Page 115 of Direct Action

I needed the fury. I needed to feed it until it swelled in my gut, blanking my mind from everything but my need to maim, murder, and shed blood.

Rage that would turn savage.

Wrath that would surpass my humanity, leaving me cold down to the bone.

I need the devil to prevail, and once he takes hold, he’ll be at my command to unleash and there will be a reckoning.

A bloody one.

The time was nigh.

I don’t know how I knew, but I felt it.

There was no countdown timer on the wall.

I had not been counting down my last seconds before I was sold.

But I knew.

I felt it.

A shift in my soul, preparing for what was next.

I didn’t look at the six men staring at me from behind the windows.

I wouldn’t give them my fear. That was the last bit of control I had. My body was no longer my own. It would soon belong to one of them.

Actually, no. Hell to the motherfucking no.

I should’ve listened to Ryan.

He knew all the ways this could go wrong. Selfishly, I’d asked him to give me something that went against the man I knew him to be. And now because of my stupidity, he would feel guilt and anguish. Because of me, my mother would mourn her daughter while she was in the process of mourning her husband. The only silver lining was, my father wouldn’t know I was gone. He wouldn’t be ravaged with pain at losing me.

But my mom would feel it.

Ryan would.

The rest of the guys would.

I love you that much, Chloe.

I should’ve loved Ryan that much and given him what he’d asked—me home safe, working at the Plank.

But Poppy. I couldn’t leave her.

A loud sound pulled me from my thoughts. I lifted my eyes and wondered if I’d slipped into some sort of catatonia where Ryan was with me and I wasn’t in a room waiting to be sold.

A loud bang rent the air, and I watched one of the men fall back.

Then I felt it, the moment Ryan’s eyes found me. A mighty roar pounded into me. More loud bangs. I could not move, but I could close my eyes and block out the violence playing out in front of me. Yet I watched every savage punch, kick, slice of the blade Ryan was now wielding.

I watched.

Not in horror.

In peace.

Suddenly the door to my room banged open.