Page 150 of Inferno

I reach for the handle?—

But a force slams into me, launching me backward. My head cracks against the wall.

Familiar hands wrap around my throat.

Not like that night.

Harder. Controlled. Deadly.

My lungs scream. I thrash, every limb fighting for breath, for air, for anything.

With a snarl, I yank my blade, but he’s faster. He slams my arm into the wall, bones screaming.

The knife clatters to the floor.

He chuckles. That same laugh that once made me alive is now slowly killing me. My hopes and dreams dying with each second.

He feels bigger. Stronger. Crueler.

“Quite the escape artist, aren’t you, sweetheart?”

His voice burns. My skull throbs.

I brace.

Then slam my head into his nose.

Crack.

Pain explodes across my forehead, but he lets go.

I hit the ground hard, gasping, clawing at my throat.

Desperately crawling to the exit, but I’m stopped when his legs pin me down.

He steps over me, looming, weight pressing into the floor beside me.

“Oh, now you want to act like a fucking animal?” he growls, grabbing my hair and yanking my head back.

“Maybe that’s exactly how I’ll treat you.”

“I—I can explain,” I gasp.

If he only knew. About Isabella. About everything.

Maybe if I stop fighting… maybe that’s my way in.

His hands grip my hips, rough and controlling. He drags me up like I weigh nothing.

His nose brushes my cheek, breath hot and cruel against my skin.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for you to join me in hell, heartbreaker,” he whispers.

“Welcome to Decadence.”

My blood runs cold.

Jimmy was never just Jimmy.

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