I fuse my lips and narrow my eyes on Crane. Inside my head I say,Do your fucking worst, but you better fucking kill me, because I’m going to peel your skin away from your bones and leave you to bleed out like raw meat, you sadistic prick.
Jamie, dazed, regains her feet. She tries to stand up straight but can’t, and I have to look away because the monster is raging and it’s getting real difficult to hold it back.
“Or,” Crane adds, pacing casually. “I can have Lyle rape Jamie while you watch. I’ll kill you both right after. Quick. A single bullet to head. No blades. No drills. No pain. You have my word.”
I swallow the bile that rides up my throat. “Or, you can suck Lyle’s dick.”
“Do you swear that you’ll—”
“Don’t you fucking dare, Jamie” I roar at her. “Fuck that. Do you’re worst, Crane. Rip me the apart. I don’t give a shit. I’m your fucking whipping boy.”
“Then it’s done.” Crane returns to his position behind me. His breath brushes across the nape of my neck. “Feel free to cry out when it hurts.”
The first strike of leather on flesh is nothing. A mild annoyance. The setup for what’s to come. The second is angrier. The third, a reminder of how bad it’s going to get. At the fifth, I bite my lip to hold in the pain. By the eighth lick of the leather, I’m on a whole other plane of existence and drowning in agony. But through the blackness tugging me down into an abyss of torment, I keep my focus on Jamie. She gives me the strength I need not to slip into the darkness.
She falls to her knees and braces herself on her hands. Tears spill down her cheeks. I don’t know what she’s saying. Can’t hear past my labored breathing as I struggle to stay conscious. I lose count of how many times this douchebag hits me with the whip.
But it stops.
Just like that.
Something at the door catches Jamie’s attention. Her eyes go wide, and there’s yelling. So much fucking yelling. A single shot explodes in the room. Owen hits the floor dead. Lyle, that miserable prick, grabs Jamie and puts a knife to her throat, using her as a shield.
My roar shakes the fucking walls. Seeing Jamie’s panic crystallizes everything around me, bringing Jester, Malice, and Havoc into focus. Guns out, they’ve got Crane and Lyle locked. They won’t kill Crane. And with Lyle using Jamie as a human shield…
“Let her go, asshole,” Jester warns.
Lyle shakes his head, his eyes wide and terrified. “Not until I’m out of Gomorrah.”
“Don’t be stupid.” Havoc’s so calm it’s terrifying. “It’s over. All your friends are dead. Let her go.”
“Shoot him,” Jamie hisses.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I growl.
Lyle jostles her as he tries to maneuver toward the door. She flinches because God only knows what damage they did to her when they kicked the shit out of her.
Malice, that cold sonofabitch, steps closer. “Trust me?”
“Yes,” Jamie says without hesitation.
“Don’t,” I say simultaneously.
“I’ll kill her,” Lyle whines.
Malice aims. “No, you won’t.”
A single shot to the head ends Lyle. His brains paint the wall, and he drops to the floor.
Jamie doesn’t even flinch. She snatches the key ring off his belt, and with help from Malice, limps over to unlock the cuffs from around my wrists and ankles. They help me to my feet, because my back and chest are torn to hell and my head’s ringing like a sonofabitch.
“Get her out of here,” I tell Malice.
Jamie pulls away from Malice and lumbers over to David. The force of her hand across his cheek is a crack of thunder. “You lost, David. You’re going to die knowing the one person you couldn’t own left you for the one person you couldn’t control.” She steps back and drags a disgusted glare over him. “Pathetic.”
And with that, she kisses me and tells me she’ll meet me upstairs after I dispose of the trash. Then she turns on her heel and leans on Malice for support, with him helping her shuffle out of the room.
“Oh damn,” Jester says after she’s gone, still with his gun trained on Crane. “Harsh, man.”
