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“Um…I can walk,” I said, trying to sidestep him.
He laughed again, but he didn’t take his hand off my waist. Holding me against his side as he tapped the bar and ordered me another drink. My heart hammered, not in the breathless way it did when Duran touched me, but in a way that made me feel slightly sick.
“Here,” he said. “Drink.”
I accepted the glass and took a deep drink, trying to decide if I should just risk it and be rude enough to make him leave. He was staring down at me like a hungry wolf, his gaze eating me alive. I glanced over my shoulder to where Duran had stood a moment before, but he was out of sight.
Fuck, this had escalated fast.
“Hey, thanks for the drink,” I said carefully. “But I need to get back to my date.”
His brow rose. “You said you belonged to no one.”
“I don’t,” I said quickly.
“So you have no date.”
His broad hand slid down my arm and his took my hand, leading me across the deck to the stairs. I balked, but he didn’t seem to care. He just kept walking, guiding me down the steps until we entered a low lit lounge on the first floor. Luckily, there were other people surrounding us so it didn’t feel as intimidating as I’d expected.
He pulled me onto a couch in the corner, keeping his arm locked on my waist.
“You’re beautiful, you look expensive,” he remarked. “What’s your thing?”
Confused, I took a moment to gather myself. “My thing?”
“Are you expensive?” he pressed. “What do you do?”
“I…I don’t know what you mean,” I said, taking another drink. It was halfway gone already and I was starting to regret having so much so fast.
A wave of heat passed over me and the room spun. Abruptly, I pulled to my feet and scanned the dim room for the stairs. There they were, at the far end. I felt my glass slip from my fingers and saw it spill out over the couch, but I didn’t care. I needed fresh air, I needed to get out of this man’s arms.
I stumbled and I thought I heard him laugh. A wave of scorching heat moved through me again, followed by a surge of chills. How much alcohol had the bartender put in my drink? It was hitting me like a ton of bricks.
My whole body swayed. The man stood abruptly, catching me as my knees went out.
“There you go, baby,” he said. “Let’s get you somewhere you can lay down.”
Bile rose in my throat and I flailed one arm out, trying to push him away. He caught it, tucking it between our bodies. My brain was shutting down, so hazy I couldn’t think straight to form words.
He’d drugged me. Somehow, he’d slipped something into my drink at the bar. There was no way I was just drunk. I’d been blackout before and it had never felt like I was losing total control over my body. My knees gave way and I sagged, completely limp, over his arm. My head fell back and the ceiling pulsed overhead, darkness creeping into the corners of my vision.
How had this happened too fast? One minute I was just a few feet from Duran and suddenly I was barely conscious and being carried down a dim hallway by a man who was going to violate me.
The drug had kicked in fully, but I was still conscious. I could hear, see, and smell everything, but I couldn’t move. My entire body had disengaged from my brain.
He dragged me through another door and into a dark lounge filled with men. Someone laughed and I felt my back hit the couch. A voice barked out something, trying to get an answer from me, but all that came out was an incoherent groan. Laughter filled the room and I wondered disjointedly why that was funny.
What happened next was a nightmare, but not the kind of nightmare I’d expected.
The door was kicked open and Duran entered. He looked strange, all emotion gone from his face. His eyes looked black, even the whites, like he was burning with rage. He had a gun, which he took out and unloaded into the row of men on the couch.
Without a moment of hesitation.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
They went down neat and orderly, like dominoes falling. Duran’s face stayed the same, like it was carved from stone. Gunpowder, heat, and the scent of fresh blood filled the air. He calmly dropped the empty magazine and replaced it.
The only man left standing was the one who had drugged me. He had his hands up and he was backing away, begging in another language. Duran didn’t spare him a glance, he just walked past him and lifted the gun and emptied it into his temple. The man dropped like a stone.
