She leans in. “We know who you are. We know your sister obtained millions from the Gerard family for being a whore.” Mypulse spikes. I shake my head. “We know that everything you own is because of her slutty choices. We know that after your parents died, she abandoned you, then tried to make it up with her blood money.”
I shake my head. Tears blur my vision as I turn away but turning away only makes her press the knife harder. I stifle a cry as I feel my skin tear.
“We know what you saw. And this is a warning, Savannah. You will testify against Thayer in court. If you don’t do what we say, we promise, no one you know will be safe. Not Nicolette, or her husband, and least of all Thayer.”
I shake my head. “He didn’t do it.”
I don’t know what they’ll do to me, but I can’t let them hurt me.
“He did, though, and you saw it because you were with him. You were both in Paris the night of the murder. You saw him murder that officer, didn’t you?”
When I don’t respond, the man growls at her. “Cut her.”
Her eyes, wide and terrified, plead for forgiveness as she obeys him. I scream out loud as the knife cuts me. I’m trying to move away from the knife when I have an idea.
I sit up and turn to her. “No!” I scream. “I won’t!”
“Hurt her!”
With a cry, she slices at me with the knife. I yank out of her way just in time and throw my hands in front of my face. The knife slices through rope, nicking me but freeing my hands.
The door to the room bursts open. I see Thayer in a pool of light, his weapons drawn.
“Thayer!”
“One down,” he says placidly, a look of tranquility on his face as he points his gun at the man. “One to go.”
The man’s eyes go wide as he puts his hands up. Thayer doesn’t shoot to kill, though. With a look of pure malice, he shoots the man’s kneecap and makes him fall to the floor.
The woman screams and lunges for Thayer, but I grab her by the hair and yank her back. She falls to the floor. I kneel on her back and keep her down. I push the same knife she used on me against her neck.
“Go ahead. Try me.”
Thayer yells over his shoulder, “Get her out of here for questioning.”
Lyam enters and takes the redhead bodily out of the room. “Naughty girl,” he chides, clearly enjoying himself. “You’re in big, big trouble for this.”
Thayer grabs the man by the neck.
“Apologize to her.”
The man glares at me. Thayer grits his teeth and backhands him so hard he falls to the floor and screams.
“I said, apologize,” he repeats as he makes the man face me again.
“I’m sorry,” the man says. My stomach turns at the sight of his teeth, reddened with blood.
“Good. Savannah, you have a choice,” Thayer says to me. “You can step outside with Fabien and Nicolette. They’re waiting foryou. Or you can stay here with me while I get rid of the last threat against you.”
The man’s eyes go wide, and he begins to shake.
Back in the alley, which seems so long ago now, I saw the look of terror on his captive’s face. He would have killed me and forced Thayer to serve time for a murder he didn’t commit.
I cross my arms over my chest. I’m not leaving Thayer’s side again.
Not ever again.
“I’ll stay.”
