I was struggling, I felt light-headed, and like I couldn’t breathe. My body was jostled and thrown around like I was on a fucking rollercoaster, and I couldn’t get off.

Every now and then, I would open my eyes, but it was always Isiah’s face I saw, his brow creased like he was worried, or maybe scared, which brought me utter fucking delight.

But I was confused.

I heard Ham’s voice.

I heard Romeo whisper we were getting out of there.

But they weren’t here. It was all so hazing. Maybe I was dreaming?

“There’s blood everywhere, boss,” the guy carrying me mumbled. “People are going to freak out.”

Isiah chuckled darkly as they stepped into an elevator. “Tonight is the club Halloween party, nobody got in the door without a costume. There’s going to be people covered in fake blood and gore all over the fucking place. One more girl dressed up as a zombie and having to be carried out because she’s had too much to drink isn’t going to be a problem.”

No.

I needed more time.

I couldn’t let him take me out. If he got me out the doors, who the fuck knew where he would take me and whether anyone would find me?

“Help!” I tried to scream as we exited the elevator, but it barely fell as a whisper from my lips. “Please help!”

Isiah laughed. I couldn’t see him as he was walking ahead of us, but I knew he was there, and I could see his smug smile on his face in my mind, making me want to throw up.

“Your friends may have got a few men in here, but I own this fucking building. This is my world. There is no way in hell I’m letting a couple of assholes destroy it over a little fucking bitch like you.”

We rounded another corner. As far as I could tell, he was trying to take us out the back. The dark and confined halls looked familiar. Like I’d been in them before.

“Put her down,” someone screamed.

It was a voice I recognized, but my brain was full of fluff. I couldn’t put it together, there was so much pain, so much fuzz in my head, and I wanted it to go away. I needed to go to sleep.

“Turn around.”

My body jumped as the man carrying me turned and ran in the other direction.

“We’re gonna have to go out the front,” Isiah hissed as we hurried.

There was loud bass.

Music.

People.

It was getting louder, I could feel it in my chest, and the air became warmer and thicker.

“They won’t shoot in here. They won’t risk hurting her or anyone else.”

I pried my eyes open. There were people around me. I just needed someone to help me, one person to stop them from getting me out the front door. I tried to reach out to someone but pulled my hand back when I realized it wasn’t a person.

Faces turned and looked at me as we rushed through the crowd, pushing, shoving and stumbling through people, Isiah screaming at pumpkins and wolves and fairies.

Was this a bad dream?

Was I dead?

Where were the people?

I needed someone to stop him. But everybody we passed was some sort of monster, or wearing some kind of mask.

It was all turning into a blur.

And I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I just wanted to sleep.

 

Isiah pushed through more and more people. Thinking he was getting closer to an escape. Thinking if he just made it to the door he would be free, and he wouldn’t have to face the consequences of years of treating women like possessions. Of hurting them and breaking their souls down to the point where they would rather be dead.

Isiah wasn’t walking away tonight.

Not with Meyah.

And possibly not with his life.

The party raged as we pushed our way through the crowd, knowing we would meet him in the middle.

Ripley, Romeo, and Brewer walked behind me, the crowds parting like the fucking red sea until it opened up and Isiah was standing on the other side with his man—Meyah in his arms. He instantly lifted the gun in his hand and pointed it at her.

People around us took a step back, and the music came to a halt. Isiah looked around. He was in a crowd of people, he had a gun pointed at Meyah’s head, and he was about to have to fucking explain himself.

I wanted to rush forward, to pull her away from him and to hold her in my arms. But I just wanted to trust in her strength, I needed her to hold in there a little longer.

The boys at my back and I all lifted our guns, pointing them at him.

“We all know you aren’t going to shoot me,” Isiah taunted. “People like you and the club, you’re too soft, too worried about innocent people getting caught in the crossfire. You see, I shoot Meyah. You kill me. I still win. You let me walk out, Meyah might actually live.”

I stepped forward. The club around us was in almost complete silence.

There were a few people panicking, rushing for the exit. A few staring on in awe, wondering if this was just a show, a Halloween gag. But for the most part, we were surrounded. The costumes elaborate, the tension thick, and Isiah about to learn why you didn’t fuck with Meyah.

“There’s one major flaw in that plan of yours.” Isiah’s eyes narrowed on me as I spoke. Then they looked around, and I could see him questioning why his men weren’t running to his aid. Why the club wasn’t as full as it usually was.

“These aren’t innocent people,” I announced, unable to stop the smirk that filled my face as a wave of masks were removed. One after another, men, women, club members, old ladies, club girls, Exiles, Brothers. Hundreds of fucking men and women.

“These people are family,” I called, holding my arms out and daring him to look around.

Isiah tried to keep his composure, but I could practically hear him filling his pants, shitting himself as he realized these people were on our side. That his men had already been removed, his club taken over, his ass on the fucking line. But it was when men like him were desperate that they did stupid shit.

Kero, on the other hand, did shit his pants, dropping Meyah on the floor and taking a step back. His eyes wide and scared as he held up his hands and acted like he didn’t have a fucking part in this shit.

Optimus stepped forward swiftly, grabbing Isiah’s arm and pulling his gun away while Blizzard drove his fist into the back of Isiah’s head, throwing him onto the floor.

Leo came forward, reaching down to pick up Meyah.

I saw the moment Isiah realized he was going to die, maybe not tonight, but soon, and decided he was going to try and take the easy way out.

Before Leo could pull Meyah away, Isiah reached for his ankle, ripping the knife from its strap and driving the blade into Meyah’s leg. Her body bowed off the floor, her mouth open as if she wanted to scream, but she was already drained, she was already running on borrowed time.

Men leaped on Isiah, while Leo scooped Meyah up into his arms.

Skins pushed through the crowd too. “Don’t remove it. Leave it where it is. It’ll help stem the blood flow.”

“There’s an ambulance waiting outside,” Optimus barked. “Go!”

I wanted to run after them, but my body was frozen, staring at the man on the floor, his arms behind his back in an almost impossible position, laughing like a fucking psychopath.

I couldn’t let him get away with this shit.

I couldn’t let him win.

I was going to make him hurt so fucking bad for what he’d done to Meyah, for how he’d tried to strip my world away from me in one blow. But also for how he’d broken Romeo.

You didn’t hurt the people I loved and walk away.

“You played a good game, but in the end, I still won,” Isiah crowed.

“She’ll fight back.”

Isiah’s body froze. I could see the way he recognized the voice, how it was one he never expected to hear. The crowd parted as Carly stepped through, Hadley at her side with Huntsman on the other.

The rage in Meyah’s father’s face was clear.

While Carly’s face was different. She seemed so calm, it was eerie.

“Meyah’s always been a fighter. She’s much stronger than I ever was. And unlike what you did to me, you’ll never break her.”

Isiah looked up at Carly as she stood over him, Huntsman placing his hand on the small of her back, giving her another breath.

“She will come out of this just fine because all these people love her. But you will never touch, or hurt, or sell another woman.” There was darkness in her voice I never imagined I would ever hear. And even as tears streamed down her cheeks, she stood tall, and brave and looked Isiah in the eyes. “You destroyed me. You broke me, and you left me with memories that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. But you won’t control my future like you have my past, because I’m gonna take my power back from you, one drop of blood at a time.”

A sob came, and Hadley pulled her back into her arms while she cried, directing her back through the crowd they came, heading for the door and no doubt the hospital.

“If I had my way, I’d end you right here,” Huntsman told the man who lay at his feet. “But instead, we’re going to plan a special kind of bon voyage to hell for you.” He turned and walked away, a man of few words, but ones you listened to when spoken.

Romeo grabbed my shoulder. “Come on. I’ll stay and help the boys make sure the mess is dealt with. Go. Be with your woman.”

My heart was already out the door.

I turned and followed, hoping it would still be beating when I got there.