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“Those guys following us?” I say. “They don’t want you. They want me. Stop the car and let me out and they won’t follow you.Stop the car, Griffin!” I’m screaming at the top of my lungs but he’s ignoring me.
Lorenzo’s 4WD races out of an intersection in front of us, and Griffin swears and slams on the brakes. I shoot forward and the seatbelt digs painfully into my throat. We stop just a few inches short of slamming into the Merc.
Griffin tries to put the car into reverse, but Vinicius’ Ferrari is right behind us, and then Cassius pulls up beside Griffin’s door. The enormous Italian man jumps out of his car, his shoulders bunched and his eyes black with fury.
Griffin is scrambling around behind his seat and I see the flash of a metal barrel. A split second later I realize what it is.
“He’s got a—”
Before I can finish the sentence, Cassius has yanked the door open and grabbed Griffin by the lapels of his leather jacket. I lunge for the gun and smack it out of Griffin’s hand, and it goes skittering into the seat well.
I jump out of the car and race around to the men. “Let him go, please. This is a horrible mistake.”
Cassius ignores me and drags Griffin out of the car. Vinicius frisks Griffin for weapons and Lorenzo’s got a gun in his hand. I look desperately around for something or someone to make this insanity stop, but the street is deserted.
Cassius begins dragging Griffin down a driveway toward a warehouse. “Chiara, get in my car and lock yourself in.”
With these three acting like Griffin is the Unabomber and Griffin making weird phone calls and grabbing guns? No chance.
I follow the three men and the twisting, swearing Griffin into the empty lot of a deserted warehouse. Cassius throws Griffin to the ground and the three of them start kicking him. In the stomach. In the kidneys. In the head. Vicious kicks that have Griffin groaning in pain.
I run forward and grab Cassius’ arm. “What are you doing? You’re going to kill him. Stop it!”
Cassius pushes me off and lands a kick between Griffin’s shoulder blades, who grunts in agony.
“Stop that. All of you. He didn’t do anything!” I push my way between Cassius and Lorenzo, prepared to throw myself down on top of Griffin in an attempt to shield him with my body. If they’re going to kick him then they can kick me, too.
Cassius wraps his arms around me and hauls me out of the fray. Feet off the ground and thrashing in Cassius’ grip, I watch the other two continue with the beating. “You pricks! Leave him alone. I was just in the car with him. Why do you care when you don’t even know who he is?”
“We know exactly who he is,” Cassius growls in my ear, “and what he planned to do to you.”
“It’s just my virginity,” I scream. “Who cares? It’s mine to do what the hell I want with. This was my idea!”
The other two stop kicking Griffin. The boy alternates between gasping for breath and coughing his lungs out, blood dripping from a split lip and gashed eyebrow.
Boy. Griffin is aboy. The other three are grown men. I knew they could be despicable, but this is on a whole other level.
Cassius loosens his arms and lets me slide down his chest until my feet touch the ground, but he doesn’t let me go. Griffin rolls onto his side and tries to push himself up. Lorenzo puts his foot on Griffin’s neck and shoves him back down.
Keeping Griffin prisoner with his boot, Lorenzo takes his phone out of his jeans and makes a call. “Hey fuckface, we found someone about to get his greasy hands all over your girl. Want to have some fun?”
I guess Salvatore isfuckfacenow. I feel sick at the thought of “fun” these men could have with someone they’ve already beaten half to death.
Lorenzo holds the phone away from his ear and winces. “Quit shouting at me. Get off at exit twenty-three. We’re at the old tinned food factory over on Pond—” He glances at the screen and grins. “He hung up. I think he’s on his way.”
He leans down closer to Griffin, an insane glint in his eye, and points at me. “That girl’s fiancé is on his way. Any last words before we pull all your teeth out with rusty pliers and shove them up your ass?”
Griffin tries to speak but Lorenzo grinds his boot into Griffin’s throat, making him wheeze.
“Stop that! He can’t breathe.”
Lorenzo glares at me like he’s thinking about choking the life out of me next. “Bring her here. I want to talk to our princess.”
Theirprincess. I’m not theirs.
Cassius forces me closer to Lorenzo. I try to fight but Cassius holds me against his chest as easily as a child holds a doll.
Lorenzo dips his face close to mine and snarls, “If you were looking to get gang-raped by a bunch of criminals, you should have called us.”
