Page 107 of Direct Action

Before Poppy could reply, there was a knock on the door. Neither of us called out or made a move to answer it. Then it opened.

A man I’d never seen entered, followed by Sterling, and then finally the creep Dex.

Something wasn’t wrong. It was terrifyingly, horribly wrong.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Sterling continued to come closer, while the other two men hung back.

“This was not the ending I’d hoped for,” Sterling said when he stopped close. “You’re the first woman in years I wanted to keep for myself. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards.”

He leaned forward. I jerked back but didn’t get far before his hand went to the back of my neck and he yanked me closer.

“Get her out of here,” Sterling ordered.

“Mr. Blackwell, please—”

“I knew you’d sound pretty when you begged,” he cut in to tell me.

I heard Poppy moving next to me, her cry of pain, but I couldn’t look at what was happening because Sterling’s grip was iron.

“Let me go, asshole!” Poppy screamed.

“Don’t do this, Sterling,” I begged. “Please tell them—”

“Enough.” Dex calmly entered the fray. “Get her upstairs.”

Upstairs.

Up . . . stairs.

What happened upstairs?

Laura hadn’t explained.

I wrenched free from Sterling and turned to see the unknown man dragging a struggling Poppy toward the door, with his hand over her mouth.

Without thinking, I ran to help Poppy. The thoughtless part of that was, to get to her I had to pass Dex. He easily hooked me around the waist. When he had me tight against his chest, I felt something hard at my temple. I’d seen enough movies to know what it was.

I heard the door slam. Dex let me go with a shove.

“Undress.”

Dex’s order hit my brain, and it was then I understood. Fully understood with blinding clarity what Ryan had meant when he’d talked about all the ways this could go wrong.

I had a watch, a necklace, earrings, and a ring, all with tracking devices embedded. As did Poppy. But a tracking device wasn’t going to help me. A tracking device wasn’t going to stop what was about to happen.

“Now, Chloe. Undress,” he ordered again, this time with a thread of impatience.

I kept my eyes on the floor in front of me and begged, “Please don’t do this.”

“Do it. Now. Or I’ll have Poppy brought back in and we’ll see if watching my man break her in makes you more agreeable.”

Oh God.

My stomach revolted, and saliva filled my mouth.

I lifted my gaze, ignored Sterling standing off to the side—not close but close enough he could get to me before I made it more than a few feet. I turned to face Dex, blocking my path to the door and holding a gun. He’d shoot me before I could escape.