Page 21 of The Sinner's Bargain

His hand twisted into my coat, and I was wrenched onto my back. Blinded by the rain spearing into my eyes, I didn’t see him rip open my coat until the fabric was torn down the front and he was laughing.

“Shit. Look at you under this thing. Going to have some real fun with you.”

I kicked weakly at him, but my efforts were met with a backhand that snapped my head back and had my mouth filling with the taste of copper. The world vibrated with a dull ring of bells that numbed everything, except the feel of his hands hiking under my skirt.

“Stop!” I panted, fighting against the digging fingers clawing into my flesh.

My arms were wrenched back and pressed into wet soil. His damp jeans squeezed between my thighs.

I cried out and thrashed, which only seemed to amuse him.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere. Scream all you like. No one’s going to hear you.”

“Get off me! Stop it!”

Taylen laughed. His mouth opened, but the deep, rumbling voice that filled the night wasn’t his, nor was the boot that slammed into his face.

“Get the fuck off her.”

CHAPTER SIX

NAYA

I rolled away from Taylen the moment his weight was no longer pressing me into the earth. My entire body shivered as I rolled onto all fours and hurriedly scrambled away just as another thwack and thump echoed behind me.

“Let’s see how you do against someone your own size,” the other voice boomed, overpowering the wind. The storm. Silencing the very earth itself and still barely raising his voice.

“Hey man, come on!” Taylen cried out. “She asked me to—” Another crack. Taylen’s cry of pain.

“Try again,” the stranger said.

“Look, I don’t know the bitch, okay? I’m just doing my uncle a favor. She’s yours. Keep her. Fair trade, right? Just let me out and you can have her.”

If I could find the sense around the roiling trauma coursing through me, the uncontrollable urge to vomit, the overwhelming pressure against the dam keeping my hysteria at bay, I would speak. I would say something.

But I came up against a bush and my body curled against it like it was the only safety in my life as the world crashed, and thunder rumbled.

Something pale and silvery caught my eye. It was tucked next to my hand, practically hidden beneath the bush. A tiny, heart shaped petal. Soft, velvety.

Silver.

Not white.

Not cream.

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