by Kyle Autumn
In fact, it seems like her trail of breadcrumbs ended at the car for Adam. He doesn’t know where she is now as far as I know, so he must have been tracking her car. Now, the trail’s gone cold because she’s been with me.
With me.
I like the sound of that more than I should. I haven’t even thought about sharing more than a single night with anyone in years. Not since I accepted these jobs from Adam. Not since getting out of the military and not knowing what the fuck to do. Not since four words changed my life forever.
“Come work for me,” Adam said.
When he said I could use my “skills” and get paid a healthy sum of money for them, I didn’t even ask him to explain. If I could go back and do anything in my life differently, that might be it.
If he’d told me I’d have to choke men to death after cutting off each of their eyelids so they had to watch me do it, I would have said no.
If he’d told me I’d have to slit the throats of men who’ve done nothing more than look at him wrong, I would have said no.
If he’d told me I’d have to slice the bellies of—
Oh shit.
The slicing.
I knew the angles looked familiar. Adam hadn’t been into that brand of torture when he’d hired me. He hadn’t even wanted to look at my knife.
But he eventually asked to watch as I used every method I could to get answers out of the men he’d hired me to catch.
Now, he’s using those methods himself.
On this woman.
My woman.
The guttural, primitive growl of possession has me seeing red in my backyard. The moment that man shows up on my doorstep is the moment that man takes his last breath. He fucking dared to use something I showed him how to do on a woman who needed to resort to hiding in a trunk in order to escape his wrath.
We’ve both been fucked over by this asshole.
For the last time.
I stare back at the house. A hundred yards away, a woman I’ve come to respect in my own twisted way sits and awaits her fate. The fate she’s been resigned to because of a man we’ve both been fucked over by. But it’s a thousand times worse for her because he used my favorite slice on her skin.
My heart twists in my dead chest as I realize I’m culpable.
And it squeezes even harder when the next fact sets in: She’s going to hate me for it.
That’s the last thing I think before someone grabs me from behind.
22
Hanna Lee
When a door downstairs opens and closes, I snuggle deeper under the blankets. Zane will be back soon, and he’ll demand we start our training again. He’ll order me around some more, and I’ll obey because I need to. He seems to know more about this than I do, so I’ll trust him. But I’m not ready yet. It’s still early, and my limbs ache from root to tip all over my body.
Everything hurts.
My hair fucking hurts.
I thought things were bad with Adam—and they were. But preparing to fight for my life is even tougher than I imagined. The easy part was leaving, even though it took months of tracking every guard’s every move. The hard part now is staying gone.
Though it’s not that hard to stay gone with Zane.
It’s ridiculous for me to think I should shack up with the first man I came across after I left my husband. But we crossed paths for a reason, and I’ve never felt more thankful for circumstance bringing me another human being. The last time it happened, I got royally fucked in that department. This time, I found someone who can get me ready for what’s coming. Someone who lets me take and then gives when he needs to. Someone rough around the edges but soft at times when it matters.
Someone I could possibly…
No. That’s crazy talk.
I stretch my back in bed, sucking in a breath as the pain hits my nerves. Zane’s footsteps creak up the stairs, so I prepare for his return. After last night’s slow foray in bed, I wonder if he’ll feel the need to balance it out. Or if we’ll head straight into that training he said I needed to rest up for. I’m not sure how long we’ll spend doing that, but we can’t go all day again. I have to rest. And he has to have something better to do.
That thought makes me freeze under the covers. The door opens as I wonder why Zane hasn’t had work to go to or anything. Did I pick a jobless man at the bar that night? Did I stumble upon an undercover billionaire when I ran into him? I’m not sure why I didn’t think about this sooner, but I roll over to ask him what’s going on.
And I’m not just frozen in thought anymore.
I’m frozen in terror, my mouth hanging open as I let out a horrified gasp.
Because Zane isn’t in the bedroom with me.
But Adam is.
“Ahh. There you are, my Willow,” he says, his smooth voice crawling over my skin like roaches. He rolls the sleeves of his crisp, white button-down up one by one to his elbows as he speaks. “I’ve been looking for you and my money, you know. Only so carefully though. I let you think you got away, but no.” He tsks his tongue the way he always does. Then he tilts his head and finishes with, “You didn’t.”
His wink disgusts me. It rolls a nauseated wave through my stomach, and I scramble my sore limbs over to Zane’s side of the bed.
Oh, god. Zane. Where is he?
If Adam is here, looking so sure…
With my hands tangled in the sheets, I clench my fingers and bite my lip. I want to yell the way I did the night before, the way Zane let me when everything came to a head. I don’t know where he went, but he’s the only one who’d be able to hear me scream now. Yet in Adam’s presence, I can’t. I simply can’t.
He takes my voice away.
He takes my power away.
He takes me away.
But I need to take this time. I need to take Zane and get the fuck out of here. I need to take my life back. I need to take my name back.
I need to take Adam down.
If only my limbs didn’t feel like they were filled with cement.
I won’t let that stop me. Adam can’t win, and I can’t disappoint Zane. I clench my fingers harder against the sheets, flexing them for the oncoming assault.
My heart races as adrenaline fills me in a rush. I glance all around the room, trying to remember what Zane said last night about spatial awareness. I was concentrating on my fighting, but I was listening too. Know what’s around me. Know where my exits are. Okay. That’s a start.
Adam takes another step into the room. “I hope you aren’t under the delusion that you can get away,” he says, trying to throw me off. “Not without telling me what you did with my two million.”
But I’m aware of his tricks now. Five days without him means I’ve had time to put the pieces together. I’ve had time to forget about how dependent I felt upon him. Time to figure out how I got into that mess in the first place. And time to see how what he’s done to my body will affect the rest of my life.
There’s zero way I’m going back to that.
Fucking zero.
When he’s close enough to the bed, I scramble back some more. But when the blanket falls away and my breasts are exposed, Adam freezes. Then a terrifying smile curves his face.
It marks the beginning of his deep dive into madness. That’s what always happens right before he carves me up.
“Isn’t that adorable?” He whisks the sides of his suit jacket away to put his hands on his hips. The move reveals what I’ve been concerned about: He brought his favorite toy. The tool he’s used on me for the last few years.
The sight of it now makes my stomach churn.
“You’re sleeping naked in his bed,” he goes on, unfreezing and taking another step closer. He could reach out and grab my ankles if he wanted to, so I back up some more. “Does this mean my little whore is living up to her name? Are you fucking him?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I dare to grit out. With my teeth clenched, it came out low and threatening.
But he just lau
ghs. “If you think I don’t already, you’re sorely mistaken.” There goes his tongue tsking again. Then he sits on the edge of the bed and traces a finger around the knife holstered at his hip. “You probably don’t know something about your new bedmate though,” he tells me like’s amused. He crosses his right leg over his left and clasps his hand at the knee. “It’s pretty interesting if I do say so myself.”
I don’t feel like sticking around to listen as he spouts his ridiculous nonsense. He doesn’t know shit about the man I chose from a bar.
Unless he’s holding him somewhere and doing to him the things he’s done to me to get his secrets out of him. If that’s the case, then we’re both fucking screwed.
No, I can’t think like that. Know where my exits are. Keep my elbows in tight. Go harder, faster. Even though I’m naked—or especially because I’m naked—he won’t see it coming.
I tear out of the bed on the opposite side. As fast as my sore, achy legs will take me, I make it around the bed. In front of the open closet, I rip Zane’s laundry basket out and throw it at Adam. It bounces off of him and slows him down, but that’s the last thing I see as I speed out of the bedroom and race to the stairs. My heart wants to pound right out of my chest and I’m afraid my lungs will explode with my next breath, but in the fight for my life, I don’t care. I’ll either get out of this or die trying—but I won’t go back with him.
On bare feet, I fly down the stairs. I have a better chance at, well, anything if I have more exits available. Plus, Zane had me practicing down here, so I know this space. And if I’m going to beat Adam at his insane fucking game, then we’re doing it down here.
And maybe I’ll find Zane too. I need him, and he said he’d help. So where the fuck did he go?
These thoughts completely disappear the moment Adam catches up to me at the bottom of the stairs. He throws his arms around me from behind in a bear hug and squeezes tight. “I told you you weren’t getting away from me,” he sneers so close to my ear.
Goose bumps rise all over my body. The feel of him touching my skin makes me want to vomit, and the adrenaline racing through me gives me the strength I need to put up at least a small fight.
But I’m fucking terrified. And Zane didn’t teach me how to deal with that.
I kick and claw at him, but Adam’s undeterred. He squeezes me harder, like a snake killing its prey before it devours it whole. That’ll be me—wholly eaten alive by a sadistic man who gets off on this shit. Unless I fucking do something.
One more kick out of my legs catches him in the crotch and he falters just enough for me to slink out of his dreaded grip. When I’m out, I backhand his nose with my fist for good measure. Then I run around the side of the coffee table and assume my protective stance next to the punching bag.
He still has an evil grin on his face as he nurses his slightly bleeding nose. “If you think that’s going to make me stop, you’re wrong. I came here to get you back, Willow. So I’m not leaving without you.”
I let out a tribal, guttural yell that makes his head move back a little.
He stands up straighter and says, “Huh. If I’d known you had this fight in you, I would have brought it out in you sooner. My little Zane did well, didn’t he?”
For a moment, I scrunch my face and blink rapidly. What the fuck does that mean—his little Zane? But I have to let it go. Whatever he’s about to say will only be to throw me off.
“He found you for me, all right,” Adam goes on, dabbing at his nose with a handkerchief. Then he stuffs it back into his pocket and steps closer to me. “Kept you here while I let you think you’d gotten away. But like I said”—he dips his head to really catch my attention and hold it—“you didn’t. All thanks to him.”
My arms falter from my ready position for a moment. Is that true? Was Zane in the bar that night because he was after me for my husband? Did I willingly run into the arms of the man out to capture me and hand me back over to my abuser? And is that why he agreed to help me? Because it meant he’d get paid when Adam took me back?
No. I shake my head and recenter myself. All I have to do is stay away from Adam.
“I didn’t tell him he could fuck you, but he knows you’re a whore. Just like I do.” Adam pulls the knife from his hip holster and it gleams in the natural light coming in through the windows in the living room. Then he gives my body a once-over. “Though I’m surprised he could find this”—he points his knife at me—“attractive now. I’ve really done a number on you, haven’t I?” He smiles proudly, like I’m his latest grotesque masterpiece.
My stomach twists as bile claws its way up my throat.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised,” he says, pouting in a childlike way. Amusement shines in his eyes though—he’s not sad in the least—as he spreads his arms wide. “You know I have eyes everywhere. Of course, you’ve shined some light on how I can improve my security, and you’ll be happy to know Jacob has been…removed from the team because of his little mistake.”
I know what “removed” means. My lips quiver and tears threaten to burst loose as I think of what Adam likely did to that man. The fate I led him to because of what I did. That bile’s in the back of my mouth now, almost ready to make me gag.
This sick man in front of me has to die. His reign of terror ends right now.
So I launch myself at him, claws out. Prepared to fight. Without the other asshole who thought he could send me back to him. Because fuck him. He may have helped, but he fucking lied. And when I need him the most, he’s nowhere to be found, of course. He’s left me in the hands of the man who wants to cut me up some more with that knife of his. So now, I’ll do this shit on my own.
I have to.
And then I’ll leave them both in my dust.
23
Zane
Adam thought he could come a day early and bring three of his men to take me down.
Ha!
He has another thing coming.
The first guy, a tall and bald man with a bit of muscle, comes at me swinging, but I lay him down with a deck to his chin. He’s out cold as another man, shorter but bigger, takes his try. One kick to the chest has him flat on his back. When the third one comes at me, he hesitates, which gives me my in. A punch to his gut later, he’s down for the count.
Or at least for enough time for me to sprint back to the house so I can make sure Hanna Lee is okay.
The minute I hear her shrieks, I know she’s not.
At the back door, I rush inside and jog toward the noise. What I find makes my blood boil in my veins.
Hanna Lee’s on her back. Blood is spewing from her nose, and one eye is so swollen that she can’t open it anymore. Adam’s over her, a knife poised above her chest.
I see red for a few moments before jumping into the fray. After ripping Adam clear off her, I throw him in the opposite direction, against the railing of the stairs. He bounces off, but he lands on his knees. Then he rises to his feet and smirks at me like the fun’s just getting started.
Oh, but it is. Just not the kind of fun he wants.
I’m going to kill him with my bare hands.
He doesn’t run back at me though. He doesn’t start fighting me. He just watches me with that smirk on his face. Red drips from his nose, and a sense of pride flares through me. I didn’t do that to him, so she must have. Hanna Lee.
My woman. Not his.
“I see you’re ready to join the fight,” Adam says, sounding as cool as ever, like nothing ever rattles him.
He’s in for a rude awakening.
Rolling his shoulders back, he says, “You’re not on the right side though, are you, my friend?”
Rage like I’ve never fucking felt it before flows through me. It threatens to explode through my skin all over this fucking piece of shit. My fists clench and unclench as I twist my neck to the side to crack it in preparation.
But before I get the chance to ruin this motherfucker, a voice behind me puts a stop to it.
“It’s tr
ue, isn’t it?” Hanna Lee asks in a weak-sounding voice. “It’s really true. You’re working for him.”
It wasn’t a question. Simply a statement of facts. But she’s wrong.
Without taking my eye off the worthless waste of space in front of me, I shake my head. “No.”
“Liar!” Hanna Lee screams behind me, sounding decidedly less weak. Her voice gets closer, like she’s rising to her feet. “You’re lying! You’re supposed to give me back to him now.”
“I was supposed to,” I correct her, my knuckles popping the harder I squeeze my fists.
“And you’re not now?” Adam asks smoothly. “Because I don’t think that’s your choice to make, Zane.”
“Like hell it’s not,” I growl at him, my veins bursting with fury.
Again, Hanna Lee tamps it down with a dose of ice water when she speaks. “It’s not!” she shouts. “Fuck both of you! You can both go to hell!”
I don’t get a second to respond before she jumps on my back and claws at my shoulders with her uneven fingernails. She digs in, but I run us backward to put more space between us and the piece of shit in front of me. The man laughs as he watches us, staying where he is and enjoying the shitshow this has turned into.
When we hit the punching bag, she lets go. Then I spin around and forcefully maneuver her to the wall opposite Adam to set this fucking record straight.
“Listen to me,” I spit at her in a low, rough tone. The pain on her face—all the blood and swollen bits—makes me want to whisk her away right now. But this wasn’t my fight to begin with, and taking her away won’t get her to stay here with me when this is over. “Yes, I was working for him.”