Page 53 of Slaughter

Then my eyes fall on the high-back chair over in the corner. I fall to my knees before it and look at the legs. They’re big and wooden. Unscrewing one as quickly as I can, I hold it in my hands like a baseball bat and look at the window. My heart pounds in my chest. I’m not sure how long I have before they come after me, but my tracker is long gone. At least something good came out of cutting myself open. If I can just get to someone. Get them to listen or take me to the police. Then I can get back to New York. I can’t stay here. Not with him.

I tighten my hands on the leg, take a deep breath, and close my eyes before I swing. All it does is bounce off the glass. I tighten my grip, widen my stance, and take a deep breath, then swing again.

The glass shatters, and I have a moment of excitement before an alarm sounds.

“Shit!”

I run into the closet, grab the sheets, and wrap it around the other leg of the chair. It’s not gonna hold. The chair is going to move with my weight, but it doesn’t matter. I just need it to slow me down so I don’t hit the ground at full force. I throw it over the window and start to climb out just as a man I’ve never seen walks into my room. “She’s going out the window …”

I loosen my grip and start falling. The wind whips my hair around, and my stomach’s up in my throat.

Glancing up, I see the guy looking out of the window down at me. He grabs a hold of the sheet and yanks it. I let go, already committed to this extremely suicidal idea. My feet hit the ground, my knees buckle from the force, and I fall onto my back. The fall knocks the wind out of me, and I suck in a breath, rolling over onto my side. “Fuck!” I hiss, holding my side. Making my way onto shaky legs, I turn around to run when a fist hits me in the face. I’m knocked to my ass once again as dots form in my vision. I cover my face with my hand as tears instantly sting my eyes, and I cry out.

“Fucking bitch!”

My body shakes as the pain takes over, making my face throb and my tongue taste blood. Then I feel pressure on my chest, and I can’t breathe. My hands are ripped away from my face and pinned above my head.

“You just don’t know when to give up.”

I look up through water eyes to see Darrell straddling my chest. Another man kneels above my head, holding my arms down.

I scream out in frustration while they hold my bruised and broken body down effortlessly.

“Shut her up!” barks the man holding my arms.

Darrell lifts a syringe and removes the cap with his teeth. “No!” I shout, not wanting them to drug me. I’m afraid of what they may do to me without Avery here.

He grabs my chin roughly and shoves my head to the right, and then I feel the prick of the needle in my neck before my body starts to go numb. They both are still holding me down when my world goes black.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

AVERY

MY BROTHER AND I STAND in the middle of the warehouse discussing business when a cell rings.

Kayn excuses himself to answer it. “What?” he barks out. He spins back around to face us, and I hold up my hand to my brother, quieting him.

“What is it?” I demand.

“We have a situation,” he answers, pocketing the phone.

“What is it?” I snap, wanting him to get to the point.

“It’s Presleigh. She ran.”

“WHAT?”

“Darrell stopped her …”

“Fuck!”

“Told you she would be a prob—”

“Don’t fucking finish that sentence,” I bark at my brother, then look at Kayn. “Let’s go.”

Twenty minutes later, I barge into her room to find her lying in her bed and Darrell standing in the corner. It feels like Deja vu. “Leave!”

He obeys without question.

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