Page 62 of Savage Rule

“You swore to help me find Sofia.”

“I still can.”

“No, you can’t. Fuck!” He stands and goes to peer out the window, as if he can’t stomach the sight of me. “Carina warned me about this. She saw it coming a mile away. But I fucking hoped she was wrong. You betrayed me.”

I stand too. “I never betrayed you, Luca. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

He turns to me, and the anger in his expression sends a chill up my spine. “I would never hurt you either. Which is why we can’t let you go back to her.”

“We?” Suddenly, the pocket doors to the study slide open. Carina steps inside, followed by Luca’s head of security, Hansen.When I go to stand, Luca holds me to the seat with a hand on my shoulder. “What the fuck?”

“I’m so sorry, Gunn,” Carina says sadly, coming closer. “It was a mistake to allow you to go to New Orleans. A mistake we intend on fixing.”

I try to stand, this time, it doesn’t take Luca to keep me down. My own limbs fail me, becoming weaker by the second. “What did you do to me?”

Carina crouches beside me and places her palm on my forearm. “She killed my sister, Gunn. I’ll never forgive that.”

Once again, I attempt to move, but it’s like lead has been poured down my arms and legs. Everything in the room becomes hazy, and I can only focus on what’s in front of me. The empty shot glass.

I shift my tunnel vision toward Luca. “You… You drugged me?”

He doesn’t respond. Instead, he moves out of the line of sight, but not before I see the shame in his expression.

“Take care of her,” Carina orders.

Panic sets into the pit of my stomach, but all I can manage to do is slouch forward. Carina catches me and prevents me from smashing face first into the desk.

“You can be a real bitch,” I mumble as darkness takes over my mind.

“I know,” she replies. “But I protect my own, even when they don’t want it.”

And it all goes black.

19

GUNN

Scarlet.

Her name blasts through my mind at the same time that the ground seems to shift beneath me. I jump, startled and confused, looking at the bright recessed lights, the windowless walls and the steel door.

It takes me several seconds to recognize where I am because it’s a place I’ve rarely been to. The hold at Briar House.

The ten by ten foot, chamber is located in the basement, right next to the cellar.

But unlike the cellar, I’m not happy to hang out here. Much less tied to a chair, my arms secured behind my back and each of my ankles to one of the chair legs.

“Mother fucker!” I tug on the ropes, testing them for weakness. Not surprisingly, they don’t budge.

Next, I rock back and forth and side to side, hoping to break the chair. Fucking thing is made of steel, so it’s also futile.

“Luca!” I roar, now manically attempting to free myself, the rope rubbing my skin raw, but I don’t give a shit. I’ll break my own limbs if I have to.

Somehow, I manage to get one of my feet loose. For a moment, I believe it’s a win. That’s until I kick out too hard andtopple over, hitting my head against the table in front of me on the way down.

It’s become obvious just how fucked I am, lying on my side, my right arm wedged between the backrest and the floor. My ears ring from the impact, and maybe I have a concussion, but it doesn’t stop me.

Scarlet. I have to get to her before they do.

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