“I can’t help it,” I protested.
“You will help it, or you will bleed,” he replied, backhanding me. My head whipped to the side, blood hitting the window from the impact.
“Clean yourself up,” he ordered, throwing a handkerchief at me.
I wiped at my face, angry tears that I refused to let fall blinding me. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“You never had a weak stomach before,” he commented absently as he wiped his hands in disgust. I wished I had been sick directly on him.
I barely held back the snort of disdain at his assumption he’d ever known anything about me. “Just the effect you have on me, I guess.” I sneered.
He turned cold eyes to me. “Watch it, Francesca. My patience only stretches so far.”
“We’re nearly there, boss,” the driver announced as we drove past the commercial airport toward an executive airport.
“There’s a bed on the plane.” Bruno smiled lasciviously, forcing me to breathe through my nose so I wouldn’t vomit again.
It all felt like a nightmare, like I would wake up at any moment in Maddox’s arms and breathe a sigh of relief that it hadn’t been real.
“Let’s go.” Bruno yanked me across the back seat, holding my upper arm in a painful grip as he towed me toward the waiting jet.
“No,” I gasped, trying to break free, desperate now. I threw up a knee, trying anything to escape.
His gun appeared as if from nowhere, pressing discreetly at my belly.
I stared into his dead eyes, debating whether death might be better than the fate that awaited me. Then I thought of the lives inside me and I knew I had to fight.
Until the end, I would fight.
“Get on the fucking plane,” he ordered.
I turned and obeyed, nearly stumbling as he shoved me forward.
The plane was small with leather seats and a door toward the back that I assumed led to the bedroom Bruno had referred to. I shuddered at the thought.
“Sit.” He shoved me into a nearby seat, addressing the two suit-clad men onboard who I recognized as my uncle’s men. Or who used to be my uncle’s men.
A commotion outside drew their attention as I sat, shaking in my seat. On the few occasions I had when I was younger, I’d never liked flying, but this nightmare put that fear in a different stratosphere.
“Go,” Bruno ordered the men as the engine of the plane hummed to life. He stood tensely near the cockpit just as the sound of gunfire erupted directly outside the plane.
Hope swelled in my chest.
“Don’t you fucking move,” Bruno growled, his gun at his side.
The next few minutes felt like an eternity. Bruno grew more tense when it was obvious his men wouldn’t be returning.
He said something to the pilot that I couldn’t hear; whatever he was told made him cry out in fury. When his murderous expression landed on me, I recoiled. “The plane has been compromised. I will not let you leave alive, Francesca,” he hissed, pointing his gun toward me.
I closed my eyes, an image of Maddox in my mind as I prepared to die.
The sound of gunfire boomed through the air, but it wasn’t from Bruno’s gun. I opened my eyes to find Maddox standing in the doorway like an avenging angel, his expression fierce as he aimed his weapon at Bruno.
Bruno had fallen to his knees, a gaping wound in his neck sprouting blood. He weakly lifted his gun, aiming it at Maddox, but Maddox got another shot off, hitting him square in the chest.
He crossed the cabin and kicked Bruno to his back, leaning over him menacingly. “I want to put more bullets in you but I want you to die a slow, painful death more.” His voice was low and laced with fury. “I want to watch as the life fades out of you, knowing you will never touch my woman again. You lost, motherfucker. Enjoy hell.”
I’d never seen this side of Maddox, but instead of feeling afraid, I’d never felt safer in my life as I watched my man claim his vengeance and mine.
