Page 140 of Avenging Azalea

I’d found myself. I’d bled, and broken, and rebuilt myself one second, one minute, and one day at a time. I would never be his or anyone else’s victim ever again.

Neil’s hand cracked across my face hard. My head slammed against the tile. Dazed, blood pooling in my mouth, I stared at him. Unblinking, despite the pain.

If looks could kill, his body would already be cold.

The bathroom door creaked, and another man stepped inside. I didn’t recognize him, but the gang tattoos inked along his throat and jaw made my skin crawl. I’d seen those markings on the news, linked to shootouts or body dumps. Usually, the killing was contained to rival gang members, but there had been many innocent victims who had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Hey!” The new guy snapped. “Stop touching the merchandise. Grave will be back any minute, and he doesn’t want her all bruised and bloody.”

Neil snorted. “And here I figured Grave as being the type of man who liked his women a little bloody.”

“He won’t care when he fucks her. But he still needs to sell her, and she won’t be worth shit if her face is all messed up,” the new guy said. Cold dread raced down my spine. They didn’t just plan on using me. Now they were going to sell me. I’d escaped being trafficked once, but like it was deemed my fate, here I was again.

Neil hesitated, staring down at me like he still expected me to cower. But I didn’t flinch.

Let him stare. Let him burn in hell because they would have to kill me. I would never be a willing participant in my own suffering again.

“Fine,” Neil muttered, standing. He left with the other man, slamming the door behind them.

I let out a breath that had felt lodged in my lungs, unmoving. My body trembled, not from defeat, but fury. Raw, primal rage fueled me.

I closed my eyes for one moment. One heartbeat. Just long enough to shove the fear back down and let strategy rise in its place.

I had to get out. Titus would come. But would he get here in time? There was no way to know. But if he didn’t…I’d die before I let them take one more piece of me.

My gaze locked on a small window near the toilet as I scanned the room for a way out. It would be a tight fit, and I wasn’t sure I could climb out that way. A long shot…yes. But it was something.

No more waiting. I started working on the bindings around my ankles, fingers aching, but determined.

Please find me, Titus.

Please.

Chapter

Forty-Six

TITUS

The SUV roared down the cracked highway, the engine growling like a beast as hungry for blood as I was.

I gripped the wheel so tightly that my knuckles ached and my leather gloves creaked. The dashboard glowed a sickly green in the dark cab, but it couldn’t hide the storm building in my eyes.

I glanced at Nathaniel as he loaded another clip with calm efficiency, a deathly quiet hovering around us.

“Breathe, brother,” Nathaniel said low. “We’re almost there.”

“I am breathing,” I growled. “Every second she’s in that place…I feel like a fucking blade is sticking in my chest.”

In the rearview mirror, headlights stretched behind us, five black SUVs filled with men loyal enough to kill without blinking followed in our wake. But it was Bella, Daisy, Hailey, and Holly that stood at attention in the back of our vehicle. Their faces as serious as mine, sensing the urgency of our mission.

We were heading to a rundown motel just outside the city. A place where more than one person had disappeared for good. It was the kind of place that reeked of rot and desperation. A place where no one would care about the gunfire or hear the screams as I ripped the place apart to get to Fawn.

My stomach turned as we rounded a bend in the road. Each second Fawn was in danger shaved another year off my life.

I slammed the heel of my palm against the steering wheel.

“If any of them touch her…if they lay a single finger…they will wish for mercy that I’ll never give them.” My voice cracked into a growl that was more animal than man. “I swear to God, I’ll make them choke on their teeth before I tear their fucking souls out.”