Page 36 of Angel Condemned

“Leave her alone. Take me instead.” I raised my arms in surrender. “I will go willingly.”

Tears fell down Jody’s face and my heart twisted in my chest that she’d looked to me to protect her. I gritted my teeth from the despair and rage that kicked in my gut. The tractor beam kept her in place and from being able to say anything.

I would get her out of this shithole. I couldn’t live through this again.

I wanted to murder everyone in this joint for even touching her. But I was paralyzed by fear that they’d harm her before I could reach her. And that thought froze me like I was a statue.

And I might as well be. Knowing she was being hurt would crush what little remained of my heart.

“Prove it.” Garl nodded the other four Roulex. “Leave with them and I’ll let her go.”

Jody’s eyes widened. Her anguish and rage rolled off her, crashing into me.

I had to do this. If I didn’t, they’d punish her. As soon as they lowered their guard…as soon as they weren’t where Jody could get hurt…I’d crush them.

Turning away from her while Garl still had her, hurt me worse than any torture they’d ever done to me. But I had no other freaking choice. I fell in line with the other Roulex, already numb to whatever they’d do to me.

I had to keep them from the truth that hurting Jody would break me like nothing else they could do. At the door, I placed a hand on the cold metal, almost looking back at Jody to memorize her face again. But doing so would burn the image of her tears in my mind. Of Garl having the power of life and death over her and standing too fucking close to her.

I dropped my hand from the bar and crossed the threshold without looking back.

My footsteps were heavy on the stone floor, echoing in the hallway like a steady beat against an empty drum. The Roulex marched on either side of me. I looked over my shoulder at Garl and stopped.

“Get going.” He shoved against my shoulder.

Jody wasn’t safe, for now, in the cell. I smacked him in the forehead with my blunt horns. Greenish blood spewed from the wounds. Then I spun with a roar and hauled the next Roulex up by the throat, smacking him into the nearby wall.

The prisoners in their cells cheered.

I kicked another Roulex in the groin and he crumbled. Another got a punch that whipped his head backward.

Garl leapt onto my back, his arm snaking around my neck, choking me. I threw an elbow into his nose. A crack sounded and I grinned in satisfaction.

“You’ll fucking pay for that with blood!” Garl shrieked.

A tractor beam flashed over me, locking my muscles in place. Wrath pounded with every beat of my heart. What little damage I’d been able to inflict was worth it.

Each step vibrated through me like a ticking clock about to run out of time as they forced my body into one of the torture rooms—the same one they killed my sister in.

They didn’t take off the paralyzing beam while they unleashed their anger with each crack of the whip that felt like it went through my flesh and down into my bones.

And all I could hold onto was the thought of Jody. Of her real smile, which made her gray eyes shine. Her kiss, her touch. Her spicy-sweet scent. The way she made a whistling sound when she snored whenever she was in a deep sleep. Of how she felt in my arms.

I held onto each and every fragment of her as the lashes came down, cutting into my flesh.

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