blazing with fury. “If I hadn’t, I’d have a hole in my fucking shoulder.”
“It wouldn’t have killed you,” I snapped, wincing and dropping the gun when he pressed on a pressure point in my wrist. “You and Gray would have had matching scars.”
His hand went around my neck, and a snarl burned my throat when he pressed me down, keeping me under him.
“Do you believe in fate or chance?” he murmured as Gray turned out of the garage.
“I think there’s a good chance my knee is going to meet your dick if you don’t get off me.”
“I think us meeting two years ago was chance,” he continued, his voice gruff. “But you coming to our city? That’s fate. And fuck, even after everything, I can’t let that go. Let you go.”
I searched his eyes, my heart hammering. Distrust. Anger. Guilt. All those emotions were there. But the one thing missing was the reason I hadn’t shot him. Because, after all of this, there wasn’t an ounce of hatred in his gaze. But it wasn’t enough.
“Life dealt my hand of fate years ago,” I whispered hoarsely. “And I’m still fighting to escape that.”
The Jeep slowed, and I took advantage of Kade’s stunned moment to lift my leg and knee him in the balls. He groaned in pain as I hit the inside of his elbow, breaking his hold on my neck. My hand smashed into the side of his face, and I shoved him off me. He fell between the seats, already scrambling to get back up. I glanced through the windshield, seeing the red light turn green. Lunging across the seat, I opened the door. Gray must have heard because even though a car behind us was honking, the Jeep didn’t move.
Gray was yelling at me to stay in the car, but I ignored him and jumped out. My feet hit the pavement, and I started running. I bolted between two buildings where the street was too narrow for the Jeep to follow. Glancing over my shoulder, I didn’t see them before I turned the corner, going behind my apartment building. My chest tightened the longer I ran, and I sucked in quick breaths, but I didn’t stop until I was two blocks away.
I finally stumbled a few steps as I slowed down, walking down the sidewalk and then bounding down the steps to the underground parking lot under a hotel. Slipping my backpack off, I dug through my bag, finding my Corvette key. Once I was farther away, I’d check to make sure there wasn’t a tracker on it, but it would work for now.
I got in the Corvette and pulled out of the parking lot, glancing in the rearview mirror every few seconds. After they’d found my apartment, I was more anxious than usual. I didn’t breathe easy until I got on the highway.
“Bye, Ridgewood,” I muttered, pressing the gas pedal. I was leaving like planned and had no intention of ever coming back.
