“I’ll take care of her,” the second guy says, causing my pulse to erupt in panic at the fierce look in his eyes as he growls it out. He’s going to kill me as well.
I shake my head frantically, tears running down my cheeks and over the first man’s hands. “No, I didn’t see anything.” I struggle against his hold, kicking out with a harder buck in an attempt to escape.
It only makes him grip me tighter as his smile grows. “She won’t talk. I’ll make sure of it.” The first guy sneers back with an almost playful chuckle that’s intended for his fellow thug and not me.
The second guy shakes his head. “Your savior complex is as bad as your sister’s. Don’t let her out of your sight,” the second guy mutters as he slinks back out of the shadow we are hiding in and out of my line of sight. My frantic eyes land back on the first guy, wondering how he thinks he’s going to keep me quiet.
“Looks like you’re coming home with me, little darlin'.” There it is again, that look of excitement or satisfaction, like this is what he wanted all along. To take me for his own. But that can’t be. I won’t go with him.
My pulse quickens. “What! No.” I shake my head again, trying more desperately to get out of his grip on me.
“Clean this mess up,” the other guy shouts over his shoulder, I think to the third guy, as his voice moves closer to us again. I know I’m running out of time. I don’t want him to come back. The guy holding me is scary as all hell, but I don’t think he wants to hurt me; the guy with the darker hair, I’m positive he does. Either way, I have to get the hell out of here before I find out what on earth he wants with me. I’m not going home with him.
Quickly, I bring my knee up with as much force as I can, aiming for his dick. Cracking him right in the spot I was aiming for, I expect him to release me, but the crazy bastard laughs at me, hardly losing his grip on me at all. My heart lurches in panic. There is no way out, it’s like he didn’t even feel the pain. He should be crippled, bent over, but maybe this psycho isn’t real at all. Maybe he’s some torture-wielding robot sent to bring havoc to the streets of Ravens Hollow.
His forehead creases as he shoves me harder into the wall. “Do it again and I will tie you up. I’m sure that will be more fun for me than you.”
I can’t help the whimper that escapes my lips and the prickle of goosebumps that rise over my skin. I’m screwed.
Sudden movement from our side has him reaching under his jacket swiftly, and he pulls a gun and shoots the rough-looking guy coming toward us square in the head. Blood splatters, painting us as the man plummets to the dingy street, his jade-green snake tattoo twisting on his bicep as his vacant eyes meet mine. My head spins, a faintness coming over me I can’t deal with right now.
“Behind you,” he calls to the second guy as another man appears out of nowhere.
Sweat trickles down my forehead, and I know I’m about five seconds from passing out, but I can’t. From deep inside, I find an inner strength I didn’t know I had in me and slip under his arm while he’sdistracted helping his friend. I sprint as fast as my shaky legs will take me. Even though my bag has every item I own in it, I leave it behind and move toward The Raven’s Nest. If I can make it inside, I will find Sloane, and she will help me. I hope. It’s my last-ditch attempt to do what I came here to do today, and I have to try.
My fingertips find solid wood, but just as I go to shove open the door, I’m hauled backward by two sets of hands, each as rough as the other. “Someone wants to die tonight,” the second guy growls, his voice filled with venom as he lifts me into the air and tosses me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, knocking the air from my lungs. The sheer power he exudes turns my muscles to jelly. I’m trapped.
Tears stroll down my face and blur my vision as my head spins again.
“Jagger,” the first guy snarls as he runs for a black SUV not too far from us. He throws open the passenger side door and gets in, his arms open wide.
The guy holding me, Jagger, as his buddy just called him, shoves me into the front seat with brutal, uncaring force that has me banging my head on my way through the door. He deposits me into the waiting arms of the first guy. His cruel arms wrap tightly around my middle as his lips come to my ear. And there it is again, the scent of leather and cigarettes. “That wasn’t very nice, little darlin'. Here I am trying to save your life, and you run away from me. I would think it smart if you were escaping from the bad guys. But we’re not the bad guys. Most of the time, anyway.” He winks at me as his dark chuckle vibrates throughout the car.
My stomach lurches. I can't tell if he is trying to scare me on purpose or if he’s just crazy.
Jagger slams the door, locking me in with him, and he turns me, so my back is pressed into the door and he can seeme better.
I stare at him, paralyzed and close to passing the hell out. With a cruel smile, he takes my face in his hand and moves me so I’m forced to watch the guy he called Jagger as he collects my duffle bag and tosses it in the back seat of the car before he jumps in the driver’s seat beside us. “See, my brother here doesn’t like mess, and you just saw something you shouldn’t have. That makes you a mess we need to clean up,” he explains, his voice low and menacing, like he’s toying with me.
“I… I won’t say anything, I didn’t see anything,” I get out through the sobs now wracking my chest. I’ve never been so scared in my life. Even when Valentine used to take his frustrations out on me, I knew he would stop, eventually. Knew the next day he would beg for my forgiveness. After five years with him, I got so good at anticipating what he was about to do, so talented at blocking it all out that I stopped fearing him. But I don’t know what these two men are capable of or what’s about to come next. I knew Valentine would never kill me, but they just might.
The crazy bastard holding me in his grip grins, his eyes running down my face as he stares at my lips for longer than he should, then he returns his gaze to meet mine, tilting his head just a little in a way that makes him look even more deranged. “Oh, that’s a cute story, but think we all know you did. Right, bro?”
“She saw too much,” Jagger agrees as he tears up the street at an alarming rate.
“Now the question is what to do with you?” He taps his fingers on my bare thigh as he thinks it over. And again, I chastise myself for wearing a dress. His callused fingers on my skin feel way too real, their warmth radiating heat through my body as he strokes them back and forth.
“You’re not keeping her,” Jagger snaps, not bothering to take his eyes off the road.
“You read my mind, Brother. It’s creepy how he does that.” His eyes lock with mine like he’s trying to include me in this conversation. Then his hand trails further up my thigh, leaving a shiver in its wake despite his warmth. “I do like collecting pretty little things. Maybe Ishouldkeep you.”
My skin goes all clammy, because I know by the way his lips twist that this psycho prick is serious. He’s about to take me home and lock me up in his basement. I can feel his erratic energy, and I know whatever he has in mind is evil.
“Cruz,” his brother warns — at least I assume his calling him brother isn’t just a bro type thing. And now I see it, they share a family resemblance, something in the sharp shape of their jaws and the way their eyes lock in on you, all dark and unhinged.
“What? It could be fun. Come on, Jagger, let me keep her. At least until Mal does a background check and we know who she is.” He grins from ear to ear, but I can’t tell if he is messing with me or if he is deadly serious.
“I… I can tell you who I am, then you can let me go now,” I stutter out. Looking between them, they both look intimidating as all hell; I don’t want to be stuck in a car with them. And even less to be taken back to wherever evil like this lives, to be these thugs’ plaything.
