Page 3 of War

“Yeah, and?”

Grabbing my jaw, he pushes my gums into my teeth until they puncture the flesh and blood fills my mouth.I yelp, trying to shake him off me.My heart sprints in my chest.“And I think you’re full of shit.Last night, we have you on surveillance camera near the Motel Motor Inn.”

“So?”I breathe anxiously as he loosens his hold on my jaw.“That’s where I’m staying.I met Callan close to there and we went back to the club.”Warm rivets of blood dribbles from my lips, coating his hand.

“Did you go to Ray’s?”His spit sprays my face, the overwhelming scent of whisky burning my nostrils.His other hand clenches the material of my shirt, pushing his knuckles into my tit.

“No.It was closed by the time we met up.”Ray’s doesn’t have cameras.The only one they could have picked me up on is the camera at the crosswalk, but that doesn’t show Ray’s bar.

“Did Cox leave the club last night at any point?”

“No.”I heave, finding it hard to draw breath.My gaze darts around our surroundings, trying to devise a plan of escape.But I have nothing, I can’t think.

Breathe, just breathe.

“Hey.”He releases my shirt and jabs me in the gut, making my legs go weak with the need to bend over and ease the throbbing pulsating through my abdomen.“Did you fall asleep?Could you have missed him leaving?”the pads of his fingers dig into my skin making my teeth rattle.

“No.”I sob, attempting to shake my head, hoping he will take pity on me.

“You’re fucking lying.I know it was him.”Releasing my jaw, he clenches his hand into a fist and punches me in the side of my face.My head whips sideways, sending searing pain through my cheekbone.My brain fuzzes, eyes dotting with darkness.He reaches behind him and produces a gun, digging the barrel into the cheek he just hit.“Why are you protecting a killer?He killed my boys.I fucking know it.”

Sweat beads all over my body.I need to escape.Run.Fight.Survive.

Help me.The two words drum in my brain.

“Maybe you’re more than a club whore if you’re meeting at night.That’s why you’d lie for him.”Some of his words slur, but he’s still strong and coherent despite being intoxicated.He pushes the gun harder into my face making me cry out.He’s going to kill me.

“Please,” I beg.

Sliding the gun down my cheek across my lips, he forces it into my mouth, his glassy eyes lighting up.He likes this.

My muffled cries hum around the steel barrel until he drives it so far back that I gag around it, my body convulsing.

“Fuck,” he cusses, yanking it out of my mouth and pushing me off the car and into the dirt.I skid on the gravel tearing open my skin.Rearing his leg back he kicks his boot into my stomach.“Just tell me what I want to know.”He aims the gun down at me as I cough and wheeze.

“Please,” I repeat, trembling, raising a hand in hopes he will show some mercy.My vision blurs I search my mind for a plan to get me out of this, but my brain won’t cooperate.

Larkin turns his gaze from me to his patrol car, raking his hands through his hair and kicking at the tire.He holsters the gun, and I know if I don’t make a move now, I may never get another chance.

Kill or be killed.

I won’t go out like this.A flood of adrenaline washes through my veins, helping me get to my feet.I rush him, jumping onto his back.A shocked grunt hisses from his lips as I bite down on his ear, tearing at his flesh like a crazed animal.Blood pisses from the chunk I rip away and spit to the dirt.His hands grapple behind him, trying to pry me loose, but I cling on for my life.Digging my nails into the skin of his face and shredding.

Spinning our bodies, he jerks back, slamming me against the car hood.All the air flees my body, and not only do I feel the crack of my ribs, but I also hear it.Staggering away from me, Larkin checks the damage to his ear and face in the window’s reflection.I roll off the hood into a heap by the tires.

I’m barely able to catch a breath before he grabs my foot again and drags me along the road toward some heavy brush.My top shreds completely off my body, leaving me in a torn bra.My right boob is on display—the road rash causing my skin to scream in distress.

This is how they’ll find your body.

Coming to a stop, his blood drips all over my bare flesh as he leans over me.Raising his arm up, he backhands me across the temple almost stilling my consciousness.“Look at you, half-naked like the whore you are.”He reaches for the waist band of my jeans and wrenches them and my panties down my legs, having to yank hard to pull them over my shoes before tossing the fabric away leaving me bare.“I’ve seen a million whores like you giving it up to those criminal bastards.You want to be a whore.”He grasps a fistful of my hair again, heaving me up.I run my palm through a gathered cluster of pebbles, clutching a handful.“I’ll use you up like one and leave you out here to die, let the wildlife live off you.It’s all whores like you are good for.”

“Fuck you.”I spit a mouthful of blood at him before scrubbing the stones in my hand into his face.

“Argggghh,” he bellows, lurching away from me and frantically wiping at his eyes.“Fucking bitch.”

Limping with the last of my will to survive, I shove into his body, knocking him off kilter causing us both to topple over, me on top of him.He rolls us, crushing my body beneath his, his heavy palm covers my face, restricting my airways.Panic turns my bones to stone.Is this what Harley felt?What are the odds of me ending up murdered like her?Left in the wilderness like trash.My nails scratch at his hand but it’s futile.

“You don’t deserve to live when my sons’ lives got stolen away.”He growls, tears blurring the dark of his eyes.

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