“She’s lying and you’re a fool,” Damien quips. “But fine. Make it quick. Anddon’tturn your back to her.”
The guard marches Kristen out of the room, and I’m relieved to see that she appears to be totally unharmed.
“I can’t put a tampon in with my wrists bound,” she announces to the men primly.
The guard looks at Damien.
“Go ahead,” Damien says, his eyes glittering as he looks at Kristen from head to toe, a hint of a smile on his lips. “It’s your funeral.”
The guard cuts the plastic tie around her wrists and Kristen sighs happily, laying a hand on the guard’s forearm.
“Thankyou,” she says. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here. This is all so scary!”
The guard seems to puff up a little now, growing in height in an instant. I’m staring at Kristen, but she doesn’t dare look at me.
Damien’s gaze follows her ass as she and the guard walk away.
“Don’t even think about it,” I warn him.
He turns.
“Think about what?”
“Her,” I answer, trying to hide the wobble in my voice. “Touching her. Don’t even think about it. I’ll kill you. I swear to god, I will.”
His smile grows as he walks back to me.
“My, you and Vince have a lot in common,” he says. “He said the same thing to me on the phone about you. Of course, if he would have faced me like a man, then none of this would be necessary. I don’t enjoy trapping my enemies like mice. There’s no honor in it. But he left me no choice. Now he’s coming to his death voluntarily. For you.”
My heart clenches at the second mention of Vincent dying. This can’t be real. Can it?
“Why are you doing this?“ I ask him. “What did he do to you that was so bad?”
The entrance doors open and we both turn our heads. It’s Vincent. Immediately he’s seized by a nearby guard who pats him down, checking for weapons.
“There he is!” Damien says, clapping his hands together. “The guest I’ve been waiting for. Hazel and I have been chatting and getting to know one another. She just asked me why I’m going to kill you today. Would you like to answer that question, or should I?”
9
Vincent
She’s hurt.A gash on her head that’s still bleeding, and a swollen cut on her mouth.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt her if I came,” I spit at him, arms held back by the man behind me.
“The damage was done by her own hands,” Damien says dismissively. “She wouldn’t cooperate.”
“You struggled to restrain a little thing like her?” I laugh coldly, though I find nothing funny. I glare at him, wishing I could melt him on sight, planning all the things I’ll do to him once I have the chance.
“Her and her sociopath of a best friend,” Damien replies. He holds up a hand and the man releases my arms, freeing me. As soon as he does, I lunge for Damien.
He pulls his gun, aiming first at me, then at Hazel.
“Settle down,” he says, still aiming the gun at Hazel. “You know how this ends. You came here knowing the stakes. It’s you…or her.”
“Put the gun away,” I growl. “Fight me fist to fist.”
“You or her,” he repeats, shaking his head. “But first, why don’t you answer Hazel’s question? I think she deserves to know why she got sucked into this mess, don’t you? Or would you prefer to keep your lover in the dark, lying to her while recklessly endangering her life without a second thought?”
