“Then let us touch her,” Jacob offers. “If you truly don’t care for the girl, then you won’t care if we all get a taste.”
“Fine. I’m a possessive asshole. I’ll admit to that. I want to be the only one to touch her but it’s not because I care. It’s because I want to be the one to take her virginity. None of you will get that honor. Is that understood?”
“I’m right here,” Susanna snaps. “Stop talking about me like I’m not.”
“The girl speaks,” Tom mocks, making the other men laugh. She flushes but that doesn’t stop her from shooting every one of the men a glare. Susanna is a lot stronger than even I’ve given her credit for. She doesn’t back down easily.
“All of you will burn in hell,” she says. “You are disgusting. You think you’re so powerful while you laugh at the girl locked in a cage. But you’re all weak, disgusting little men.”
“She thinks her insults can hurt us,” Tom laughs. But it’s clear from the anger on Chip and Jacob’s face that Susanna’s insults worked.
Chip lunges for the cage and manages to grab her arm through the bars. She cries out as he squeezes hard. “I am not a little man. I am not weak or disgusting. You are all of those things. You are just a pathetic female.”
“Poor incel,” Susanna mocks. “I’m so sorry life is so tough for you.”
Chip pulls her towards him, making Susanna’s face slam against the bars. She cries out, making Chip laugh. “Who’s the weak one now?”
All I see is red. Pure rage. Chip is touching Susanna. Hurting her when she’s mine to hurt. Mine to do with as I please.
I lunge towards Chip and wrench him away from Susanna. In one smooth motion, I punch him and he topples to the floor. That’s when I let my anger out on him.
I rain down punch after punch after punch onto his face until he stops moving. None of the other men try to stop me.
“Gabriel,” Susanna gasps. “He’s dead.”
That’s what gets me to stop.
I stare down at Chip, breathing heavy, my hand covered in blood. The skin around my knuckles is broken. His blood mixing with mine.
Chip’s face is practically caved in. I punched him that hard without even realizing it.
“Holy shit, Gabriel,” Issac breathes out.
“I told him to leave her alone,” I growl. “I told all of you. None of you listened. I am your boss. Respect me.”
All of my men nod without hesitation. They now know what will happen to them if they piss me off.
I stand up and back away from Chip’s dead body. “Clean this up. And get out of this room.”
It takes a moment for my men to leave but they do. Issac comes back a moment later with a plastic tarp that he sets Chip’s body onto. I breathe heavily as I stare at Susanna.
She stares back.
But there’s no fear in her face. No. There’s something else. Relief that I protected her.
This changes everything.
Chapter Eleven
Susanna
Gabriel looks like he’s going to eat me. I’m not sure if it’s literally or figuratively but a part of me is scared to find out. Another part of me is excited.
He killed Chip. For me. Because that asshole wouldn’t stop touching me. I may be Gabriel’s prisoner but there’s something happening here. Something deeper than just kidnaper and kidnappee.
Once Chip’s body is gone and it’s just me and Gabriel, he storms over to the cage and rips the door open. I don’t hesitate to get out of it. I hate being in there.
We stare at each other for a long moment, his eyes raking over my body, before he pulls me into his arms and kisses me witheverything inside him. Anger and passion and something else I can’t figure out. It’s almost like he cares for me but that’s crazy. Gabriel can’t care for me.
