Shattered King(55)

I had it the whole time? I thought I might actually break at that point.  I could have used it while he was out cold. Before I could finish that  thought, my phone blew up with alerts, missed calls, and messages. I  twisted to look a Pierce. He was smiling at the screen, obviously  pleased he had everyone worried about me.         

     



 

He pushed a couple buttons then held it to his ear. I heard Hunter answer. His voice sounded muffled.

"Shut the fuck up," Pierce said. "This is how it's going to work. You  have one hour to get me five-hundred thousand dollars. Once you have it,  text this number and I'll tell you where we'll do the exchange. You  come alone. Any sign of your brother or anyone else, I'll blow Lucinda's  brains out. Understand?"

There was silence, then I heard Hunter's deep response-no I didn't hear  it, I felt it. That deep, furious rumble reached me through the phone.

Pierce disconnected, but all I could think about was what he'd said to  Hunter, the word exchange ringing through my mind. For the first time  since I'd woken in this room, I felt a tiny shred of hope. "You're going  to let me go?"

He dropped his weight back down on me and chuckled. "No. You don't need  to worry about that. I'll never let you go. When King brings the money,  I'll kill him and we can head to Mexico."

No. Oh God. I opened my mouth to protest, but he pressed his lips  against mine, tongue spiking out, forcing its way past my lips. I kept  my mouth clamped shut and turned away.

He stilled, lifted his head. "What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy."

He sounded confused, but he also sounded angry. The man was full-on  insane. The knot in my stomach got bigger, so big it felt like it was  restricting my lungs, making it impossible to breathe. "I-I am happy," I  forced out. "I'm just scared, I guess. That something will happen, and  we'll be separated again."

"I won't let that happen," he said darkly.

His hand moved down, cupping my breast through my shirt. He squeezed hard and I whimpered.

"You want me, don't you, Lulu?"

I couldn't make myself say it. I couldn't get the words past my throat.

His breathing got heavier, rougher. "Answer me," he growled. "Fucking say it."

"I-I . . ." My skin was crawling, and everything in me was screaming to  fight, to push him off me. I tried to tell myself to lay there and take  it, that I'd survived this before and I could do it again-that Hunter  would be waiting on the other side, that Pierce wouldn't get a chance to  hurt him at the drop off point. But I didn't know that for sure. How  could I know that for sure?

I had no idea what I was going to do, until it happened. He grabbed my  wrists and I knew he was going to shove them above my head again. No! My  mind screamed. I reacted instantly, slamming my head forward blindly.  My forehead connected with what I thought was his nose. He released me  suddenly, jerking back, howling in pain. I rolled, landing on the floor  hard. I couldn't see anything, but I shot to my feet and half shuffled,  half ran with my hands out in front of me, stumbling and tripping over  whatever was on the floor. I collided with a wall after taking only a  half a dozen steps and used my tied, numb hands to feel for a door or  window.

A sound came from behind me. He was moving, cursing loudly. I tried to  move faster, hands groping frantically for something, anything.

A light came on suddenly, washing the room in a muted glow. I spun  around. Pierce stood in front of the door on the other side of the room.  The only door I could see. He was holding one of those lanterns people  used when they were camping. Blood dripped from his nose, over his lips  and onto his grubby shirt. He did not look happy.

"Why are you running from me?"

"I wasn't . . . I . . ."

"Why were you running from me, Lulu?" he yelled.

"I was scared, I-I'm sorry," I whispered. "I . . . I just . . . I. . . ."

He stared at me, eyes black in the dim light, head tilted to the side. I  could see the wound on the side of his face, the one I'd made when I  shoved a pen through his cheek. It looked angry and infected. He shook  his head. "You're lying."

My stomach dropped, goose bumps breaking out across my skin. "I'm not . . . I . . ."

"You fucking whore," he rasped, then he put the lantern on the ground  and came at me. I had nowhere to go. The room was small and the only way  to the door was through him.

Pierce roared as I tried to scramble away, catching me easily. His arms  went around my waist, lifting me off the floor and dumping me on the  dirty mattress. "You want to play these games, I'll play these fucking  games." He shoved my hands over my head and grabbed for the rope already  dangling from the old tube-steel headboard.

I arched my back, struggled, tried to yank my hands away. "Don't . . . please, don't . . ."         

     



 

It was like he didn't hear me. His eyes were crazed as he secured my  hands and climbed onto the bed, straddling me. Blood from his nose  dripped down, its warmth hitting the fabric of my top, soaking through  to my skin and leaving dark spots. He gripped it in his fists and tore  it down the front.

"After everything I've been through for you, everything I've done?  Everything I've lost!" he roared in my face. "I'll fucking show you,  show you what you've been missing. You need a man who knows what he's  doing. You need a man who knows how to take what he wants. You need me  to guide you like I used to, isn't that right, Lucinda?"

He pulled a switchblade from his pocket and flicked it open. I stilled,  going completely motionless as he slid the flat side of it down between  my breasts, then under the lace of my bra.

"No," I cried out the word, but it came out unrecognizable.

He didn't seem to hear me and with a flick of his wrist, sliced through, freeing my breasts to his wild stare.

I sucked in a sharp painful breath. "God, no, please . . ."

He bent his head and put his mouth on me.

A sob burst past my lips. I was helpless, and so fucking angry, angry  that this was happening to me again, that I was powerless to do anything  to stop it. The voice in my head screamed, and I opened my mouth, the  same anguished sound tearing from my throat. I let it go, with  everything that I had. So loud that it took the noise of shattering  glass a moment later to penetrate.

Pierce stilled on top of me, and I opened my eyes. His head twisted to  the boarded window a second before it was kicked in. It had been covered  by scrap, odd pieces of wood and cardboard, all different sizes and  shapes, and it collapsed completely.

Hunter jumped through a second later, gun in hand, aimed at Pierce. I  noted absently that the sun was coming up. I'd been here all night.  Pierce was still on top of me, hadn't moved at all, except to press  something hard against my temple. Every muscle in Hunter's body went  rigid, the veins along his bare forearms bulging.

"Drop the gun or I blow her brains all over the wall," Pierce said in an eerily calm voice.

Hunter didn't look at me, kept his entire focus was on Pierce. "If you pull that trigger, I'll kill you."

Pierce chuckled like the lunatic he was. "Put the gun down and kick it toward me."

Hunter's face was expressionless, but I saw how the muscle in his cheek  jumped, his only outward sign of emotion. He slowly pointed the end of  the gun down, then lowered it to the floor and slid it toward us with  his boot. "You hurt her, you won't get out of here alive. That's a  promise."

Hunter's voice was quiet, terrifyingly so. It wasn't a threat; it was a fact. But Pierce was too far gone to realize it.

"You're just in time to watch, King." His hand moved down my belly and  he tugged at the button of my jeans. "You like to watch, don't you?" The  mocking laughter in his unhinged voice died, turned cold, terrifying.  "Don't you?"

"Take your hands off her. Last warning," Hunter growled.

Pierce's answer was to slide down my zipper and shove his hand down the front of my underwear.

I whimpered and Hunter's eyes shifted to mine, and God, the expression  on his face slayed me. "Look at me, baby," he rasped. "Keep your eyes on  me."

I did. I locked eyes with Hunter and didn't look away, desperately  trying to keep that contact, even as my eyes grew blurry, even as hot  tears slid down my temples and into my hair. I didn't know what would  happen next, but he was the only thing stopping me from shattering  apart, breaking into a million tiny pieces. Pierce roared, screamed at  me to look at him and not Hunter, so loud it hurt my ears. The gun he'd  been holding against my temple, moved way, pressing it into the mattress  beside my head, so he could lean in close, still screaming at me.

Hunter moved so fast, I barely followed with my eyes. He pulled another gun from his back, aimed, and fired.

Pierce jerked back, making the bed rock, his outraged screams cutting  off abruptly. Hunter strode toward me. Pierce wasn't moving, his body  heavy on mine. Then Hunter was there, shoving Pierce away. He pulled a  knife from his pocket and sawed through the ropes around my wrists,  freeing me, then lifted me into his arms.