ONE
KITTY
Playlist recommendation:
Another Innocent Girl - Alkaline Trio
Was I in pain?
Yes.
Was I also furious?
Hell, yes.
Every slap, every grope, every threat lit me up, sending electricity through my veins. Making me a veritable firework ready to explode.
In contrast to the sparks Stan and I made together, this bastardized version filled me with rage that I choked on. That had me craving their blood. That knew it was kill or be killed, and I wasn’t about to waste one of my nine lives on these punks.
Sure, they’d doped me with chloroform that had since worn off—hypermetabolism had its perks. But the drug hadn’t lessened my temper, if they hoped the downer would keep me contained.
Wrath sang inside me. Raging and roaring. My incandescent fury a living, breathing entity.
I knew Custanzu Valentini, the Capo of theSicilian Famigghia, would come for me. Of course, I knew that.
But when?
An hour? Two?
Tomorrow?
I couldn’t rely on him to get me out of this mess.
A mess thatI’dallowed myself to get into.
That infuriated me more than anything.
If my family, relatively low on the rungs of the mob hierarchy, had enemies, then Stan sure as hell did.
In my defense, I hadn’t expected to go to hishomeand?—
No.
There was no defense.
No excuses.
Like a fool, I’d let that rat bastard overwhelm me. I’d been too busy studying the blood on Stan’s shirt and I’d barely had a chance to react to the slap to the face from the man I’d seen in Stan’s house earlier.
The attack had come from out of nowhere, shocking me silly, dialing down the scream I’d released into a whimper.
It was bad luck that had seen me staggering backward from the sheer force of it, colliding with the dresser before I’d slumped to the floor. Head cracking against the sharp edge, adding to my dazed state.
Throw in the chloroform that fucker had held over my nose and mouth, I hadn’t gotten the chance to do more than moan Stan’s name and slap at the bastard weakly.
But I was awake now. I was breathing. And my claws were out.
I’d never relied on anyone to get me out of my messes before, not wholly—Raisin didn’t count—and I wasn’t about to start now.
