Page 91 of Casino King

When the blade cuts through the final inch of the dress, it falls to my sides. The only thing keeping me from being naked are my black lace bra and panties, and I’ve never felt more exposed.

The blade skims down my stomach, circling my bellybutton, then over to my hip, and when I think he’s going to slice the side of my panties off, he instead lifts the blade from my skin and moves to my knee.

My legs jerk under the cold metal, and when he slides it up my inner thigh, he twists the tip near the apex of my thighs to cut into me like he did between my breasts. I flinch and clench my jaw, and he repeats the same move on my other leg.

Flicking my eyes down, I see blood trailing down my torso from the cut on my chest and blood running down my inner thighs, dripping onto the floor beneath me, soaking into the cement.

I pull at my zip ties, but they just bite into my wrists and ankles, and my anger flares. I’m not scared of this man. I’m angry. I want to take the knife from him and slice into him to see how he likes it.

“Such pretty skin. So unmarked,” scorpion tattoo guy says as he steps beside his scarred friend with the dagger. “Well, not so much now.”

Circling me, he brings the blade down the column of my neck, and when he slides it across to the hollow at the base, he flicks the tip to cut me open. The sting is greater than the other cuts, and I know he went deeper. I can feel the blood running down my chest.

Alec is going to kill him. I know he will. No matter if he gets to me before my entire body is covered in cuts and slices, he’ll kill him. And I know he’ll drag it out to torture him for doing the same to me, too.

“Let’s see how Alec will like seeing you covered in your own blood,” scorpion man taunts.

Holding the knife to my stomach, dragon dagger is about to cut into me when a door somewhere behind me bursts open and bullets ring out. The man with the knife jerks up, slicing my arm open in the process, and this time I can’t hold in the cry of pain that escapes me.

Three of the men that were surrounding me are now lying dead on the floor with bullet holes in their chests. The one with the dagger only got clipped in the shoulder, and he staggers back, looking around.

He’s here. I know he is. I can feel him.

“Tessa!” Alec’s voice cuts through every sound around me, and I immediately feel the tension leave my body.

He’s here. He came for me. I knew he would, but I wasn’t sure he’d come in time.

“Leave him alive,” Alec commands to Tito who’s putting a pair of zip ties around dragon dagger’s wrists, hauling him away.

“Tessa,” Alec says, his voice strained, coming around to squat in front of me.

Oh, God, his voice. I’ve missed his voice. Closing my eyes, tears start to slide down my cheeks, and his hands come up to cup my face, wiping them away.

“Mia bella rosa,” he breathes.

Cutting my zip ties from my ankles, he reaches around me to get my wrists, and once I’m free, I throw them around him.

Breathing him in, I start to cry harder. I’ve missed him so much. “Alec.” My voice breaks on his name and he holds me tighter. “You came.”

“Of course I did, bella. I’ll always come for you. I’ll always protect you. And when I can’t, I’ll always save you, or die trying.”

His words flood my eyes with fresh tears, and he rubs circles on my back soothingly.

Pulling back, he cups my face again, and his eyes hold mine. Two dark pools of endless depth, that for a moment, I thought I’d never get to swim in again.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I shouldn’t have…” I start, but shake my head.

“We’ll talk later. Let me get you out of here first so I can have Doc look at you.” Looking me over, he sees the trails of blood on me and his eyes harden. “What did he do to you?”

“He used his knife on me. That’s it. Please take me out of here, Alec,” I beg.

Taking his pocket square out of his jacket, he presses it to the gash on my arm and then takes me in his arms, cradling me to his chest. I turn my face into him, needing his scent to keep me from breaking down further.

I hear other people all around us, but I don’t pay them any attention. All I care about is Alec.

His arms feel like heaven surrounding me. Two safety lines that I never want to lose touch of again.

Placing me in the back of an SUV, Alec slides in next to me and then brings me back to him, cradling me on his lap.

---