Cortez looked up, raising both his brows high. “In a rush to leave, Bones?”
“Bones,” Drew coughed and spluttered out as he tried to ingest air into his broken body. “There you are. Long time no see.”
Pressing the blade and twisting it onto its edge even more, Cortez’s train of thought practically bounced off the walls as he tried to figure out the same things I was. Was all this a bluff or not? Did the Emps really have a rat in their midst?
“Get Tucker back over here,” Cortez demanded quietly. “Remove his shirt. Let us see the patch on his skin.”
The scraps of Drew’s shirt were ripped almost violently from him as three men dragged him back to the position he’dbeen in before he fucked up Cortez’s nose. He was in worse shape. There were more blossoming bruises, more cuts on his face, one particularly nasty one that was oozing blood just under his eye socket.
“Before we go on, why don’t we remind Tucker exactly what’s at stake when he pisses me off.” Cortez removed the knife from my throat, but I wasn’t comforted by its new placement. He’d pushed it below my sweater, the blade pointing out. He seemed more fascinated by Drew’s reaction than mine, and with one snap of his wrist had cut through the top of my sweater.
His rank breath washed over me as he got closer, the nauseating odor making my own breath stick as he grabbed the two sides of the sweater and ripped them apart.
“Much better,” he purred, dragging the scraps of material down my arms and leaving me in my bra. My eyes met Drew’s and for just a second, I regretted the decision to wear a push up. It had been for his eyes only, and now all I felt was dirty and tainted.
I’d thought I’d seen all his faces before then, but not even murderous could describe the look in Drew’s eyes as he looked up at Cortez and violently pushed three words out through his teeth.
“Get. Off. Her.”
Sliding the flat surface of the knife over the exposed parts of my breasts, Cortez leaned over my shoulder and began to moan in appreciation.
“I can see why you chose her. I wonder…” He kept his hand moving in a slow pattern, and I knew he felt me flinch whenever the heel of his palm made contact with my naked skin. “Did you worship these enough the last time you touched them? Did you always caress them like it was the first and last time? Or do you need another memory to take with you when you die?”
The touch of his hand made me shudder in disgust, but my concern was more for Drew than for myself. Whatever this man was doing to me, I could burn my flesh later if we got out of this alive. The only problem was, if Drew followed through with whatever was rolling around in his mind, we wouldn’t survive at all. A living hell was rising behind his eyes as he watched Cortez’s hands. It wasn’t jealousy. It was protection.
“Drew.” It was one word, but I hoped he could hear everything I couldn’t say planted in the syllables.
He’d turned from man to beast as he watched his enemy like he was his prey, but the moment his name passed my lips, I saw that flicker of reality come back to him. His eyes were frantic as he looked between the two of us and the knife.
Then something changed.
“I want another memory,” he said quietly.
“Did you forget something?”
Drew swallowed. “Please.”
Cortez grinned beside me, that golden tooth of his shining like a target that needed to be knocked out. “And so it is love.”
He pushed me forward violently, and whoever was behind Drew did the same to him until the two of us were sitting pressed against one another again, only this time we were skin on skin. The second Drew could pull me closer, he did, our legs scissoring again as he guided me into his arms and held me by the waist.
We were damp with sweat, tears and everything else we’d been thrown around in all mixed together, but when he pressedhis cheek to mine and buried his nose in my hair to breathe me in, I let myself do the same with him.
“Do you trust me?” he whispered so only I could hear.
“Always,” I breathed back, my head pressing against his and my eyes closing.
“Do as he says, and when the chance arrives, please… run . Run as fast as you can. You’ll know when it’s here. Don’t ask questions, Ayda. Don’t wait for me. Don’t look ba—”
“Get to it, Tucker.” Cortez’s voice oozed with the perversity of the moment as he pressed the flat of the knife against my neck.
Dragging his forehead back to mine, Drew’s hands found the bare skin on my shoulders, and I didn’t have to look at him to know that his eyes were now closed, too.
The pads of his fingers were warm against my rapidly cooling skin, and even though the situation didn’t call for it, my skin flared into goose pimples, following the line as he traced the faint veins in my shoulder and down my bra strap. My breath stuttered as I dragged it in, and despite every eye in the place burning into the two of us, all I saw was Drew.
Leaning forward, he ran his nose down mine, his warm breath bathing me until his lips met mine. It was so hard to stay focused with him so close, when he was touching me that way, but his whispered words and the eyes of every asshole in the building kept me focused. The gentle tug on the lace made me shiver in horror at the thought of anyone seeing more of me than they already had, but he rolled the material down, exposing more of my skin and brushing his thumbs where he wanted them to go.
It was like the air had been taken from the building. It was a collective inhale from the simple shift of the material, andDrew seemed to feel it the same way I did.
