Lulu

I put the straw to my lips and sucked down the last of my Appletini. It was sweet and sour and packed one hell of a punch. Drinking, going out, was the last thing I’d felt like doing, but Ruby wouldn’t take no for an answer. The girl could throw a bigger tantrum than Josh when she put her mind to it. Besides, I was going stir-crazy. I needed to get out of my own head for a while. So, in the end I’d given in.

Hunter had given me the space I’d asked for. He still texted and called me every day, but our conversations were strained.

I hadn’t seen him or touched him in four long, lonely, miserable days.

Sara had been more than happy to have us stay with her, but she was worried. I should’ve probably told her what was going on, but I couldn’t bring myself to rehash the whole mess. I missed Hunter, terribly. I was also beginning to think that maybe I’d made a huge mistake, walking out like I did. That maybe we could have worked something out? But what? I couldn’t see a solution to our problem. Despite everything, I didn’t want Hunter to give up his business for me. He’d worked so hard to get to this point in his life. But I couldn’t just turn my feelings off. I tried that before, and look how that turned out.

Was I being unreasonable?

“Yes, you are,” Ruby said from beside me, plucking a cherry from her drink and sucking it.

I swiveled in my chair toward her. Her eyebrows went up and I realized I’d been blabbing my thoughts out loud. Thank God the table beside us empty. I must look like a crazy person.

I poked her in the shoulder. “How can you say that?” There was a slight slur to my voice. Hmm, maybe I’d had one too many delicious fruity cocktails. Nah.

I deserved to have some fun, to let loose a little. To have one night where I could ignore the pain in my chest and the constant queasy feeling in my stomach. Hell, I hadn’t gotten this drunk since . . . well, I couldn’t remember how long, but I knew it was a long damn time.

Ruby was eyeballing me, and those eyeballs were a little on the bloodshot side. Maybe she’d had a few too many cocktails as well? Nah. This was girl’s night. Being irresponsible with alcohol was expected, right?

“Hunter’s a good guy, Lu. And he looooves you. I mean, if I had a guy love me like that?” She shook her head, a far-off look drifting across her unfocused gaze before her striking, dark blue eyes swung back to me. “I’d hang on with both hands and never let go. I know you’re scared and everything, but Hunter’s one hard, scary motherfucker. He’d never let anything happen to you or Josh.”

“You sound just like Hunter.”

She grinned. “Because I know it’s true.”

I wanted the conversation off me. I didn’t want to talk about this tonight. I’d been thinking about nothing else for the last four days. So I changed the subject. “What about you, Miss Ruby Styles? Do you live your life to the fullest?”

“Well, yeah, I try.”

“Hmm.”

She poked me in the shoulder. “Hmm, what?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “What’s going on between you and Neco?”

She squirmed in her seat, a frown stealing her features. “Nothing.”

“Don’t give me that. I see the way you look at him. The way he looks at you.”

She glanced away and took a sip of her drink. “He looks at me the same way he treats me, like a little sister.”

I snorted. “Well, if I had a brother who looked at me the way Neco looks at you, I’d . . . well, I’d be creeped right the hell out.”

Her eyes got big. “You think Neco’s creepy?”

After my fifth drink I was obviously having trouble expressing my thoughts in a clear and concise manor. So I tried again. “Umm, no . . . that’s not what I meant. What I was trying to say is, he looks at you like he wants to tear your clothes off your body and have his wicked way with you, not . . . um . . . whatever the hell big brothers do . . . are like . . . with their sisters. If you know what I mean.”

She jerked back in her seat. “He does not!”

“Does too.”

“Does not!” she squawked.

“Does too.”

She opened her mouth to fire back another “does not” when our waiter dropped our bill on the table, giving us a look that, if I wasn’t half drunk, might have made me quiver in my shoes, or at least made me feel bad about the scene we were obviously making.

Ruby covered her mouth with her hand and the laugh she was trying to suppress came out like an explosive raspberry against her fingers. I quickly grabbed my purse and threw some cash on the table. I was using the last of my savings, but I’d decided a night out was worth it.

I glanced up at our sour-faced waiter. “We’ll just be on our way.”

Ruby shot up in her seat, grabbed my hand, and we wobbled out of the place on our stilettos. We’d just gotten out the door when Ruby swung around to me. “Let’s go to a club. I feel like dancing.”

I kind of felt like dancing, too. I hadn’t been out dancing in . . . well, as long as it had been since I’d gotten drunk. “Okay, let’s go dancing.”

Ruby had just lifted her hand to hail a cab when Neco materialized out of the shadows like some kind of man-chameleon. . . . A chameleon-man? A chameleman? Whatever. Anyway, one minute he wasn’t there, then the next he was, and announced, “I’ll drive you home.”

Neco was wearing jeans, boots, and a black long-sleeved tee that fit like a glove. He was also wearing a scowl, and it was aimed at my friend. He looked super pissed. Maybe I’d been wrong about the lust fest between them? It wasn’t like I was some expert on love. Look how I’d screwed up my own life.

I glanced behind him. A small—okay, a large part of me was hoping Hunter was with him. But he appeared to be alone.

“We’re not going home. We’re going to a club. We’re in the mood to dance.”

His gaze dropped, taking Ruby in from head to toe. The scowl got deeper. “I’ll drop you off at the club.”

Ruby and I tried to protest. The last thing either of us wanted was a damn bodyguard, especially not Hunter’s best friend. But Neco was stubborn and refused to change his mind. We didn’t stand a chance.

He dropped us at the club, and I expected him to leave or wait outside like he had at the restaurant, but he followed us in. Ruby did not look happy, not at all. Having an extremely tall, extremely pissed off—I still hadn’t worked out what he was pissed off about—guy following you around was kind of a buzz kill.

As soon as we got drinks, Ruby grabbed my hand and dragged me to the dance floor. Neco thankfully didn’t tag along—though I would have handed over the last of my savings to see him stand like a damn statue in the middle of the dance floor, scowling, while we danced around like lunatics. Instead, he took up position by the wall and watched us, or mainly Ruby.

It wasn’t long before we forgot he was there. The music was good, and there was a decent crowd, but not so busy you were bumping into everyone. We danced and laughed, sang our heads off, badly, and laughed some more. It was nice. To feel my age, to have fun with a friend. To not spend the whole time looking over my shoulder.

I hadn’t noticed we had company, not until someone bumped into me. A couple of guys had moved in and were kind of dancing with us. They grinned and we grinned back. They seemed harmless enough. They were hot, not Hunter hot, but good looking in a “boy next door” kind of way.

That’s when I felt it, a tingle down my spine, across my shoulders.

I glanced over at the wall Neco had been propping up. The big man was still there, but his expression wasn’t pissed anymore, it was murderous. He also wasn’t alone—Hunter was standing beside him. He looked like he was seconds away from pulling out his gun and blowing someone’s head clean off.

Our eyes collided and he pushed away from the wall, started striding purposefully toward me. I took an involuntary step back and crashed into one of the guys. His hands came up and settled on my hips to steady me, and then he leaned in. “You okay, babe?”

Hunter’s eyes narrowed to slits. Shit.

I tried to wriggle free, but the guy swung an arm around my neck and pulled me into his side. “You wanna get outta here?”

What? After barely one dance? The guy had a seriously overinflated opinion of himself.

Then Hunter was there. I took another step back when I got a better look at his face, which brought me closer to Mr. Boy-Next-Door. He took it as an affirmative answer to his question, and he pulled me in closer.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to wriggle free, but I wasn’t going anywhere with the guy’s arm wrapped around my neck like an iron band. How the hell did I get myself into this situation? Seriously.

Hunter stood in front of me, but his eyes were trained over my shoulder. “You might want to get your fucking hands off my woman.”

I was ashamed to admit, that the way he said that, kind of gave me a rush of excitement. A big one. I blamed it on the alcohol. I was still pretty tipsy, and right then I couldn’t think of a good enough reason not to throw myself at him and wrap my body around him like a python about to devour her favorite meal.

“Well, your woman just agreed to go home with me, so take a hike.”

All the happy tingles fled screaming in terror. I spun to the idiot, still holding onto me. Not good. I looked back to Hunter and shook my head. “No. That’s not . . . I didn’t . . . I. . . .”

Hunter’s nostrils flared like an angry rodeo bull, gaze cold and scary as hell. “I said, take your fucking hands off her. Now.”

This time the charmer at my back got the message. His arm dropped and he stepped away, lifting his hands in surrender. “Jesus. No offense, yeah?”

Hunter didn’t spare the guy another glance. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me across the club. I spun to see Ruby racing after us, a worried look on her face.

He dragged me over to where Neco still stood and grabbed my shoulders. “You wanna tell me what the fuck that was?”

“We were dancing. It was no big deal,” I said lamely.

“What did you just say?” he gritted out.

“We were dancing.”

He let me go and his hands went to his hips. He tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling of the club like he was looking for divine guidance. Then his chin dropped and he aimed his furious stare on me, hands going back to my shoulders. “You didn’t think I’d have a problem with that?”

Okay, now I was getting pissed off. “I would never cheat on you!” I jerked back, trying to break his hold on me, but he wouldn’t let go. “If you think that, you don’t know me at all.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“No, I am not shitting you.” I was starting to lose track of the conversation.

He clenched his jaw. “I fucking know you wouldn’t cheat on me, Lulu. Doesn’t mean I want some other guy putting his filthy hands on you.”

“However you spin it, it sounds like you don’t trust me.”

“I trust you. I don’t trust them.” He jerked his chin to the dance floor. “And you’re sure as hell not thinking straight right now.”

Whoa, whoa. What?

“I don’t like what you’re implying,” I said, not loud, but his eyes were on my mouth and I knew he read my lips.

“I’m not implying any-damn-thing.”

I planted my hands on my hips. This argument had nothing to do with what just happened and we both knew it. “You think I’m being stupid. That I’m some overly emotional female. That I left you without thinking it through, admit it?”

He jerked back. “Left me?”

Shit. “I didn’t mean . . . I . . .”

The muscle in his jaw jumped. “Right now isn’t the time for this discussion.”

“Agreed. Which is why you two should leave,” I said motioning to Neco.

Ruby tried to move closer, but Neco snaked a hand around her waist stopping her. “Stay out of it,” he growled.

The expression on Hunter’s face went from wanting to shake me to wanting to strangle me with his bare hands. “I’m not going anywhere. No fucking way am I leaving you alone here like this. Woman, you’re drunk off your ass.”

I was too stubborn and too angry to back down. The cocktails weren’t helping either. So I shrugged. “Fine. I’ll leave.”

“Like hell,” he gritted out.

God, I hated fighting with Hunter. I hated being separated from him. Seeing him here tonight had just made it worse.

My eyes and nose started stinging. Shit. I was going to start crying, and not just a few tears. I was on the verge of extreme ugly crying and there was no way to stop it. I needed to get away, clear my fuzzy head. With that the only thought in my mind, I spun on my heels, shoved through the crowd, and ran in the opposite direction. People closed around me and I pushed through, hitting the hall to the bathrooms and sprinting to the door at the end with “Exit” above it.

That’s when it happened. One minute I was running, hand lifted to shove through the door, the next . . .

Nothing.

* * *

I woke up in the dark.

The first thing I became aware of was the fact that I was not alone. The second was that I couldn’t move. At all. My body felt weighted down by something—by someone.

I froze, every muscle locking up tight while my mind scrambled for answers. Images, conversations, flashed through my mind. The last thing I remembered was running though the club after my confrontation with Hunter. Then nothing.

Whatever had been used to knock me out made my limbs weak, like soggy noodles. Had someone stunned me? Fear fired through me, sending spikes of pain along every nerve ending.

Wherever I was, it did not smell great. The mattress underneath me felt damp and cold, the musty scent of mold so strong I could taste it. Whoever was on top of me didn’t smell great either. I sucked a panicked breath in through my nose, biting my lips together to stop from screaming. I wanted to shove him off and run, but his weight was almost fully on top of me, unmoving, and unfortunately for me, still breathing. His mouth was close to my cheek, and every exhale sent a wave of rancid, stale breath across my face.

I had to move, do something, get the hell out of there. I tried to ease my arms free, and realized they were tied together, tight. Oh dear God. My leg had some wiggle room, so I reached out with my foot for the edge of the bed. He still hadn’t moved, so when I felt the lip of the mattress, I hooked my heel over the side and tried to drag myself out from under my kidnapper.

I managed to get my right hip and half of my torso out from under him, but my hair pulled painfully when I tried to move my head. He was lying on it. Shit. Shit. Shit. I winced, then lightly and carefully tried to yank it free. As soon as I did this, his arm over my belly tightened. Hard fingers curled into my side.

I froze, lungs seizing, heart hammering so hard I could barely hear anything except the blood rushing through my ears.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I recognized the voice instantly. Pierce.

I jerked back, arms and legs flailing in my renewed effort to get away. “You’re dead,” the words exploded from me, loud and raw as I bucked and fought.

He rolled fully on top of me, forcing the wind from my lungs. His fingers wrapped around my tied wrists and he shoved them above my head, pushing them into the mattress. “Stop,” he hissed. “Now.”

My muscles locked up. The depth of ice in his voice sent fear through my blood, enough to render me completely helpless. I blinked into the oppressing darkness, my eyes aching from the strain. Not a single shard of light penetrated. The room was a complete blackout. It felt like the walls were closing in. It was me and him and the bed beneath us. Like Pierce and I were the only people left on the planet. This time there would be no one to save me. No Hunter barging in to drag me home. No escape.

“How?” I rasped. How was he here and not buried in some shallow grave somewhere?

He forced my legs apart with his thigh, grinding his hips into mine, his erection pressing into me. Then his fingers slid down the side of my face.

“That’s it. Nice and still, there’s my good girl,” he crooned, ignoring my question. “Don’t be afraid. I forgive you for what you did. I’ve had time to calm down, to think about it. I know you were just scared. But Hunter’s not here. You don’t need to be afraid anymore.”

I shuddered at his touch, at the words he was saying that made absolutely no sense. How unhinged he sounded.

He chuckled. “You can’t hide your reaction to me, to how much you like my hands on you.”

The psycho had mistaken my disgust for something else entirely. I shuddered again. “People will be looking for me. . . . they . . .”

“They won’t find you.”

The certainty in his voice hit like a physical blow. Like a thousand volts firing through my body, again, but this time I was awake to feel it. I didn’t want to be awake. I wanted to sleep through it all. My mind seemed to scramble. No words would come, like it was closing down, anything not to think about what was about to happen.

“I’ve been waiting for my shot at you. I knew that fucker would mess up eventually. I fooled him. I fooled all of you. I knew Tomas wouldn’t call in the cops if I left the body in his territory, that there’d be no way to confirm who was wearing the ring. The rest was a little harder, beating someone to the point that they’re unrecognizable takes strength and stamina.” He was close, so close I could feel his lips move against the corner of my mouth. I fought not to gag. “But it was worth it. And once you tell me where the painting is we can get the fuck out of this city and cash in.”

Oh my God. “I don’t . . . I don’t know where it is . . .”

He stroked my hair back from my face, fingers digging in hard. “I don’t believe you. Maybe you’re still upset that I got a little rough with you, hmm? I only did it because you were holding out on me. Being a little cock tease. You know that right? It’s you I’ve always wanted, you I was thinking about when I was with your mother. She’s gone now. We can be together like we always should have been.”

Vomit tried to crawl up my throat. The last time I’d seen him, he’d hurt me, beaten me black and blue, had attempted to rape me. He was living in some sick, twisted fantasy world. I tried to think, think past the fear.

This might be my only chance.

“What are you going to do, Pierce?” I said his name softly, did my best to relax my muscles so my body wasn’t so tense beneath him.

He ran his nose along my temple, drawing in a deep breath. “I’m going to sell the painting and then take you away, somewhere hot, maybe near a beach. You can sit around in a bikini all day. Would you like that, sweetheart?”

He was delusional, but I wasn’t stupid enough to contradict him. I had to play along until I got my chance to escape. “I-I like the beach.”

“I know you do.” He kissed a trail along my throat, dragging the neck of my shirt down as he went, pressing his lips to the bare skin he revealed. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to freak-out, tried not to scream and shove him off. “We just need some cash so we can get out of here. The money from the painting won’t be enough, and it could take time to find a buyer. But now I have you, I’ve got a plan, a way out.”

His hand moved down over my stomach, to the waistband of my jeans. I held my breath, but his hand didn’t go to the zipper, it went to my pocket—and pulled something out. A bright light assaulted my eyes, so blinding I had to squint against it, followed by the little tune that said my phone had just been turned on.

My phone.

I had it the whole time? I thought I might actually break at that point. I could have used it while he was out cold. Before I could finish that thought, my phone blew up with alerts, missed calls, and messages. I twisted to look a Pierce. He was smiling at the screen, obviously pleased he had everyone worried about me.

He pushed a couple buttons then held it to his ear. I heard Hunter answer. His voice sounded muffled.

“Shut the fuck up,” Pierce said. “This is how it’s going to work. You have one hour to get me five-hundred thousand dollars. Once you have it, text this number and I’ll tell you where we’ll do the exchange. You come alone. Any sign of your brother or anyone else, I’ll blow Lucinda’s brains out. Understand?”

There was silence, then I heard Hunter’s deep response—no I didn’t hear it, I felt it. That deep, furious rumble reached me through the phone.

Pierce disconnected, but all I could think about was what he’d said to Hunter, the word exchange ringing through my mind. For the first time since I’d woken in this room, I felt a tiny shred of hope. “You’re going to let me go?”

He dropped his weight back down on me and chuckled. “No. You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll never let you go. When King brings the money, I’ll kill him and we can head to Mexico.”

No. Oh God. I opened my mouth to protest, but he pressed his lips against mine, tongue spiking out, forcing its way past my lips. I kept my mouth clamped shut and turned away.

He stilled, lifted his head. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy.”

He sounded confused, but he also sounded angry. The man was full-on insane. The knot in my stomach got bigger, so big it felt like it was restricting my lungs, making it impossible to breathe. “I-I am happy,” I forced out. “I’m just scared, I guess. That something will happen, and we’ll be separated again.”

“I won’t let that happen,” he said darkly.

His hand moved down, cupping my breast through my shirt. He squeezed hard and I whimpered.

“You want me, don’t you, Lulu?”

I couldn’t make myself say it. I couldn’t get the words past my throat.

His breathing got heavier, rougher. “Answer me,” he growled. “Fucking say it.”

“I—I . . .” My skin was crawling, and everything in me was screaming to fight, to push him off me. I tried to tell myself to lay there and take it, that I’d survived this before and I could do it again—that Hunter would be waiting on the other side, that Pierce wouldn’t get a chance to hurt him at the drop off point. But I didn’t know that for sure. How could I know that for sure?

I had no idea what I was going to do, until it happened. He grabbed my wrists and I knew he was going to shove them above my head again. No! My mind screamed. I reacted instantly, slamming my head forward blindly. My forehead connected with what I thought was his nose. He released me suddenly, jerking back, howling in pain. I rolled, landing on the floor hard. I couldn’t see anything, but I shot to my feet and half shuffled, half ran with my hands out in front of me, stumbling and tripping over whatever was on the floor. I collided with a wall after taking only a half a dozen steps and used my tied, numb hands to feel for a door or window.

A sound came from behind me. He was moving, cursing loudly. I tried to move faster, hands groping frantically for something, anything.

A light came on suddenly, washing the room in a muted glow. I spun around. Pierce stood in front of the door on the other side of the room. The only door I could see. He was holding one of those lanterns people used when they were camping. Blood dripped from his nose, over his lips and onto his grubby shirt. He did not look happy.

“Why are you running from me?”

“I wasn’t . . . I . . .”

“Why were you running from me, Lulu?” he yelled.

“I was scared, I-I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I . . . I just . . . I. . . .”

He stared at me, eyes black in the dim light, head tilted to the side. I could see the wound on the side of his face, the one I’d made when I shoved a pen through his cheek. It looked angry and infected. He shook his head. “You’re lying.”

My stomach dropped, goose bumps breaking out across my skin. “I’m not . . . I . . .”

“You fucking whore,” he rasped, then he put the lantern on the ground and came at me. I had nowhere to go. The room was small and the only way to the door was through him.

Pierce roared as I tried to scramble away, catching me easily. His arms went around my waist, lifting me off the floor and dumping me on the dirty mattress. “You want to play these games, I’ll play these fucking games.” He shoved my hands over my head and grabbed for the rope already dangling from the old tube-steel headboard.

I arched my back, struggled, tried to yank my hands away. “Don’t . . . please, don’t . . .”

It was like he didn’t hear me. His eyes were crazed as he secured my hands and climbed onto the bed, straddling me. Blood from his nose dripped down, its warmth hitting the fabric of my top, soaking through to my skin and leaving dark spots. He gripped it in his fists and tore it down the front.

“After everything I’ve been through for you, everything I’ve done? Everything I’ve lost!” he roared in my face. “I’ll fucking show you, show you what you’ve been missing. You need a man who knows what he’s doing. You need a man who knows how to take what he wants. You need me to guide you like I used to, isn’t that right, Lucinda?”

He pulled a switchblade from his pocket and flicked it open. I stilled, going completely motionless as he slid the flat side of it down between my breasts, then under the lace of my bra.

“No,” I cried out the word, but it came out unrecognizable.

He didn’t seem to hear me and with a flick of his wrist, sliced through, freeing my breasts to his wild stare.

I sucked in a sharp painful breath. “God, no, please . . .”

He bent his head and put his mouth on me.

A sob burst past my lips. I was helpless, and so fucking angry, angry that this was happening to me again, that I was powerless to do anything to stop it. The voice in my head screamed, and I opened my mouth, the same anguished sound tearing from my throat. I let it go, with everything that I had. So loud that it took the noise of shattering glass a moment later to penetrate.

Pierce stilled on top of me, and I opened my eyes. His head twisted to the boarded window a second before it was kicked in. It had been covered by scrap, odd pieces of wood and cardboard, all different sizes and shapes, and it collapsed completely.

Hunter jumped through a second later, gun in hand, aimed at Pierce. I noted absently that the sun was coming up. I’d been here all night. Pierce was still on top of me, hadn’t moved at all, except to press something hard against my temple. Every muscle in Hunter’s body went rigid, the veins along his bare forearms bulging.

“Drop the gun or I blow her brains all over the wall,” Pierce said in an eerily calm voice.

Hunter didn’t look at me, kept his entire focus was on Pierce. “If you pull that trigger, I’ll kill you.”

Pierce chuckled like the lunatic he was. “Put the gun down and kick it toward me.”

Hunter’s face was expressionless, but I saw how the muscle in his cheek jumped, his only outward sign of emotion. He slowly pointed the end of the gun down, then lowered it to the floor and slid it toward us with his boot. “You hurt her, you won’t get out of here alive. That’s a promise.”

Hunter’s voice was quiet, terrifyingly so. It wasn’t a threat; it was a fact. But Pierce was too far gone to realize it.

“You’re just in time to watch, King.” His hand moved down my belly and he tugged at the button of my jeans. “You like to watch, don’t you?” The mocking laughter in his unhinged voice died, turned cold, terrifying. “Don’t you?”

“Take your hands off her. Last warning,” Hunter growled.

Pierce’s answer was to slide down my zipper and shove his hand down the front of my underwear.

I whimpered and Hunter’s eyes shifted to mine, and God, the expression on his face slayed me. “Look at me, baby,” he rasped. “Keep your eyes on me.”

I did. I locked eyes with Hunter and didn’t look away, desperately trying to keep that contact, even as my eyes grew blurry, even as hot tears slid down my temples and into my hair. I didn’t know what would happen next, but he was the only thing stopping me from shattering apart, breaking into a million tiny pieces. Pierce roared, screamed at me to look at him and not Hunter, so loud it hurt my ears. The gun he’d been holding against my temple, moved way, pressing it into the mattress beside my head, so he could lean in close, still screaming at me.

Hunter moved so fast, I barely followed with my eyes. He pulled another gun from his back, aimed, and fired.

Pierce jerked back, making the bed rock, his outraged screams cutting off abruptly. Hunter strode toward me. Pierce wasn’t moving, his body heavy on mine. Then Hunter was there, shoving Pierce away. He pulled a knife from his pocket and sawed through the ropes around my wrists, freeing me, then lifted me into his arms.

He pressed his mouth to the top of my head. “I’ve got you,” he said against my hair.

I glanced back at Pierce, afraid he’d spring back up, gun in hand. But that wasn’t going to happen. There was a perfect hole through the center of his forehead. I shivered.

Then everyone was there. Van, Jude, Neco, Zeke—they all crowded in. Jude was on his phone and I could hear police sirens in the distance. Van and Neco were looking down at Pierce’s lifeless body like they wanted to bring him back to life so they could kill him all over again. And Hunter held on to me tight, kept me plastered to his front, covering my bare chest. I clung to him, buried my face against his throat. “Get me out of here,” I whispered.

Without a word, he carried me out of the room.