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When I hear her muffled cry, repeated over and over, it’s all I can do not to burst in, grab him by the scruff of his neck, and shove his face into the carpet while I grind my boot into it. I can picture, vividly, every horrible thing I’d do to him, every way I’d take out the awful rage I feel—not just out of jealousy, but out of the way it makes me feel to know that he’s getting off on knowing that Asha doesn’t really want to be doing this, and he’s making her do it anyway. Those aren’t cries of pleasure. But that means nothing unless she—
A signal cuts through my thoughts, a sharp, buzzing ring coming from my phone to the earpiece carefully hidden under the fall of my hair, pushed purposefully to one side to hide it.
Asha’s bracelet.
I act on instinct. I’m headed for the double doors before I’m even fully aware that I’m moving, my hand going for my gun, every part of me focused wholly on getting to her. It’s all that matters, all I’m thinking about. I have to get to her.
It’s hard to fully register what I’m seeing when I burst into the room. Asha is hanging from a contraption like the one I was cuffed to at the Ashen Rose a few nights ago, her head lolling forward, her hair hanging in her face, sticking to her cheeks and neck damply. With sweat or blood, I can’t be entirely sure, because the rest of herisbloody. Her skin is marked all over with welts and newly-forming bruises, blood dripping from a dozen small wounds, and I’m not entirely sure that she’s conscious.
“Get her down from there.” I snarl at Matvei, who turns away from Asha, a thin, curved knife in his hand, his lips curling in a brutal smile. “She’s coming with me.”
“Well,Ihaven’t come yet, so I think not.” Matvei’s tongue slides over his lower lip, and I see a spot of blood on his face.Herblood, I think, and I see an entirely different kind of red. His hands are covered in it too, and when he reaches down to slide his fist tauntingly over his cock, leaving it streaked with Asha’s blood too, I lose control.
I’ve done plenty in my time as Theo’s enforcer. I’ve dealt with enemies and ambushes, tortured men for information, and killed to protect him, myself—the organization itself. I’ve always kept my calm. But here—
All I can see is Asha hanging there and the man responsible for what’s been done to her. My vision narrows down to nothing but the two of them, the blood rushing in my ears, my heartbeat pounding until it’s all I can hear, my teeth clenched so hard it feels as if they might crack. I want him dead. I want him to die slowly, and at the same time, I want to put a bullet through his head before he sees it coming, for the satisfaction of seeing the moment of shock before he hits the floor. I’ve never felt so violent in my life, so hungry for someone else’s blood.
It almost feels as if I black out for a moment. I forget that I can’t actually kill him, that it would have bigger repercussions than I’m authorized to deal with if I did, that Nikolai and Theo haven’t said they want him dead yet. I almost point the gun and pull the trigger. I’m so fucking close.
Instead, I cross the room to him in two quick strides and smash the gun across his face. I’ve never committed any violence as satisfying as the feeling of the crack of bone under my hand, the feeling of his flesh giving way under the cold metal, and that momentary shock in his eyes that I’d wanted, that moment of realizing that he’s nothing more than another arrogant nobody who thinks he can take over a table meant for kings.
Matvei staggers back, shouting for his guards, his own blood spilling from his nose and mouth now. I advance on him, quicker than he is, more equipped to fight, because I can tell already that this is a man who has relied on other men to protect him for all of his life.
“You’renothingcompared to the men you want to be like,” I hiss, striking him across the face with my gun again. As he staggers, I kick at his legs, sweeping them out from under him and taking him down to the floor. He grabs for my ankle, and I stomp on his wrist, hearing the bones crunch under my foot as Matvei shrieks. His right wrist, just in case he got any ideas about going for a gun of his own. “You’re a cheap imitation. You’re only being left alive because the manIwork for needs to know what it is you’ve been up to. But this is the last night you’ll get your hands on Asha. And when we’ve gotten what we need, I’ll be the first in line to carve your dick into ribbons and make sure you never use it again—if you live long enough after that to even have the opportunity.”
I want to do worse to him. I want to hurt him, slowly. But I have to get Asha out before Matvei’s own security comes—I’m not sure she’s conscious enough to walk.
When I go to her, keeping my gun close at hand as I reach up to unbuckle her cuffs, she lets out a low moan. She falls forward into my arms as I free her, not quite the weight of someone unconscious, but close—I realize that she’s been gagged. There’s a hard ball shoved into her mouth, her lips split and puffy around it, buckled around the back of her head. I yank it free, faster than I’d like to, and throw it aside, wincing at the slime of blood and saliva on my fingers. I’ve had worse on my hands, but for it to be hers—
The feeling of her sagging in my arms, all of her weight crumpled against my chest, breaks something inside of me. Asha is the strongest woman I’ve ever met, fiercely independent and full of more fire than anyone I’ve ever known, and seeing her like this—
I want to gather her up in my arms and hold her close, and at the same time, destroy anyone responsible for reducing her to this, unable to take care of herself. I want to protect her, and also make certain that no one ever makes it so that I need to, ever again.
“Can you walk?” I ask her in a low, hurried voice, and she lets out another mumbled response that I can’t quite make out, the words slurred between her wounded lips. “Alright. Lean on me; we have to go. Quickly.” We don’t have much time to get out of the house, and as much as I don’t want to cause her more pain by half-dragging her out of here, I can’t take on all of Matvei’s security alone. It’s only his arrogance that ensured I didn’t need to just to get into the room.
I can hear the sounds of Matvei’s security before we get to the end of the hall. They’re coming from the other end of the house, and I pick up the pace as much as I can, keeping Asha close to my side with her arm over my shoulder as we hobble towards the front door. It’s slower going than I would have liked, and I keep my finger as close to the trigger of my gun as I dare, pulse quick and hard in my throat. If we can get outside, my motorcycle isn’t far. We’ll get—
There’s a sudden, sharp crack as a bullet barely misses my ear, embedding itself in the wood of the front door, splinters spraying away from it as I flinch to one side, my arms tightening around Asha. I hear footsteps getting closer, shouts, and I twist around, firing blindly in the direction it came from as I move faster, almost dragging Asha now. “I’m sorry—” I murmur, hoping she’s lucid enough to hear me as I fire again, ducking as another bullet comes flying. “We have to get out of here,now!”
I feel her trying to get her feet under her, trying to move faster. A bullet nearly hits my hand as I wrench the door open, and I hear the sharp, cracking sound of a gun firing quickly as we duck out onto the front steps. I feel a burning pain as one grazes my leg, and I stumble, nearly falling with Asha’s weight leaning into me as I keep going, the distance between us and where I parked my bike closing with every passing second.
She nearly falls when I stop moving, and I know in that instant that there’s no way in hell she’s going to be able to hold onto me on the bike—and if anything happens…
I feel her shiver, trembling against me even more so than before from cold as well as pain, and I realize as the world comes back into focus around me that she’s still naked. It almost feels like a shock, her cool skin brushing against my hands as I try to think frantically of a solution. There was no time to grab her clothes, and even if I drape my jacket over her, if the bike goes down—it’ll tear her apart.
I can’t call for a ride—we don’t have time, and there would be too many questions. All of it races through my head as I look around for another option, and see a black SUV parked on the other side of the house.
Fuck.I grab Asha, swinging her into my arms and wincing at her moan of pain as I start to run towards the SUV. The shouts are closer, and I hear another gunshot as I round the corner, grabbing desperately at the handle of the car.
It’s unlocked. I snatch the door open, getting Asha inside as quickly as I can—just in time to see someone in the driver’s seat twist around.
“What the fu—”
I pull the trigger without thinking. He doesn’t even have time to finish the sentence before I put a bullet through his skull. He slumps forward as I drag my jacket off and lay it over Asha, who is curled in the backseat on her side now, soft whimpers of pain coming from her lips.
Three men are coming around the corner, and I get one more shot off, dropping one of them in his tracks as I shut the door, yanking open the driver’s side and throwing the body out onto the ground. The keys are in the ignition, and I start the car, slamming my foot onto the gas and heading straight for the two men aiming at the windshield.
“Hang on, Asha!” I call out to her over the noise, gritting my teeth as the SUV slams into the two men, jolting as I accelerate forward over them. There’s more spilling out of the house now, onto the light-flooded driveway, and I hear the sound of gunshots as I floor it, careening out onto the street as Asha cries out in the back. “Fuck! I’m sorry, just hold on—”
