Page 75 of Hear Me Roar

The winner walks away with thousands and thousands of dollars; close to one million if opponent is undefeated,” he disclosedevenly.

“You’re saying, you wantmeto win back the money another man stole from you, in a fight to thedeath?”

“Yes.”

“Are you out of your mind? Why would I ever put myself in such a position when this man means nothing tome.”

He grinned. “Because that pretty little blonde of yoursdoes.”

“You wouldn’t dare…” I threatened, inching towardhim.

“Would I not?” he asked dubiously, pulling out a tiny box from the pocket of his slacks. A tiny box with abright red button.“You see this button right here? It’s designed to activate an explosive currently attached to your wife. You deny me, I press it, and if I press it…well, you know how explosives work, right?KABOOM.”

I'd never seen someone look so jovial as they imitated a sound effect, his hands playing part in it, too, expanding in the air for added effect. I didn't know how to feel, frozen in place as fear became the dominating emotion. This sick fucking bastard had abombstrapped to my girl, her life literally hanging in his grasp, and I was sure I was seconds away from losingit.

“What the hell did we do to deserve this?” I roared in desperation, unbidden tears springing to myeyes.

“You know exactly what youdid.”

“She came tous!”

“And you should have turned her away,” hegrowled.

“Why?” My arms flew out. “So you could continue to beat her in peace until you finally killedher?”

His eyes darkened murderously. “You mean, like I'm going to do to your precious gem if you don't agree and stoptalking?”

Silence.

Just the mention of Hazel forced me to bite my tongue, especially when he had all the power in his hand. I cringed every time his thumb brushed over the button. Obviously, he was doing so with purpose to rile me up, but what if he accidentally pressed toohard...

“How does this work?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the little blackbox.

“The fight is in two days. You stay alive, win the money, and once you have entrusted the sum to me, I will give you thegirl.”

“So, what the fuck am I supposed to do for two days? Leave her here and be okay withthat?”

“Who said anyone was leaving,” he corrected, coming to stand before me. “Whether you like it or not, I don't believe you have much of a choice, Mr. Carr. Either you take the deal, or your wifegoes…”

Bang…

Bang...

Shots fired in the hallway halted Dimitri through his threat. Neither him nor I moved as, one after the other, they resounded louder and louder, grunts of agony following each. I was certainthiswas the moment I’d die, caught in the crosshairs of some altercation between angered Russians, but then Maya appeared at the threshold with a 15mm in her hand, dried blood crusted on her eyebrow, her lip split a little too. She looked absolutelylethal.

Hell hath no fury like a womanscorned...

“Mishka?”Dimitri asked, equal parts nonplussed andastounded.

Obviously, he hadn’t been expecting to see me walking around anytime soon, if ever at all again, after leaving me to the wolves. To be honest, I hadn’t thought I would either, but when push came to shove and I realized neither Hazel or I would live to see another day if I didn’t react, I channeled my inner-Lioness and used every bit of strength I could muster to fight back. Until I found the gun. Then the cards really turned in my favor. You'd be surprised how quickly even the most powerful man would cower to his knees when a pistol was aimed at him, which is exactly what happened as I held the gun in place and retreated to the door, promptly locking them all inside. They could rot in there, for all I cared. I had bigger things to worry about, like finding out where the hell Maksim had taken mysister.

But that was before I'd heard Dimitri’s voice carrying through the hall. I knew had to put him down first before I could search every room on this ship, a task that didn't seem so simple when four men came barreling toward me. Unlike the other lot, though, I didn't spare them… I shot them, every last one, without a single ounce of hesitation or remorse. Their lifeless bodies didn't frighten me either; in fact, they fueled me all the more. Regardless of what was coming, I was going to face Dimitri head on, once and forall.

So now here I was, with a gun aimed right him, the look on his face priceless. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realized I was just as shocked to see Knox as he was to see me, in one piece, but I didn't miss the relief that washed over his featurestoo.

“Don’t look so surprised to see me,” I hissed at my husband. “Or should you, since you left me die with those animals you callfriends?”

“We had company, love.” He motioned toward Knox by way ofexplanation.

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