James nodded at me, and I silently cursed under my breath.
Seven.
My mouth went dry. I tried to swallow, but nothing happened. I glanced at Matías and back to James, narrowing my eyes and snarling.
Six.
I took a step forward, and Matías shook one of the shackles. I forced myself to keep moving forward when all I wanted to do was run.
Did people really do this stuff? Hand their submissive over to another person to “train”? In all my time in a club, I’d never seen it. But Matías either wanted me that badly, or he didn’t give a fuck about anything.
Five.
Three more steps and I’d be within arm’s reach of Matías and the device I know he’d probably torture me with if he had the chance. My feet moved forward and I was crawling at a snail’s pace, but I couldn’t move any faster.
Four.
“You’re only going to make this worse on yourself, girl,” Matías said, growing impatient with me.
“I’m sorry.” The words came out as a squeak, but hell, this was scary. I wasn’t sure I’d been this scared since Rebel kidnapped me, but James was here and he wouldn’t let Matías touch me. This was all for show while we waited for Ret. I repeated that in my head.
Three.
I took another step, and Matías reached out, yanking me forward. I lost my balance, tumbling toward him, and did a face plant right into his chest.
Two.
There was a loud crash as Ret came barreling through the door with his gun drawn.
One.
Matías spun me around and put me in a choke hold.
“I’ll snap her neck,” Matías barked right next to my ear.
Fuck my life.
I always got pulled into their shitstorm, and it never ended up like it was supposed to when we made our plan. If my dumb ass hadn’t fallen forward, I wouldn’t be in his arms and vulnerable.
“Fucker,” I seethed and glanced over at James, who was already advancing toward us.
“One more step and it’s over.” Matías’s grip tightened.
Ret’s gaze narrowed, and his finger ticked against the trigger. He better be a damn good shot if he was going to take the chance with my head so close to Matías’s. But when my legs wobbled again, I knew I couldn’t be a passive victim in this.
I needed to act. The only thing I could do was to use the one thing I had at my disposal. I inched my foot to the side until it touched Matías’s fancy leather shoes.
Bringing my knees up, I smashed my six-inch Louboutin down on the top of his foot. He lurched forward just enough for me to break free of his hold and run into James’s arms.
“Keep him alive,” James told Ret.
“Can I shoot him at least?”
Matías straightened, and his eyes grew colder. “You might as well kill me. I won’t talk.”
“Orders are to bring him in unharmed unless there are extenuating circumstances.”
“This is extenuating.” Ret smirked.
