My head jerked to the side as fire lit up my cheek. I raised my hand to my face. It came away bloody. I looked at the woman. She gave me a finger wave. "I hope you're ready for the long haul, hellcat." She sneered the last word. She had rings on each finger. Each ring held a single colorless stone in the middle of a prong setting. I blinked. There was only one person who ever called me hellcat. Foster. This bitch thought Foster was hers? Cunt, please. Just on principle's sake, I wasn't going to let her have him. Had she asked nicely, I might have been willing to share. Maybe. Kinda. Okay, fine. I probably would have killed her for asking. But still. All this over a man? It wasn't like his penis was imbued with magical...wait...it kinda was. Dang it. Another slap, more fire arced across my cheekbone. Only on the other side this time. "Stop ignoring me, suka!" she screamed in my face. "Damn, girl. Chill out. It's just dick." I tipped my head towards the huge table

"NET!" one of the brothers shouted. Restrained with only an inch between our faces, I sighed a breath around the agony in my lungs as she was hauled off. Two guards frog-marched her to the far side of the room. They never once let go of her arms. Gathering my strength, I turned to look at the brothers Kuznetsov. "Is it time for the raping to start yet?" I smiled at them. Felt the blood well and ooze over my mangled lips. My belly quivered and twitched as the blade caressed my guts. Sweet fuck, who knew getting stabbed was so freaking awful?"Da." The oldest brother rose from his seat. He walked to the end of the table, slapped one of the guys on the shoulder. "He will go first. But we must get setup."With that, he swung a hand in a weird twirling motion. From behind the table, a small group of men came running. Cameras, lighting equipment, and something I was pretty sure was a boom mike were carried in. They scurried around like rats through the garbage. Little did they know

With everything going on around me, I was about to push to my feet and stumble after the man who'd run off with Talia. Smashing against walls, I tripped and slid down the halls in their wake. "Wait," I called out. I was pretty sure the knife had either nicked a lung or fractured a rib, because breathing was becoming more and more strenuous. Someone stepped out of a connecting hall. A gun in his hand. I sucked in a breath. "DOWN!" I screamed as loud as I could. The guy holding Talia dropped to his knees immediately. With the last of my strength, I gathered myself and launched myself between the shooter and Talia. I felt the bullet graze my temple as I fell against her rescuer. "You've got to get her out of here," I said as I felt him move under me. "I will." He pushed me off him. Turned and used my body as a tripod to steady his shot. Within moments, gunshots filled the space. "He's down. If you can get up, you can go with me," the man said. I nodded. He pu

I blinked, couldn't see past my lashes. Groaning, I lifted my hand. Or tried to. Something was stabbing the back of my hand. Trying my left hand, I let out a soft sigh at getting it to move the way I wanted it to. I rubbed my eyes. Blinked some more. Finally. Low light brightened the space, but it wasn't familiar. I looked all around, tried to find something in the weirdness that was recognizable. There. In the far corner was a man I knew. "Ark," I said. My voice was so quiet, I wasn't sure it even made it out of my mouth. But he heard it. He jolted awake, grabbed his belly with a groan. "You're awake."I nodded. Probably more of a chin wiggle than anything else, but it worked. "Yeah." He bolted up from his chair, his arm cradled his belly. "Let me get the doctor. Hang on." He tapped the end of my bed as he raced by. Ripping the door open, he stuck his head out. "SHE'S AWAKE!"He pulled his head back in and made his way back to my side. "You've just come out of su

I sat on the hospital bed. Mentally whining at the knowledge that I'd given up a premium king size bed for a lumpy twin size. What the hell had I been thinking? Kill Barrikad. That's what I'd been thinking. That man was going to die by my hand. We just had to wait for him to show up. That fucker better show up. "Lay down, T. I need to get some blood from you, and you're practically vibrating," Jessa said again as she brought in the tray for the specimen collection. "How did you get privileges here?" I asked as I pulled my feet up and stretched out on the bed. She laughed. "Are you kidding me? This is an overworked urban hospital. They practically shoved me into a room for you. You came into a hospital with your own doctor. Why wouldn't they say yes?""Um, because laws and stuff." I pressed the button to bring the head of the bed up just a little. I hated lying flat when I was awake. Unless I was getting my world rocked. That was the single exception that I could think