“Well, lookee who’s still here.”
The voice didn’t belong to Axton, however, and that whipped my tired, throbbing gaze back open. I looked up into the burn scars the man used for a face and found that he wasn’t wearing a brown leather jacket like the guys did, but a navy blue one. I shook my head and tried to scoot back against the wall. How I would’ve given anything toosmosifyright through that painted plaster and pop out on the other side.
“Don’t you fucking touch me,” I warned.
But the lumbering man simply grinned before he picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder.
“Let go of me!” I shrieked.
He spanked my ass so hard that I yelped.
“Ah!”
The man chuckled. “If you’re a good little thing for me, I’ll give you more than that.”
I kicked my bare feet in an attempt to throw him off, but it was no use. Every time I kicked my legs, it tugged at my wrists and shoulders so badly that I almost wished I were dead. I floated through the air, feeling that man’s callused hands running up and down my naked skin. Bile crept up the back of my throat. It dripped through the gag in my mouth and ran down his leather jacket.
Until it finally dripped its stinging efforts onto his hand.
“You stupid bitch,” he hissed.
“That’s what you get, you stupid son of a—”
“Shut up,” he said flatly.
I saw it coming that time. I watched him tilt me before he swung me into the doorframe of the bathroom. I braced myself for the darkness. For the pain and possible concussion that would follow me the second my skull bashed into that painted wood. And when my temple connected, the night pulled me under. Taking me home, as if we were best friends.
Until it relinquished me back to a world where I no longer wanted to exist.
I didn’t dare speak, though. My head pounded and my vision shook with each throb. My shoulders felt as if they had been set on fire and doused with gasoline. My hips screamed at me for a hot bath. The tires beneath me rattled with every divot we hit, and I bit down onto my tongue to keep from making any sort of sound.
I didn’t want anyone knowing that I had woken up.
I couldn’t think straight, though. With my head rattled and something dripping down the side of my face, I knew I needed a doctor. The nausea alone told me I was in big fucking trouble, but I had no way to get away. I was practically naked. My body had been rendered useless from the pain and the torture of the underbelly world around me. I had no idea what was going on, or what would happen to me, but I almost wished for death. I was a helpless, witless woman who had no business playing ball with the people I had found, and I no longer cared what happened to me.
So long as they were okay, and my twin sister got what was coming to her.
Then, the van stopped. It didn’t slow to a stop, like at a stop sign or something. I mean, the brakes slammed down and my body rolled into something cold and hard. I grunted as my back tensed. I struggled to catch my breath.
Until I heard the most angelic voice.
“Brielle?” Dante asked.
I gasped. “Dee?”
“Holy shit, Brielle? Are you in here with us?”
Tears rushed my eyes. “Mav.”
Something scooted across the floor before warmth penetrated my forehead, and I yanked myself back.
“It’s just me,” Axe said.
Tears flooded my cheeks as my head ached with pain. “Oh, God. I thought you guys were—I thought she—”
“It’s okay,” Dee said softly, “it’s all right. We’re gonna get you out of here.”
Axe slid his fingertips along my forehead. “You’re okay. We’re right here, Brielle.”
