“Are you going to leave me in this for the whole of the trip?” I snap as I turn to face Gideon. His eyes are droopy and unfocused, like he’s been drugged. His head flops onto my shoulder. What the hell?
The curtain moves, revealing Hunter. Hope ignites and roars to life, sending my heart fluttering in a rapid staccato. He raises his finger to his lips as he creeps up behind Mike and pulls something from his pocket. A wire? What is he planning to do?
He loops it around Mike’s throat and yanks, blood instantly welling across his neck.Oh my God.I jerk, knocking Gideon off my shoulder. He wakes with a start, just as the hostess opens the door to the plane and Fox storms inside. His gaze finds mine immediately, and his eyes soften.
“Don’t k-kill him,” I stutter at Hunter as he looks like he’s enjoying the fuck out of the strangling.
“Why?” he asks.
“He’s the guy that assaulted Gillian.”
Hunter’s eyes widen, and he relaxes his grip on the wire just as Fox reaches me and unclips the seatbelt. He yanks me up into his arms, making the coat fall off my shoulders. His face darkens, and he growls when he sees the bindings. He pulls me tighter to him and slices through them, freeing me. Pain arrows across my chest, making me yelp.
“Kill him anyway,” Fox snaps at Hunter.
I blink as Fox cups my face. “But?—”
“His identity is enough, firecracker. I don’t need him alive.”
“You came for me,” I whisper. I hadn’t even dared to hope he would.
“I will always come for you.” He seals that promise with a kiss that steals my breath. Gideon roars, and a hand tangles in my hair, yanking me back and out of Fox’s arms.
I cry out and twist around, landing on my knees before Gideon. I sink my teeth into the soft flesh of his forearm, not stopping until his blood explodes on my tongue. He lets me go just as Fox reaches out and snaps his hand around Gideon’s throat, making him grin.Oh fuck.
He reaches into the side of the seat and whips out a gun, pointing it at my head. “If I’m going, you are coming with me,” he snarls.
Fox shoves me to the floor, and two shots ring out, followed by a grunt.No, no, no.My breath locks in my lungs as an icy-cold shiver runs down my spine. My head shoots up, searching Fox for the telltale crimson bloom.
“You are a piss poor-shot, just like your wife was before she met me.” Fox snorts.
My shoulders slump and relief floods through me. Fox grabs me around my waist and hauls me to my feet while Gideon glares and shakes his head like he’s trying to get rid of the fog.
Fox chuckles. “Good—it’s wearing off. I need you conscious. We can’t have you miss your finale, can we?” It’s so close to what Gideon said to me—that I would be awake for each and every punishment. It’s poetic justice dished out by Fox.
“Can I kill this piece of shit now?” Hunter grunts out. We spin to find Mike still struggling with the wire wrapped around his throat, and my gaze falls to Mike’s empty holster.
“Yes, do it,” Fox orders.
Hunter grins, and I turn my gaze away from Mike. He deserves to burn in Hell, but I don’t need to watch it.
The hostess appears from the front of the plane. She’s swapped her pencil skirt and blouse for ripped jeans and a frayed AC/DC T-shirt. She winks at me. Oh, I like her. “Explosives are set. All that’s left to do is abandon this plane and leave the sacks of shit on it.”
“Thanks, Ghost,” Fox says as he takes the rope she offers him. He moves around the back of Gideon’s chair and makes quick work of binding him to it, just as Mike stops struggling.The light leaves his eyes, leaving him staring blankly at nothing.
Damn, Hunter really drew that out.
“You bitch,” Gideon splutters, still seeming to be under the influence of whatever Ghost gave him.
I lean down, getting in the face of the man who caused so much pain and suffering. “By always underestimating the fairer sex, you made the most fundamental of mistakes. You never even contemplated that a woman could be capable of taking you down, making you blind to the most dangerous of creatures.”
“Who’s that?”
“Me.” A small smile plays on my lips as I look down on him with pity. “The proverb says, ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’” I lean closer so he can see the darkness in my eyes, the one he placed there. This is of his own making. “But I’m not scorned, Gideon. I don’t hold anger. I have an incurable rage that can only be quieted by you sinking into the cold rotten grave you deserve.”
“You are the same weak worthless girl I plucked from the rainy sidewalk of Manhattan.”
I shake my head. “I gave you love, faith, adoration—and you crushed it to dust. But from the ashes, I have emerged stronger, having rebuilt myself one piece at a time. You might have thought me weak, stripped to the bone. But with each breath, each heartbeat, I moved away from you, and I came to understand something vital.”
