But then, he drops me.
I collapse, gasping, hands on my throat.
“Get the expendable men,” he tells Emir.
Emir hesitates. “Boss I don’t—”
“Get. Them.”
Emir’s footsteps fade fast.
I’m still on my knees when Gabriel crouches in front of me.
He grabs my chin. Forces me to look at him.
“Youwilllearn,” he says quietly. Dangerously. “Tonight you kill or be killed.”
He stands.
“Pick up your knife, you’re going to need it.”
Emir comes back. He doesn’t look at me.
Two men follow him—a little older than me, taller, eyes already measuring me like I’m meat.
Gabriel’s smile is wide now.
Satisfied.
“No limits,” he tells them casually. “Anything goes.”
My stomach drops.
I shake my head.
“Gabriel—”
He cuts me off with a raised hand. “Let’s see what you’re worth.”
The men move at the same time. I barely have time to breathe. One grabs my arm. The other goes for my ribs. Pain explodes—sharp, white, blinding.
Something cracks.
I scream, but I don’t stop moving. I twist.
Bite.
Kick.
Instinct takes over.
The training. The nights on the concrete. The lessons I never wanted. One of them goes down hard. His head hits the floor wrong. The second comes at me again.
I don’t think.
I react.
My knife finds him.
