That’s the first insult that springs to mind as I try to distract the bad guys.
I lunge forward, gearing up to bash some skulls, when a hand clamps over my mouth from behind. An arm like a steel vise locks around my chest, hauling me off my feet.
The lamp slips from my fingers with a clatter barely audible over the chaos as I’m dragged toward the splintered doorway.
No!
My heart stops, stomach lurching with dread. I kick, thrashing wildly. My bare heels connect with shins as I also try to bite the gloved hand on my mouth.
It’s like fighting a brick wall.
My nails claw at the arm around my chest, catching on fabric rather than skin.
Across the room, through the tangle of bodies, Kolya’s eyes lock on mine. He registers the hand over my mouth and my feet kicking helplessly in the air. For one frightening moment, that professional mask of his cracks, revealing the unchained monster beneath. The one he hides behind dark smiles and filthy promises.
The fierce glimmer in his eyes isn’t fear or defeat.
It’s an unspoken promise of annihilation.
I shiver as my captor drags me through the doorway. Another man appears, carrying a hood. The rough material descends over my head, plunging me into suffocating darkness.
An icy chill washes over me, but one certainty prevents me from losing my mind.
Kolya will save me. He’ll hunt us down.
And when he finds me, these men will learn the hard way to never steal what belongs to a monster.
Chapter 30
Kolya
Silence.
Chloe.
Pain.
Chloe.
Wet. Blood. Both mine and not mine. The copper scent permeates the air.
This is why we have hardwood and store a shop-vac in the garage.
Reality snaps into place, shoving past the mental reflexes that locked me down while I catalogued the scene.
Chloe!
Pushing off the floor, I shrug out from under the dead man on top of me.
He was the last one I eliminated before someone crashed a heavy weight over my skull to knock me out. The corpse is chest down with his chin jutting over his shoulder. Broken jaw and a broken neck.
Stubborn bastard.
Stumbling toward the side table where I left my phone, I survey my own damage.
Split scalp, shallow but bleeding like a motherfucker.
Left eye swelling shut, right shoulder screaming.
