Page 42 of Ruthless

Daryl shrugged. "She's always come up with any money I needed before now, never thought about selling her ass to get it."

Jack chortled. "Too late now, bro, look at her."

"Yeah, but we still have sweet Ginger."

Daryl’s lascivious gaze filled me with apprehension.

"Can you get in touch with this man?" Daryl nodded. "Then we'd better get out of here before someone shows up."

"No!" I dug in my heels and pressed my weight back against Jack. I wasn't going with them willingly. I wasn't leaving Della.

"You have no choice," Jack grumbled in my ear, bumping me forward with his hips.

"Please!" I struggled to no avail. "Don't leave her like this. I'll go willingly if you call for an ambulance." I met Daryl's eyes. "For Christ's sake, Daryl, she was your girlfriend! She must have meant something to you once." Fresh tears escaped my eyes as I pleaded with him.

He snorted. "She hasn't meant anything to me in a long time, bitch, except for easy pussy."

I believed him. Della had told me that their relationship had become nothing more than booty calls, and she'd grown tired of his asking for money. I couldn't believe how cold and callous Daryl was acting, though. He didn't seem to care what happened to her.

"Maybe I should just put her out of her misery."

I stopped breathing. He couldn't be serious! I'd never cared for him, I’d always thought that Della could do better, but I'd never thought him capable of what he was implying now. I was seeing a whole other side of the man, realizing suddenly that he'd been playing both Della and me, hiding his true self from us while he'd used her. How could we have been so blind? He'd been decent in the beginning.

Afraid that he might do just that, desperation made me rush out, "Rebel will be here any minute now."

"Fuck, we'd better get out of here," Jack said, beginning to drag me out of my apartment. "Leave the bitch, man!"

I heard the sound of the click on my door, realizing that Daryl had locked it, and then he was pulling it closed behind us. "You got your car?" he asked behind us.

I struggled to get away as Jack pushed me in front of him down the short hallway, satisfied now that Della was safe and Daryl couldn't hurt her any more. I knew that if they managed to get me into their car that I would be in big trouble. Panic caused me to squirm, and I began to cry out for help again, hoping to leave a witness to a barefoot woman being taken away against her will.

I knew my disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed. Rebel would find me. So I screamed as loudly as I could and lashed out at Jack, clipping him on the side of his head. I knew that I'd caught him unaware when he stumbled back with a grunt, but instead of releasing me his hand clenched tighter around my arm. He didn't seem to have the same violent tendencies as Daryl.

With a sound of angry frustration, Daryl snatched me roughly from Jack, slapped me hard enough for me to see stars, and then threw me up against the wall. The breath whooshed out of my lungs with the force of my back slamming against the stucco wall, and before I could react, his hand was wrapping around my neck tightly. He lowered his face close to mine, baring his teeth like a rabid dog.

"Listen, you fucking bitch," he began with a breath so sour that it made me gag. "You'll come willingly with us, or I won't hesitate to go back and finish Della off. It won't take much for me to kick the door in, you got me?" he snarled. I was trapped by the evil glint in his eyes, noticing that they weren't as dilated as they had been before.

I didn't want to take a chance that he would kick the door in, and he didn't give me time to respond. He yanked me away from the wall with a jerk and dragged me behind him. I glanced around as he led me toward the parking lot, feeling more and more fear set in. My mind raced with everything that had happened, and the terror of what might happen next made me feel sick inside.

The next thing I knew I was being forced down on the floor into the back of a fairly new Camaro.

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