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Before I can step in his direction, Cruz twists my wrist and yanks me around him until my back is plastered to his front as he brings his other hand up with his hand gripped around a knife handle that looks oh so familiar.
The last time I saw that blade, it was making me bleed and cutting into my flesh. I hardly feel the blade rest against my throat, the sharp, smooth edge digging into my skin right under my chin. But I could care less. If this was the moment I was to die, I’d be happy.
They're here. They came for me.
“Hi, mama. Don’t cry, my queen,” Dom says this in a husky voice full of emotion as he stares at me with deep brown eyes.
“You’ll die for touching her,” Nicky growls, his posture straight and his voice deadly serious.
“Take a deep breath, Tillie. It will be over soon, promise.” Dalton steps forward, his hand reaching for me, but stops midair as Cruz presses the knife harder onto my neck, making me hiss in pain at the sudden burn.
I can’t help the gut-wrecking sob that crawls up my throat and leaves my parted lips. I can’t see Tey, but I know he’s somewhere in the shadows, just waiting to pounce. I can practically feel his searing gaze on my body.
“You're here,” I choke out, my whole chest shaking in relief.
“Always,” Logan speaks up, his eyes watering as he stares deep into my eyes and doesn’t look away even as Cruz starts yelling.
“She’s not yours. Mine. All mine! I’ll kill you all and make her watch; she’ll know for the rest of her life that your deaths are in her hands,” Cruz’s voice comes out menacing and crazy, almost hysterical.
My heart beats rapidly; fear coursing through my veins, but not for myself. I’ve accepted death long ago, so I’m not afraid of it. But I do fear seeing the people I love no longer walking this earth next to me. Everyone leaves me behind as they go beyond somewhere that I can't follow, and that scares me.
I won’t be letting that happen tonight.
The guys' bodies are ridged, posed to attack, but they won’t. Not when a knife is digging into my skin, and it takes just one sweep of the sharp blade to end my life.
I am strong. I’m not the victim anymore. He doesn’t own me.
I kept repeating that silently to myself, my gaze hardening in determination. No more.
“You’ll never have me, Cruz, and I think it’s time you acknowledge that through your thick skull.” I grind my teeth through the pain as I shift my upper body forward, the knife digging harder into my skin so that it will probably leave a scar later.
I grunt as I swing my head back fast, the back of my skull smacking into Cruz’s nose. He curses loudly, and his grip loosens on my waist so that I can shift my hips to the side to jab my elbow into his gut.
The air escapes through his mouth with a groan of pain. At the distraction, I stomp my left foot over his as hard as Ican and then hook my ankle over the back of his while shoving my body backwards to tip us both off balance. His knife slides across my throat, the blade just barely kissing my skin and causing it to lightly seep blood from a thin cut. I spin on my heels, breathing hard, and stop lifting my fists in front of me in a pose to attack him with everything inside of me, but I don’t have to worry now.
Tey.
“Well, that was fucking hot. I almost want you to repeat that so I can record it for the spank bank and save it for a rainy day.” Tey winks at me from over Cruz’s shoulder, his biceps straining as he wraps his arms around Cruz in a bear hug.
“Tey,” I breathe out and almost collapse, but Logan is suddenly there, catching me as Dalton strides past us with Dom to help Tey.
I bury my face into Logan’s chest as he holds me tight to his body, rocking us back and forth as I breathe in his scent of honey and cloves.
“I got you. He can’t hurt you again,” Logan whispers in my ear and swipes my hair away from my face as I pull away to look up at him.
Nicky is standing by our side, his gaze roaming over my face with a worried expression until his emerald eyes meet mine.
I’m about to explain everything—the guilty feeling curling in my gut about what I did with Nix—but he stops me before I can even open my mouth.
“Don’t. I can see it in your eyes. You did whatever you had to do to survive. I’m proud of you; we all are.” Nicky’s tone is hushed with a hint of pain as he holds his ribs with his arm across his ribcage and strokes the side of my face lovingly with his one, calloused hand.
“You guys saw, didn’t you?” I rasp out, blinking my eyelids rapidly to hold the tears back.
“Yes,” Logan says, still petting my head and staring down his chest at me curling into him. “We understand, Tillie. It was something you had no control over, but that ends now. This is your decision. What do you want done with him?” He asks, jerking his chin at the grunts and thuds of flesh meeting flesh behind me.
I slowly turn around in his arms and lean against his chest for support as I watch Tey, Dom, and Dalton kick their boots repeatedly into Cruz’s curled-up, battered body on the floor. One of them stuffed his mouth with a rag, probably Dalton, since he’s always working on his bike and needs something to wipe off the motor grease on his palms.
Cruz's muffled insults and screams of rage are a relief to not be able to hear. Only his angry eyes burn holes into my skull as I look away with a shudder. My eyes glance around the boat, stopping at the object hanging above our heads near the railing.
