AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then he backhands me again, keeping me in place with that grip on my hair, and spits a wet gob of bloody saliva on my face before shoving me at his men.
“Lock this bitch’s wrists behind her back,” he snaps at them as the disgusting fluid drips down my cheek, pooling in the corner of my mouth.
I press my lips tightly together and duck my head toward my shoulder, trying to wipe it off.
Austin’s fingers dig into my chin hard enough to bruise, forcing my head back up before I can. “Leave it or I’ll slice up that precious pussy of yours before we get to the drop.”
I obey him because I have to, and someone yanks my arms back and snaps a cold pair of handcuffs onto my wrists. I blank my mind and stuff down my emotions as they lead me out of the house and load me into a car.
Pain doesn’t matter.
Nothing Austin does to me matters.
And I can’t let myself think of what he’ll do to Maddoc after the exchange, or I’ll break.
The drop point is in the warehouse district, and the West Point driver pulls up behind an abandoned-looking building not far from the one we burned to the fucking ground when we got Chloe back the first time.
The whole area is deserted, which makes it easy to see when an unfamiliar SUV finally approaches.
For a second, my heart plummets. It’s not the Reapers’ Escalade, and my first thought is that Austin has reinforcements coming to ambush my men. But then Maddoc, Logan, and Dante all pile out of the SUV, and the tight rein I’m keeping my emotions under loosens enough for my heart to give a single, painful thump.
“Ready to earn your keep, wifey?” Austin asks with a cruel smile, dragging me out of the West Point car. “Let’s go cut off the head of the Reapers.”
My fear rises up so hard and fast that I gasp, stumbling in Austin’s brutal grip. He doesn’t stop walking, and I manage to get my feet under me before he has to drag me.
Then I look up and meet Maddoc’s eyes across the deserted parking lot.
His jaw clenches tight, and even at a distance, there’s so much packed into his gaze that it threatens to overwhelm me. When I lock eyes with Logan, then Dante, and find the same intensity with both, it almost brings me to my knees.
They came for me, and I can’t lose them. Not any of them.
I don’t want Maddoc killed. I can’t be a part of that. And whether it’s here and now or after Austin drives away with him, thatwillbe Austin’s end goal.
The Reapers have arrayed themselves in front of their SUV, but McKenna leads his people a little closer like the cocky fuck he is.
“Stop,” he barks out at his men, leaving about thirty feet of empty space between the two groups. Too far, but also too close when I know what my men are risking.
“Send her over,” Maddoc demands in a gravelly voice. From here, I can see the way that familiar muscle tic flares in his jaw, a telltale sign that his outward calm is only a facade over much deeper emotions.
He’s got his eyes locked onto Austin now, but both Logan and Dante stare at me with unwavering gazes, one filled with icy determination and the other with vibrant green fire.
Austin smirks at all three of them and yanks me closer, dragging his finger through the disgusting traces of himself he left on my face. “You never did tell me why you wanted my little wifey here so badly.”
“You proposed this trade, McKenna,” Maddoc says grimly. “Are you going to honor it, or not?”
I think he is. I think he is, and it makes me want to cry. But he’s not going to hand me over until he manages to wring every ounce of sadistic satisfaction over having the Reapers jump to do his bidding, I can tell.
They trade a few more verbal barbs before Austin finally agrees to start the exchange. Then, just to fuck with Maddoc a little more and prove that he’s the one winning here, he yanks me back as soon as Maddoc starts to walk forward.
Maddoc freezes, and Austin sends him a smug smile. “Oh, I almost forgot…”
He holds his hand out, and one of his men gives him something. Austin holds it up.
The key to my handcuffs.
Of course he doesn’t unlock them, though. All he wants is another chance to show off his power, and he does it by groping me in front of my men, making a show out of feeling up my breasts before pushing them together to form cleavage.
I keep my eyes on Maddoc’s while Austin shoves the key into my bra, scraping the rough teeth against my skin and digging it into the bruising that’s already starting to form there. Then, finally, he shoves me forward.
